Pearl Liang

My first impressions of Pearl Liang were bad. After entering there wasn’t any staff there to greet us, only a crowd of diners in the waiting area standing there confused like we were. In front of us were empty tables with dirty plates from previous diners. Never have I seen such an unorganised restaurant. They had the tables to seat people but no one to clean them or to greet the customer. They were obviously under staffed.
After an 30mins wait with a reservation, a rude woman called us in and seated us. It took another 20mins to order.
Strangely the kitchen seems to be coping as food were served quickly and the experience from then completely reversed
We started with Tie Guan Yin tea in a cast iron teapot. Sadly as beautiful as it looks it wasn’t good at keeping the heat in as it was designed to be placed on an open flame.
Seafood crispy noodles
These were cooked skilfully with a lovely balance of softer noodles and a crispier edge. The prawns were fresh and greens were stir fried perfectly. Flavours were nice too.
Malaysian Kweitio with prawns.
Full of wok energy, lovely seasoning and the noodles were cooked to al dente giving it good bite against the plump prawns. Delicious!
Barbecued porky puff
This had the perfect ratio of pastry to pork. The pork were juicy and generously filled. Flavours were perfect being sweet but not too sickly.
Mince pork croquettes
These came small but I really appreciate the thin pastry and the more even ratio of minced pork inside. It was greaseless too, crisp on the outside and doughy on the inside.
Turnip cake
These came deep fried, almost melting in my mouth. They were generous with the turnip, sausages and shrimps which gave it a nice depth of flavour
Fried prawn ravioli with fruity salad
Quite a forgettable dish. The pastrt was too thick masking the delicate texture of the prawn filling. The dip was almost impossible to use as there were too many large chunks of pineapple that got in the way.
Scallop dumplings
The filling was stuffed to the rim. The flavours were delicate allowing you to appreciate the freshness of the scallops. It was full of bounce, pastry al dente without being sticky.
Tau mui canopy with prawn
Such a refreshing dish. The earthiness of the pea shoot went well with the texture of the prawn. Pastry was perfect again, holding everything together.
Yam croquette
The pastry were slightly too thick and dense making it quite hard to appreciate the smoothness of the sweet yam inside.
Fried dough Cheung fun
A lovely addition. The rice pastry was thin and elastic. It’s usually a bad idea to have it sitting in the dipping sauce but the dough inside still remained crisp and dry throughout.
Char siu bun
Quite disappointed. As milky, light and fluffy the bun was, there was too much of it so the taste of the char siu was somewhat lost.
Shanghai dumplings
Incredibly good! The pastry was al dente and held a good amount of stock that held well. The meat was fragrant and with a bit of the vinegar dip, the flavours were lifted and balanced.
King’s crabmeat with egg white dumpling
Delightful! The addition of egg white added a nice touch of creaminess whilst the fish roe on top gave a burst of saltiness giving the dish depth and flavour.
Chicken feet in black bean sauce
Impressed with the size. Meat falling off the bone like it should be. They were also not as greasy as some I’ve had and were fatty enough to enjoy.
Bamboo piths black bean sea bass roll
Sadly I found the contrast of the hard crunchy bamboo far too much for the softer flakey seabass. The black bean was also too strong masking a lot of the delicate flavours of the fish itself.
Bean pastry with prawn in abalone sauce
One of the most generously filled ones I’ve had. The pastry was soft throughout being steamed perfectly. Lovely mix of textures inside and the sauce was lovely and thick to coat it.
Prawn Cheung fun
Thin layer of al dente rice pastry filled with the juiciest and sweetest of prawn. Topped over a lovely sweet soy dipping sauce. No complaints.
Chrysanthemum custard bun.
Best deep fried custard bun I’ve had. The outer layer was so thin it cracked as soon as you put your teeth into it to the softer fluffier bun. Inside was filled with creamy yolky custard that was so satisfyingly warm and sweet.
Steamed sponge cake roll with custard yolk.
These were so plush and soft it almost felt like they melted into a thick custard goo as soon as I ate it with a strong burst of thicker and sweeter custard flavour in between. Truly delightful.
The quality of food really saved, what could have been a horrible experience. The service was somewhat worse than Chinatown. So the question is, does the higher prices justify itself here? And I can honestly say it does as nearly every dish was delicious, skilfully composed and with a touch of creativeness.

