Bright Pearl Restaurant

I haven’t been here to eat dim sum for years. A recent reviewer indicates it’s being closed for renovations and that could be a good thing. It sadly needed some TLC with it’s really dated décor. Many do not know the history of this building and it had a well known reputation for being haunted (apparently the ground floor restrooms have a strange cold air and people seeing images in the mirrors which are not theirs, feet in stalls when no one is there, etc… if you believe in those kind of things that go boo!!!). It was a funeral home before the Hsin Kuang chain took it over in the 1980’s and the Fu or Foo lion dogs out front are supposed to ward off evil spirits (Chinese are very superstitious). This is also why they don’t use the front entrance… I’m not one to dispute but I won’t take the chance that my food is spooked: P
For the uninitiated, the dim sum here was from commercial sellers cos they didn’t actually have real dim sum chefs in-​house so you can actually buy it yourself, take it home and steam it rather than pay someone at a restaurant to do it. For this reason alone, I didn’t eat there after trying it out when they had their early dim sum specials and finding out later from friends who live in the neighbourhood.
We had a company dinner there in December 2009 cos one of our managers knew the manager there so I was obligated to go. The former owner of our company was invited to this function be he’s really superstitious and didn’t attend. It was attended by mostly non-​Asian people (and those who are Asian were all born here so they’re pretty useless in judging authentic Chinese dishes). They served us a banquet style meal so being one of 2 Asians at the table, we ended up eating most of the food others didn’t eat. They’re not my favourite dishes either but we tried most of it. Tasteless at best and bad service which was odd cos there wasn’t anyone else in the entire restaurant for the whole weekday evening. Definitely better places to eat in the area and not recommended to anyone with Chinese dining experience or those who have fear of lost spirits.

They’re closed right now for renovation :(
Great place to stop and eat after a day at Kensington Market. It’s best to come here in a group of four people or more… That way, you can get a bunch of dishes and share, and still get a peck at everything before someone else gobbles it up.
I love the atmosphere of the place — it’s always busy and lively, and it feels like you’re getting an authentic Chinese experience (possibly because no one speaks English, haha). The food is great… The deep-​fried dishes usually aren’t too greasy, and the dumplings are really good. I recommend the deep-​fried squid tentacles and the shrimp dumplings.
I wouldn’t recommend coming here if you have any allergies or dietary restrictions. One friend I came with didn’t eat pork, so we wanted to confirm the contents of a dish, but no one could understand us! Few, if any, «cart ladies» speak English, and waiters are often too busy to stop at your table. Again, for me, the chaos of Bright Pearl adds to its charm, but it might be too much for some folks.

I’ve been to this place 4 times: twice with family, once on a date, and once with a friend (side note, that friend was Chinese, and neither I nor any of the other people I went with are). Each time was for lunch and it was completely packed.
The food at this place is pretty good, but not necessarily the cheapest place to eat than other restaurants in the vicinity. My main problem with Bright Pearl is that I never liked the service here… most of the waitresses/​servers refused to speak English to us, and the only time I was able to communicate properly is when I was with my Chinese friend. I suppose most people wouldn’t care about that but I am pretty much a noob when it comes to dim sum so it was a little annoying when nobody would explain what anything was. Personally, I find the service at a restaurant incredibly important and can completely ruin or improve an experience. so this was a big deal for me. One time they also brought the bill without asking us first, which I always find pretty insulting.
Anyway…I probably won’t go here again, unless I absolutely must have dim sum when in downtown. There are many more places in Sauga/​B-​town that I would go to where the service is much more friendly.

Ugh, this place jumped the shark in 2001. If you’re not a tourist & if you own a car, then why the fook are you still eating @ Bright Pearl?
Feel shame, Torontonians with cars who dine at Bright Pearl. There’s way better/​cheaper/​cleaner options in Markham.
The last time I visited Chinatown in general was 2007. Chinatowns are good for tourists who don’t have the time/​transportation to get to better places that are further away. I’ve been known to frequent Chinatowns when visiting NYC, Boston, Chicago, etc.
However, Bright Pearl is rude, dirty, and definitely NOT the best dim sum spot in TO. They use the cart system.

