Pearls

Placed an order for delivery. Speedy. Wonton soup was average, thin dough which I happen to like. Prepackaged crackers for it so they weren’t the greasy homemade kind. Shrimp and chicken shu Mai was a strange texture, I wish it had just been shrimp. Rest of the order was average and less greasy than most places around here. Overall, better than other Chinese restaurants on UWS. I will give them another shot.

Very consistent great food. This is almost like the Chinese restaurants I grew up with. No gelatinous eggs of jelly fish (though I have not asked for the secret menu). It’s got all the typical NYC Chinese foods and they all have great flavor. The rids are excellent! The veggies cooked perfectly. I’ve been coming here for years and have been on the upper west side forever. This is my go to spot ever since Silk Road got forced out. I usually buy a bottle of red but they have free house White wine, which makes a night out quite inexpensive.

My boyfriend and I were looking for some good, cheap Chinese food, which is surprisingly hard to find in this area. We give this place 3.5ish stars. Delivery was half an hour late, which was annoying, and when the delivery guy arrived he asked for us to pay for the food (we had already paid through Seamless). Fortunately, the mixup was resolved quickly. The food was good, but the next day the sauce in my vegetable dish had congealed and looked quite unappetizing. We really liked the create-​your-​own dishes. It’s a neat idea. I would go back, but try something different.

I would give this place NO STARS if possible. Although I have never eaten in the restaurant, I recently had a decent meal there via Seamless. I live a block away. That said my experience on Christmas eve was appalling. Knowing that this is a popular night for Chinese delivery, I expected a slight delay over my prior experience of almost instant delivery. I placed my order on Seamless at 6:50pm and got that enthusiastic email that they were working on my order at 7:10pm and estimated delivery was 8pm. Okay, a little slow, but I could deal with that. 8pm came and went. Called the restaurant at 8:30, no answer, so I called Seamless. They were extremely apologetic and contacted the restaurant and promised delivery at 9pm. 9pm came and went, same routine again with calling the restaurant and Seamless. Called the restaurant repeatedly. Finally at 9:30 over 2 ½ hours after ordering, the harried and angry sounding person at Pearls told me they were very busy and did not know when they could deliver the food. She admitted they had not even begun to prepare it and gave me the option of canceling, which I reluctantly did. Hey, we were hungry!
The question is WHY COULDN’T THEY SIMPLY SAY THAT THEY WERE TOO BUSY TO ACCEPT AN ORDER from the outset in response to other inquiries posed to them. It was a frustrating and hungry Christmas night at my house. Finally walked over to Ozen and picked up Chinese food and was home 10 minutes later with steaming hot dinner at 10pm, over 3 hours later.

I was really excited to try Pearl’s and have a new go to spot. Unfortunately I was really underwhelmed by my order. No stand outs from our order of Beef and Broccoli, sesame noodle that were incredibly oily, dumplings with no taste and shrimp with string beans. Oddly, they also didn’t provide any soy sauce or other condiments that I would have loved to doctor up my food.

After reading these reviews my husband and I decided to try it out. We are soooo glad we did! Lovely simple relaxed décor — noise level was comfortably full but not so loud that we couldn’t hear ourselves talk, and the place was filled to capacity.
We started with the cold noodles which had fabulous fresh noodles, sauce and fresh scallions. We ordered the whole fried fish and the waitress told us it would be 30 minutes… did we still want it? Yes!
The House Duck with ginger was also amazing! I’m so impressed, lots of fresh julienned ginger!
As others have said, you get a choice of FREE white wine OR Sake for the TABLE. Not a combo — the wine was slightly sweet and came served in an unmarked half carafe — I had 2 carafes and barely felt a buzz — it was a nice simple table wine. Next time I’ll try the sake.
I highly recommend this place. Total bill was $ 49 Go!

Been here a couple of times with friends. Last time we had Orange Chicken and Fried Rice. The food is very good, the portions are plentiful, and you get free wine with your food. Will be back next time I’m in NYC.

The food is excellent and the service is really special. The place is pretty large so they don’t rush you and there is free franzia white wine. It is worth the trip because other restaurants in the same price range are not as good with customer service. This will be my new hangout.
Get the Sesame Chicken and the moo shu pork. Great value.

I am usually a fan of both authentic (Flushing, family home-​cookin’) and inauthentic (PF Chang’s, and yes, even Panda Express!) Chinese food, but Pearls really missed the mark on both. I’m not sure what this place is going for, but this is one of the most disappointing Chinese meals I have had.
We came here for the lunch special, which was very well-​priced. Around $ 7-​$ 9 for a variety of entrees, which come with rice, and your choice of a soup or egg roll. I got the garlic shredded chicken, and my husband got the sweet and sour chicken.
I got the egg drop soup to start, and immediately, I knew that something was off. The texture of the soup was so thick that it was semi-​gelatinous. It literally jiggled. This is what happens when you put in too much corn starch as an artificial thickening agent into the soup. The eggs in the egg drop were real, but I only knew this because I got some shell. My husband’s egg roll was just as disappointing. Too-​thick sweet-​and-​sour sauce on the side, so vinegary that the scent tickled my nose. The egg roll was stuffed with cabbage shreds and a few crumbs of charred barbecue pork meat that rolled sadly out when the egg roll was laid on its side.
The entrees were just as bad. The garlic shredded chicken was designated as spicy. Instead, it was strangely sweet, and I had a suspicion they used the same sweetener as for the sweet-​and-​sour sauce because the meals tasted weirdly similar. The sweet-​and-​sour chicken, I confess that I did not try, so neon pink was its color. I ended up eating all of the white rice to get full, as white rice is something that Pearls did correctly.
I’m sad that places like this exist. We’ve walked by many times, and noticed that it is quite empty despite seeming like a clean establishment that made an effort to draw customers in (free wine/​sake promotions, lunch special, etc). We gave it a chance, thinking the lack of customers was due to its less-​than-​ideal location, and hoped that it might at least be a mediocre experience. But, despite silently rooting for this place, the food was just plain terrible and to be honest, gives all Chinese food a bad name. Everything tasted sad, weirdly sweet, and greasy — something you might expect if we were in some rural outpost miles and miles away from real Chinese food, but kind of insulting to present to NYC customers tbh. Simply put — it just feels like the people here don’t care about making good food.
People, if you’re craving Chinese food, you deserve better! There ARE options in the neighborhood (like Szechuan Garden on 105^th and Broadway if you want sit-​down or Xi’An at 103^rd and Broadway if you’re craving fast and cheap) — please don’t judge Chinese food, authentic or inauthentic, by what you get here.