Peking duck was fine but nothing superb, decent service. Starters a let down and desert… reccommend skipping desert.

We have friends that really rate this place! I’ve been here a few times and while I think it’s OK, but it could definitely be better.
On this occasion we had booked for a group of 7 and a baby. We arrived on time, which was also when it was opening. We weren’t the first people so we had to join a que, a little bit annoying to join a que for an empty restaurant! They could have set up before opening to ensure a smoother operation. We were seated fairly quickly after that but on a table that was in direct line of the door and the breeze coming through it. Like I mentioned before, the place was empty so I didn’t think there would be a problem moving is further in the restaurant (I was conscious we were going to be with a baby) I was informed in a somewhat rude manner that they were fully booked and couldn’t move us (difficult to understand when we were one of the first in and there were loads of tables we could have transferred too!)
Eventually the rest of our group turned up and we orderd dim sum /​yum cha. The food all came out in a timely manner and the staff were good at removing finished plates. The food was good, not the best in London (see yautcha or royal China) but not so bad. The service staff are hit and miss like all dim sum places they are mainly there for functional purposes i.e. get the food out asap. Some of them however are pretty rude with their functional skills.
The restaurant is a bit of a weird shape but other than that imagine traditional Chinese restaurant décor and you’ll have a good idea what it looks like. There’s a small fish pond by the entrance that could do with a few more fishys.
At the end of the meal the bill came to about £18 each which for the amount of food we ate seemed very reasonable!

Good location near Paddington Basin. Nice interior decoration and ambience. This is mainly Hong Kong style dishes restaurant. Some good dishes like chili prawn and taro wrapped with vegetables. I find salted fish with mince meat and paper wrapped pork ribs are a bit dry. The service is so so, the waiter is a little bit inpatience to take your order even you have not decided what you want and collecting your plates while you are eating. It seem like give you a hint that it is time for you to leave the restaurant. I felt like eating a fast foods in the restaurant and not feeling relaxing at all. After that impression, I do not think i would go there again.

Wanted to try a different dim sum restaurant so gave this place a shot as a friend recommended it. I was a bit leary reading the previous Unilocal reviews but it seems like the place has improved a little.
The ambiance is good — newly remodelled and a good location within walking distance from Paddington.
Dim sum is for the most part pretty good — we mostly ordered the steamed stuff so that’s to be expected. The insides of the pieces were nice and chunky — not some mystery mash.
Service is where the place needs to be improved. It took forever to get our second order. First order came quick but it’s dim sum — you always order again… just took about 20 – 25 min for the food to arrive.

This is a pretty great Chinese place
I am a fan of their roast duck and steamed fish, both are really good.
The menu kind of runs the gambit and the location is a bit weird being in an office park but the foods good and pretty authentic.

I really, really like the food here. I rate quite a few of their dishes, especially anything to do with pork. It’s a favourite of ours for dim sum, and a place well worth trekking to, even from East London.
Pearl Liang also have the occasional special offer which you can find out about if you are on their mailing list, such as 15% off after 5 pm from Sunday to Tuesday if you book online, or a free cocktail during your birthday month.
As with most traditional Cantonese places, dim sum really isn’t an evening thing, so if you want to sample the full range of dim sum this place has to offer, you have to come in the afternoon, and the earlier, the better. My favourite has go to be the honey roasted pork buns — but this is really popular, and can sell out.
If you are looking at the a la carte menu, you simply cannot go wrong with the Stewed Pork Belly with Preserved Vegetables. It’s my favourite dish that isn’t dim sum, and is exceedingly garlicky, so make sure everyone else on the table eats some as well. Alternatively, if you want to put your date off, scoff it and make sure he or she doesn’t get to eat any.
Service can be very spotty. That’s where this place fails. Sometimes, it seems like only one person is authorised to collect payments, so you have to wait for that person to become available. Also, if you have booked using a special offer, you will have to remind them as it is likely that they will forget to apply it to your bill — most likely because the person serving you will be different from the person authorised to take payments.
So why have I rated this three stars rather than four? Well, the last time I went, it took the waiter ten minutes to get back to me and tell me that the honey roasted pork buns that I had ordered were no longer available. That in itself was understandable, but it was just the whole manner in which he did it. This is how the conversation went:
Waiter: You know the pork buns are finished?
Me: No.
Waiter: No one told you?
Me: No.
Waiter: Well, they are finished. What do you want to do about it?
Me: Well, there’s no choice, right?
Waiter: No. Ha ha!
So, yes, one star removed for service, another star removed for making me incredibly angry. I still love the food, and I will go back in a heartbeat, but, still! That exchange still makes me annoyed.

