The Eastern Pearl

The food was okay, we went there at 1:30 in a Wednesday. It wasn’t busy, except for about 20 Red Hats and a few other tables. It took about 10 minutes for a server to come to our table. The food was, goid but was lukewarm when we got it. We ordered some food to go, and it was hot and plentiful.

It’s hard to find good authentic Cantonese style restaurant in Buffalo. This is my go-​to place whenever I’m home sick. Their beef chow fun and fish hot pot are my favorite. The atmosphere is nice and relaxing, and the staff are all very friendly. They’re great at accommodating large parties as well. I highly recommend this place.

I wouldn’t choose to «eat in» at most Chinese Restaurants, but this one has a very nice dining room and a full service bar. Everyone we have brought here has enjoyed the food and the service. So far everything we have tasted has been of high quality. Everyone has their favorites. My favorite thing, however, is the hot & sour soup. It has more «stuff» in it than at other places and it’s just really flavorful. Perfect amount of heat without being over the top spicy. Dumplings and crab rangoons are also very good.

This Cantonese restaurant really speak volumes with their authentic Chinese food! I try my best to go here as often as I can. They even have dim sum, a cusine that is lacking Western New York. Though it may not be the best, it is definitely worth trying! Their pork shu mai brings back memories of NYC and their moo goo gai pan is as tender as can be! Makes me wonder if they are cooking their food sou vide!
On a side note, I forgot my retainers here, and had to rush back and grab it. The waitress tossed out the food along with the retainer, but the workers there worked very, very hard to find it for me. This is something I can not simply overlook! What great service, and great people! Please try!

this is my go to place for Chinese food in Buffalo. they’re great for large parties as well as dinner for 4. I typically come here and order family style (about 1 dish per person) and the portions are large enough for everyone to have some.
one of my favorite dishes is salt and pepper pork chops

I recommend Fish Maw soup, Beef Ribs with eggplant and vegetables– absolutely yummy. Service is not so much fast, but all in all very good place for big companies.

Very, very well-​priced lunch with a generous portion size. Good food. Had an eggplant dish and it was crisper on the outside and softer in. That’s very hard to accomplish.

This is our favorite spot for Chinese food! The restaurant is always clean, and the service is typically friendly and quick.
Every table has crackers with a dipping sauce, which is most honestly, my favorite part! We typically go for lunch and get one the combos. It comes with your choice of main entrée (I typically get sweet and sour chicken), rice, and soup. The portions are perfect for lunch, and the price can’t be beat! For dinner, the combo isn’t available, but the portions are much larger, and certainly reflect the small increase in price. All in all I would highly recommend this place!

Been here several times before. The last time was for our mom’s birthday celebration. We had authentic Chinese meal including peking duck, lobster Cantonese, beef chow fun, steamed soy sauce whole fish and about 10 more dishes.
Everyone had enjoyed themselves. Excellent food and service.

Place has gone down hill tremendously. This was our go to place. Miss when it was Chang’s.

We have eaten in the restaurant several times and have been pleased. I just ordered take out and was sadly disappointed. Sweet and sour chicken is pretty standard. The chicken was good put the sauce was… Just sauce. Out of the jar type. No peppers, no pineapple, no onion chunks. Nothing! What happened to how it’s supposed to be? I would expect this from a take out Chinese restaurant, at much less of a price.

I am not familiar with many restaurants out here but my supervisor offered to take a couple of classmates and I to lunch — she knew the place so I just went along!
The atmosphere: At first glance I wasn’t too sure about this place but once you walk inside you can see it’s modern, clean, and plenty of seating.
The food: (only from the lunch menu) Plenty to choose from but not overwhelming! I got the braised tofu. Thinking it would just be tofu — nope! It came with brown rice (choice of white, brown, or vegetable fry) and vegetables also a choice of wonton soup, spring role, or egg drop soup. I got the won –ton soup and it was delicious! Everyone enjoyed their meal. Wait staff and service very friendly.

The Eastern Pearl hasn’t changed that much since last time I was here over a year ago. The menu was pretty much the same, which is a good thing. Though I did notice the back wall water fall behind the warrior statues wasn’t running.
I came with a large group and we decided to order up a bunch of apps. Had the crispy crab rangoons, pork egg rolls, steamed shrimp dumplings (dim sum), and fried veggie dumplings. My favorite was the crab rangoons, they were small crispy pouches of crab/​cream cheese, but were very tasty and different than your average Chinese take out place. On this visit I didn’t order the Wonton Soup, but in past visits I had ordered this exceptional soup.
We all shared our dishes family style and had the giant rotating circle built into our round table to move our plates around to serve and sample. I had ordered the Mango chicken, and it was pretty amazing. It had a great tart, sweet, and light spicey taste to the sauce. The mangos were cooked just right, not to soft or mushy. The other dish that stood out for me was the Walnut shrimp, which was huge lotus flour fried prawns stacked onto steamed broccoli and covered in a cream sauce and candied walnuts. I also really enjoyed the Pork fried rice… yes pork fried rice!!! Common in most Chinese restaurants (americanized of course), but this version was not common at all. It was flavorful, and had larger peices of pork. I also had ordered the green tea to share, which was just good, but needed since it was a very cold night outside.
Our server was efficient and accommodating, and even wrapped up the leftovers in separate boxes for everyone to take home.

This is our go to place for chinese food. The lunch is extremely reasonable. For under $ 7 you get an entrée, soup, and choice of rice. Everything is made to order and always fresh. I usually get the cashew chicken, brown rice, and hot/​sour soup.
The wait staff is always attentive and continously fill your glass with water or soda. Hot tea is complimentary and they bring you a big pot.
The place is nice and clean. The décor is along the lines of pf changs. They also have a separate banquet room to the back.