A personal favorite, been coming here for about 6 yrs. Inexpensive, great tasting and free wine or sake! Can’t go wrong here. Pearls only falls short one star because of the waiters tendency to disappear when it’s time for a wine refill. –_​– Great for dates, good for small groups, work meetings or family. Service is usually fast and efficient… ok, enough for now, I’m getting hungry…

Home delivery: veggie noodles great taste!
Drawback: they took 30′ to deliver (I live just 10 blocks away from the restaurant)

Amazing Chinese food and they serve large portions. I’ve become a regular at pearls because I come with my co workers after a long stressful day at work. Why pearls you say? Well great food and here’s the best part free white wine! It helps me relax and just makes the conversations so much funnier. Its a good place for a date. Its usually quiet they’re service is quick and the food is reasonably priced especially for the upper west side. After having pearls its hard to have regular Chinese food from your local Chinese food spot in your neighborhood.

Ordered through Seamless… The food was inexpensive, but quality was great and non greasy; to top it off, the delivery was super fast! I will definitely use them again!

4.5 stars to account for the slim pickings on the UWS.
Look, I’m not going to pretend to be a connoisseur of authentic Chinese food — I grew up in NYC eating and developing a taste for Americanized Chinese food (chicken and broccoli, shredded beef, egg rolls, lo mein, the basics). So when I moved to the UWS I couldn’t believe how tough it was to find a place that could satisfiy my uncultured craving for the common NYC Chinese food that isn’t hard to find anywhere else in the city. Finally choosing to go against the grain of the 3-​star reviews, I’m happy to say that Pearls is now my go-​to for no-​frills Americanized Chinese on the UWS. It’s not as greasy as your typical hole in the wall, so not completely hating myself after eating enough to feed a small army is an added bonus. Delivery is fast and service is friendly.
If you’re looking for the fancy upscale stuff or authentic Schezuan, then look elsewhere (very tough to find on the UWS). Otherwise, this is the local spot in my book.

Solid food. Came here with my husband for lunch and dinner a few times. It’s a step up from the fast food Chinese places in the area.
Can’t complain about the food or the service. Everything we have ordered has been good. And the prices are decent for the area. I’ll definitely come back. It’s a good neighborhood place. Next time we may try tracks out and see how that goes.

Delivery here is GREAT.
Super quick, and great Chinese food. I’m always very pleased. I ordered the egg drop soup for delivery, and it came to my house piping hot, which is a rarity.
I’ve been to the location in person, too and it doesn’t necessarily have any wow factor, but the food is great for it’s value. I used to order Chinese/​Thair delivery from a different place, but Pearl’s changed my mind. Definitely recommend!

I have been coming here for the last few years for an annual get together with a large group of parents and children. They always do a great job of accommodating the large group and the service has always been good. Never been disappointed with the food.
This is your basic chinese american spot. If you are in the area a nice spot to stop in.

I came here today for Vday dinner bc my husband chose the restaurant. I expected the worst when I went through reviews while waiting for my food to arrive. I’d say… Glad I came here!!! We were seated on the side which was a bit cramped because there was a baby seat behind me. Squishy. The waitress was very attentive and very friendly, but sadly the waiter was not as much.
Ordered:
Hot and sour soup
Chicken rice soup
Beef and asparagus
General Ching ?!! Chicken…
Our soups were pretty good, one of the better hot and sour soups I’ve had, perfect amount of hot and sour, and enough tofu bamboo for me. Chicken soup was good!
My beef dish was super good… I was only expecting asparagus, but to find mushroom in there also, made me so happy!!! The general Ching chicken dish was also really good! It had a good amount of crispy to it, and the sauce was very tasty. The dishes were a good portion, and we were both full and satisfied.
Sadly I did not take advantage of the complimentary wine because the sign outside, totally flew over my head. I would definitely come back again and order the same dish!!!

Went wandering around the area and decided to stumble in. LOVED IT.
The lunch special is $ 7 at most and comes with an entrée, side, soup or egg roll, tons of food! Placed an order at the front and it took under 10 minutes. The wonton soup wontons were a bit small but very good. The chicken and broccoli was a bit salty but perfect when mixed with the rice.
Great Chinese take out place.

Ordered from seamless and everything came as I ordered it. The only thing was that they gave me no soy sauce and no napkins, which is a bit annoying.
Solid, hood chinese food with fast delivery times.