Service was spotty, but the food was AMAZING! I was there with friends and I was able to try multiple dishes and they were all amazing. We started off with their seafood lettuce wrap, wasabi prawn dumpling, and Shanghai pork dumpling and they came out in a timely order. Everything tasted great and portion was just right for the price. The Wasabi prawn dumpling was something I have never tasted before and I’m glad I did. The wasabi taste wasn’t overwhelming at all and gave the whole dumpling the right amount of «kick». We also has a order of their Paper Wrapped Roasted Pork Ribs with lemongrass & Chili and the meat was cooked to perfection were it just fell off the ribs.
All that was followed up with an order of Seafood on Fried Rice with Brown Sauce and it was interesting that they gave us bowls (soup bowls) to eat the rice in. I’ve always used plates so this was something new for me. Again, it was plated to be visually appealing and it also tasted great.
We were already full from our meal, but we still looked at the dessert menu and ordered their sesame balls, their sponge cake and their fried chrysanthemum custard buns. The sesame balls were definitely the best of the three but I would definitely recommend trying all of them first.
Will definitely come back and try a lot more of the other dishes.

Solid place for a good dim sum meal. It’s a bit on the pricey side, but totally worth it as the food is fresh and delicious. Our go-​to menu of reliable, delicious fare usually includes turnip cake, cheung fun, crispy duck, shrimp dumplings and the steamed bbq pork buns. Yum. Some of the other dishes we had are just ok/​average, like the sticky rice in lotus leaf, xiao long bao, and the beef ho fun noodles.
But whatever you order, don’t forget dessert! The chrysanthemum custard buns (fried, not steamed) and the black sesame balls are amazing.

Good Chinese restaurant in the heart of sheldon square. The restaurant is quite big (you can’t tell from the outside) and it has a really nice setting/​ambience. Now food, came here with a party of 7 and it is quite interesting as we ordered set menus and it was a pleasant and filling surprise. The tables move on the top so you can easily share things with other people in your table. We tried the Jade menu (check website) and it was more than enough. Overall a really good lunch. Only giving 4 stars as I do believe it is a bit expensive when comparing price to flavour experience. But still a recommend and will come back again.

Was nearby so thought we’d try it. Was okay but nothing special. Service was okay and so was the food. We had the mixed vegetables, eggplant, and fried rice, I believe.

Went with visiting family members. Service was not very good and very slow. When the food came out they had not brought my meal (I ordered two appetizers for my main course). I am not sure if they had forgotten but it took almost 15 minutes to get my meal and by that point my very fast eating father was already done with his meal. Also, we ordered two egg fried rice dishes and they brought us one large bowl but never bothered to tell us that they had combined the two orders into one bowl so my father and step-​mother had eaten almost all the rice by the time we asked where the other rice was and was informed that they had combined them.
The food was mediocre at best.

Came here with a table of 10 for dim sum and everyone paid 18 quid for a massive 30 dish order. Don’t you love getting the bill at dim sum places and finding out how much each person pays? It’s always a nice surprise for me.
Great soup dumplings and turnip cake. Everything else is pretty standard, nothing stand-​out aside from the occasional unique menu item (Chrysanthemum Custard Bun, wasabi prawn dumpling, scallop siu mai).
I prefer Plum Valley, but this is pretty solid too.