I’m wondering if this place switched hands to new owners. The last time I was here, 2011, I wasn’t impressed. It just seemed like standard fast food Chinese.
My dad wanted to eat here for his birthday dinner tonight. I have to admit, I wasn’t looking forward to it. Their menu seems different than it was a few years ago. And many of their selections were the same as what Wok & Roll offers. We ordered spring rolls, crab rangoons, beef chow fun, general tso’s chicken, sweet & sour chicken, and chicken pad Thai. I have to say, I was totally impressed! The food is SO MUCH BETTER than I remember.
The rangoons are little fried purses of light, slightly sweet crabby cream cheese. Yum! They were crunchy and not greasy. The spring rolls were nicely crispy, tasted good, but were stuffed with mostly just cabbage and it was kind of fibrous. Meh. I chose the beef chow fun, also known as pad see ew if you get it at a Thai restaurant. Wide egg noodles, tender beef. VERY GOOD. I think it’s even better than Wok & Roll’s version. More beef here than from Wok where you get only a couple of small pieces.
The pad Thai was okay, but not my choice to order. Had a strong fish sauce taste and smell. Fish sauce to me is vile. I hate the smell and taste, so this Pad Thai wasn’t my fave. The sweet & sour chicken was decent. Crispy, not too greasy, but not my choice also. The General Tso’s, though not my choice, as well, was awesome. Crunchy texture, with sauce on it even! Usually this kind of chicken dish turns into a gloppy blob! Not from the Pearl though. It’s awesome!
I’d eat here again! And again! And even will order take out from here. I have to say, their chow fun was just as good, if not better than Wok & Roll’s, one of my fave places for Chinese!
Minus one star though– never got a refill on my water, fibrous cabbages spring roll, and super heavy fish sauced Pad Thai. Blech. But there was generally more good than not with my meal, so 4 stars!

We are new to the area and visited the Eastern Pearl on a Thursday evening. The outside lends itself to «former International House of Pancakes» which makes the inside’s warm ambiance a nice surprise. I ordered an Eastern Mai Thai which was a bit heavy on the grapefruit juice, but pretty to look at and easy to drink. My husband raved about the pork fried rice, which the server said was made fresh, and indicated was seasoned with a bit of sugar. I had Pad Thai, which was flavorful and filling (And I actually ate the leftovers, which is the mark of a great meal, as I rarely do so.) There were very few other patrons, so our server was attentive and helpful. Overall it was a great introduction to this area’s Chinese food. As others have mentioned, it would be a bit pricey for take-​out, but it makes for a great sit-​down option.

Went here on a Sunday with a large party (12). The service was absolutely terrible and the kitchen didn’t have a clue how to get our food out. First round of drinks came out right away, but the server never came back asking if we wanted refills or another drink from the bar. We received one entrée after an hour of waiting, then 10 minutes later the kids’ meals came out (three total) and then another 10 minutes the rest of the entrees came out. I have NEVER experienced something like this. The server was completely flummoxed that we were asking where our food was.
The food — General Tso’s chicken had no spice at all. The chicken quality was excellent, but the sauce was bland. Same thing with the sesame chicken — bland. The shrimp fried rice needed another minute of cooking and it had no flavor at all. These were the only dishes that I personally tasted.
The bill — 15 minutes after the last plate was cleared we hadn’t seen the check. We asked for it. 20 minutes goes by… no check. We ask again. another 15 minutes, no check. We almost had to walk out. After 40 minutes we FINALLY received the check! Thankfully they ended taking 20% off the check.
This place had come highly recommended, but I would waste my money here again!

Stopped in the other day for lunch. From the exterior the restaurant looks pretty standard but on the inside is high quality in every respect. It reminds me of a less commercialized version of PF Chang’s. The lunch specials are served 7 days a week from 11−3pm and start at $ 5.75. Along with the main dish is a choice of fried or steamed rice and soup or spring roll. What a deal!
After being seated, fried wontons with duck sauce were placed at the table. The wontons were different than the usual ones. The appearance and taste was a notch up, perhaps they’re homemade. My wonton soup was light compared to others. The Ma Po Tofu, a Sichuan dish of tofu and bean curd in a spicy sauce came out piping hot and hit the spot. The portion was fairly large and was enough to take half of it home for another meal.
You can’t beat a lunch deal like this in town. Highly recommend if you’re in the area. Now I just have to come back at dinner to try their peking duck…

This is a great place to come for sit-​down Chinese food. I wouldn’t pay these prices for take-​out but the service here is exceptional and they even have a bar! I came here for a friend’s birthday late at night before they closed and our server surprised us with two shots of homemade Saki.
The food is good, not too much sauce and not too dry. But I found the flavor to be very bland. I had expected a little more zing for a «spicy» option on the menu.
The ambiance inside is nice –the lighting is calm and there isn’t too much noise.
Overall, I would come back here again.

Since I am Chinese, I am picky when it comes to Chinese food. As far as I know, Eastern Pearl is the only Chinese restaurant in Buffalo with a nice/​fancy sitting area. That’s why me and my family (usually 10 of us) would go there for dinner maybe once or twice a year.
As far as the food, it’s better than most take out places and some dishes are pretty authentic. I would say the food here is pretty good for being in Buffalo. However, I prefer going to Toronto for good Chinese food or my mom’s cooking.
Their lunch special price is decent, other than that, their dishes are over priced.
P.S the food is better when it first opened, but I think they have changed owners and chefs since then.