Again, I did my homework, and for Dim Sun brunch before leaving Toronto, I decided to hit up the Bright Pearl. The place is huge, and I recommend getting there before 11 to beat the large Sunday crowd.
Also, as much as it pains me to say it, I feel the experience would have been far more enjoyable with a group. By yourself, you’re looking at 3 – 5 plates before you are full. In a group, with everyone sharing, you can experience far more.
But what I did try was excellent: they had my favorite — Chinese Footballs — as well as roast pork buns, shrimp balls, and shrimp and chive dumplings. They had more than a dozen other items, but at that point I was stuffed and about to crash.
Also reason for 4 stars: table location is VERY important. You can easily get forgotten in certain areas. Also, as I finished as the crowd started to come in, and as I was by myself, it took a decent amount of time for me to get my to go box and the check.
I still recommend trying it, but will attempt to do so with friends next time. As well, Rol San is across the street, so I may look into that as well.

Went here yesterday for a dim sum outing with a group. The dim sum was reasonably good, though not spectacular. Shu Mai and dumplings faired best. Too many deep fried dishes. Turnip cakes were fresh but too bland and eggplant was overcooked.
They did not seem to have three of my favourites — taro root balls, chive dumplings, and pea sprout dumplings — when we were there.
Cart ladies cannot serve drinks — you need to ask the separate waitstaff.

For decent dimsum in Toronto, I do recommend Bright Pearl Restaurant. This place sorta reminds me of Jing Fong in NYC Chinatown but smaller of course. The food was hit & miss. I liked their sticky rice with pork in a bamboo leaf. The shrimp and beef rice crepes were good too. I liked how the beef one had chopped scallions in it. The shumais were okay. The kalbi was mediocre… nothing extraordinary. The pan fried turnip cake was okay. The pork short ribs were banging. The eggplant thing sucked. I forget what else we ordered, but we were there for awhile.

I went here with a party of five on New Year’s day. What a circus it was! That is to say, what fun it was! I guess eating dim sum on the first of the year must be a tradition because this place was packed to capacity. We climbed the stairs to the main floor on the 2^nd floor to see the mass of people and food going hither and thither. We ended up waiting about 15 minutes for a table for five — not too bad.
I took the opportunity to meander upstairs (3^rd floor) to explore the «VIP» section, because ****obviously :) **** I’m VIP. It consisted of two banquet rooms full of various parties and one hallway leading to nowhere but which was stacked high with bus trays full of dirty dishes.
Okay — jump forward and we have a small table crammed next to other crammed tables, ad naseum. This is great, I think! Before this I had never been to a dim sum with the carts place before. So it was all hyper intense because this was clearly the Super Bowl, the final of the World Cup of dim sum eating days. I was most intrigued with the score sheet of sorts at the table, which is marked off each time your table takes a plate of something.
And take plates of food we did. It was all good fun in experimenting and having a go with the cart ladies, who were in festive spirits as well. One of my favorites was the Steamed BBQ Pork Bun. Another interesting note is that the cart ladies would cut up a number of the dishes with scissors before placing them on the table. I loved it! We all loved it!
And then, after about an hour of contained chaos, we were stuffed… and our score sheet — chock full of mysterious hieroglyphics — was taken away to be deciphered by some intellect far greater than I. A simple, plain receipt was returned devoid of any explanation. There was no itemized list of consumption, no rhyme or reason. There was simply the total sum — approximately $ 75 for the five of us, again not too bad.
VERDICT: Some of the quality of the food could have been better. However, the experience more than made up for any food deficiencies.
TIP: If this is your cup of tea, or if you plan to return again (I’d love to~), get the membership card. Great savings are to be had with the card.

After Rol San kicked our Saturday night plans in the balls (our fault), we scurried to Bright Pearl — fingers crossed that they were serving dim sum. They were! And hosting their staff anniversary party, but they invited us in anyway. In a slick move, they gave us a whole room to ourselves. They also politely asked if we could order immediately. Whatever. I grabbed the menu and checked items randomly like it was the last few moments of every university exam I ever wrote. We did all right. I’ll come back.
Obligatory Title Pun: You feel like Heaven at the GATES of the bright PEARL.
Menu Readability: I was so harried, I can’t even remember if it was in English.
Need to Mention: The stairs to the third floor smell like delicious floor cleaner. It’s unsettling.
What this place teaches me about myself: Despite rumours to the contrary, I perform under pressure.