My aunt chose this restaurant for a family lunch on a Sunday afternoon, as my cousin is back for the holidays and it is her favourite Chinese restaurant in London. The location is interesting — it is a 2 minute walk from Paddington station, but looks like it is part of an office complex that is otherwise very quiet on the weekend. Not exactly where I would expect to find a good Chinese restaurant, but I’ll take it. The interior is very elegant and proper, with plush chairs and a large mural on the wall, and some koi fish swimming in a little pond by the entrance. We ordered dim sum off the menu and everything was delicious… the Shanghai dumplings were particularly good, and I also really enjoyed the ox tripe and the beef cheung fun. As my family tends to do, we also ordered a second course with seasonal vegetables (morning glory and tao mui), beef ho fun, and seafood fried rice with brown sauce. I was not the biggest fan of fried rice with brown sauce on top of it, but apparently it is a regional specialty. We also got a selection of pastries for dessert, and I can say that the chrysanthemum bun at least looked very impressive. I thoroughly enjoyed the entire meal and would highly recommend this restaurant for authentic dim sum and Chinese food.

Really tasty food. I love their wasabi prawn, there roast duck was the best I had in Uk. The restaurant was quite spacious, tables weren’t too closed to each other so you won’t feel like you are over hearing each other’s conversation like most of the restaurant in china town.

Had an evening meal here rather than dim sum and it’s a nice place. Nice and inoffensive. Service was good (excellent for a Chinese restaurant ;)), and food was good, with a slight modern presentation of some dishes. Somewhere to take clients or relatives you haven’t seen in a while.

Well executed dim sum in a somewhat strange location. Service was great, and the service staff was on point on cleaning up empty steamer baskets and refilling the tea pot. Even though the restaurant was crowded on a Sunday, they weren’t pushy about getting us out.
Highlights included the fried chrysanthemum custard buns (炸菊花奶皇包) and the scallop siu mai (帶子燒賣). While this is one of the better places to get dim sum in London, I can’t give it 5-​stars since it feels like dim sum from the 90’s. I’m a big fan of the «newer» dishes like XO daikon cake and the fusion pineapple bbq pork bun, which were nowhere to be found here. If, however, you’re looking for your standard dim sum fare, Pearl Liang delivers.

In my 18 months here, this is probably the second dim sum restaurant in London that actually serves up some decent dim sum! Decent dim sum for London, that is. I know where I can get better /​larger dumplings in Vancouver and HK — but we’re not there, are we! So walk venture outside Chinatown, and STAY AWAY FROM PING PONG (oh dear God, cringe cringe), because Pearl Liang will be worth it.
For our table of 9, we ordered more than enough to fill everyone, and *almost* have a bit leftover. I say almost because we had Andrew M and Rob H at the table, and we know those guys have hollow legs. where else does their food go?! But even these guys were stuffed. We ordered a few dishes of noodles, sticky rice wraps, prawn dumplings, pork and shrimp dumplings (these were just ok, a bit dry), radish cake, minced meat dumplings, spring rolls, a dish of garlic fried pea shoots (try this instead of gai lan for a change), plus tons of other stuff. I do like sticking with the traditional dim sum, so there were other things ordered that I wasn’t crazy about (ie: wasabi seafood dumplings).
It’s a nice place, though in general, service doesn’t always match up with the atmosphere /​décor of the place! Unfortunately that’s just Chinese /​Asian restaurants in general. Though when I do get good service in these restaurants, its always a pleasant surprise. It was a bit hard to flag people down to order, or ask for water, etc.
But if you’re in it for the food, come try PL. And be adventurous with the food!
** I’ve read a comment that their xiao long baos /​soup dumplings were not good, but my rule of thumb is that I never order XLB from any Chinese resto. If they are a standard Chinese resto with dim sum and large sharing plates, then stick with that. I wouldn’t go for the XLB. ONLY if they are a Shanghainese restaurant, and they specialise in XLB, will I order it. The rest of their food is crap. I’m looking at you, Dumplings Legend.

Being a dim sum lover, other than dim sum have to be fresh and nice, I am also always looking for a restaurant that have some interesting or special dim sum compare to other dim sum place. This is what I found in this place!
To me, there are a few dim sum have to be well made in order to define as a good dim sum. Which what pearl Liang did!
Shanghai dumpling with Pork (xiao long bao) — the dumpling is not over thin or thick so that is just nice for you to hold up with your chopstick and it wouldn’t break. Most important when u bite into the dumpling the pork is juicy!
Fried Dough — this dim sum is a fried dough wrapped in a kind of wet smooth rice dumpling skin and serve with soya sauce. the fried dough is nice and crispy when you bite in it. This shows that they only prepare this dim sum when you order it. Unlike other dim sum place in china town which u always get soft dough or over hard dough (due to refried the dough upon order)
prawn dumpling — the prawn are bigger compare to other dim sum place. the texture of the prawn are fresh and «crunchy».
Pork Shu Mai — you can actually see the prawn in the mince pork in the siew mai unlike other place is more of mince pork and fat with a little prawn paste.
Their fried dim sum are not greasy and oily at all. At least I didn’t see the baking paper under the fried dim sum that is oily.
There are some places after you had their dim sum you will feel very thirsty and keep want to drink a lot water. I didn’t have this bad after taste with Pearl Liang. So this means that they use good seasoning for their dim sum.
Beside ordering our usual dim sum we also ordered a few special dim sum by Pearl Liang.
PAPER WRAP SESAME PRAWN ROLL
BLACK SESAME Rice BALL
BEAN PASTRY WITH BAMBOO PITHS MUSHROOM CONSOMME
Mushroom in slice beef roll
MONKS VEGETABLE DUMPLING
This place nicely decorated. If you want to have a relax dim sum time then I strongly recommend this place.
Read about other review about their service… maybe we were seated right next to the bar so we are ok with their service. No complaint so far.

Where, oh where, is the good dim sum in London? I keep trying and keep being disappointed.
But I’ve honestly never been more disappointed than Pearl Liang. A place I was hoping would be great and in the end turned out to be awful. Just awful. The food, the service, the everything. Just awful.
We arrived with a reservation and waited to be sat. They never came over. A few times they looked our way, but still, never came. I finally had to walk up to them and ask to be seated and they did.
We sat at a table with no menus… and none ever came. Again, I had to ask for the menu to actually see the food. This place was not doing well (plus, the seats were much lower than the table, making it awkward to sit there. My god, what have we done.)
For a place known for dim sum, there’s only two pages of it on the entire menu. And it’s mostly beef and seafood. Just a warning. It took the waiter forever to come over (I’m sensing a pastern here). We ordered a few things off the menu — wasabi prawn dumplings, pork buns, xiao long bao (or dumplings with soup in the middle)
It took, and I kid you not, half an hour to get our food. And when it came, it was wrong. There was no pork bun, they had brought us something else. When we asked, they told us they didn’t have pork buns that night so they just substituted it with something else (that was another dumpling, not even a bun.) What? No.
And the food wasn’t great. The xiao long bao was tasty but all the other things were mediocre at best. Nothing amazing, all kind of bland or undercooked.
And then when we tried to leave, it may come to you as a shock, but they never brought us the bill. I finally had to get up and stop one of wait staff to get it. Like, literally stop him in his tracks and ask him for the bill. Only then could we pay and leave and talk about just how terrible that really was.

Je né connaissais pas la cuisine Dim sum, ce fût une découverte. Le restaurant est très beau, le personnel est plutôt sympatique et l’attente fût brêve. La nourriture est excellente, surtout pour le prix, les plats sont apportés les uns après les autres pendant la dégustation. Tout était très frais et parfumé, je recommande vivement ce restaurant.

Wan Tan, Dim Sum u. Hühnersuppe.
Schlicht und einfach, aber sehr gut.
Leider etwas teuer, London eben,…