Who knew it would be so difficult to find dumplings on a Saturday night on a street littered with signs that say «All Day Dim Sum»? It turns out some of these places only offer all day dim sum from Sunday to Thursday. This is not the case at Bright Pearl, who graciously seated us in what seemed like a private dining room up on the third floor while 99% of the staff were partying on the 2^nd floor. We had no idea they were having an anniversary party for the restaurant and we apologized to the 1% of the staff that got stuck serving us.
No carts for late night dim sum (obviously) and we didn’t have too much to choose from, but the staples like har gow (shrimp dumplings), siu mai (pork and shrimp dumplings) and char siu bow (barbecue pork buns) were all on the list. We were only given two minutes to order as the kitchen was closing, but handled the pressure fairly well. The dumplings were a good size and everything came piping hot. Prices were higher than some other dim sum places.
The service was spectacular — the empty teapots were refilled instantly and they kindly offered forks to the non-​asians in our group. The food arrived quickly after ordering. I’m very impressed that they didn’t seem bitter about missing the staff party and although we were rushed to place our order, they didn’t try to kick us out quickly and we had time to enjoy our food.

True it’s not the best dim sum I’ve had but it’s tasty, conveniently located downtown and yeah you get cart service which can turn quickly turn into a game of spot the cart with your favourites treasures if you’re the hungry antsy type. I came here this past weekend with Unilocalers Neil and Susan and we throughly enjoyed every bite and sip of our lunch. Har Gow was fresh, hot and delicate and the char siu baos satisified my carby sweet tooth. My favourite was the very last dish we tired, a ginormous pork and shrimp dumpling enrobed in a wonton wrapper submerged in broth. Afternoon dee-​light indeed!
Tip: don’t come here too late, for the food is a little cold and the carts swirls around with less frequency. And if you’re a first generation like me with rapidly deteriorating cantonese, brush up beforehand or be prepared to get positively owned by the cart ladies!

Usually when I go for dim sum, I listen for the cart ladies’ cries of «har gow!» and «shumai!» then crane my neck for the lidded stainless-​steel platters bearing shrimp rice noodle rolls. Everything else is just Chinese to me.
That’s part of the fun of these huge dim sum halls; you’re like «I have no idea WTF I’m eating but this sh-​t is delicious!» This time, I was joined by two Cantonese-​speaking Unilocalers, Neil T. and Deanna W., for the ever-​changing UYE Dim Sum at Bright Pearl.
Neil and Deanna were like the Amazing Creskin dynamic duo of dim sum; they knew the contents of those bamboo steamers even before the cart ladies removed the lids. Incredible!
We started off with har gow and shumai which arrived blazing hot. They appeared to have been just steamed (practically causing third-​degree burns on the roof of my mouth), instead of circling around the joint for several rounds. Each har gow was a sweet, plump shrimp wrapped in a thin translucent dumpling wrapper which was only outdone by the arrival of its fancy cousin: har gow topped with a slice of scallop and bright orange crab roe.
A basket of fluffy steamed pork buns and a plate of sticky rice in lotus leaf rounded out the carbo loading.
And when Neil T. said he liked the pig’s blood*, I was game for it. Big mistake. Not because I’m squeamish about this sort of thing but holy moly! It was a bowl of jiggly cubes that LOOKED like chocolate pudding but tasted acrid like when you taste the blood from a cut on your lip – only with a more ass-​y chalkiness. Even dousing it with nostril-​searing hot mustard wasn’t enough to mask the sheer horridity. (I secretly think this was Neil’s idea of a cruel joke.)
Luckily, I was able to chase away the lingering foulness with our last dish: a soup containing one fist-​sized dumpling of seafood and pork swaddled in a paper-​thin blanket of egg noodle wrapping.* It was like won ton soup but 30x more delicious.
The bill for the three of us was $ 37 – mostly jacked up because we each had a can of Coke at $ 2.50 a pop. Still pretty cheap for all that seafood, and a meal that kept me gut-​achingly full till 8 o’clock that night.
Aside from the overpriced soda, I have no real complaints. The dishes were hot, the seafood was fresh, and the dim sum was tasty (except for the evil pig’s blood!). It might help if you go at peak times on a busy Sunday to ensure a higher turnover of offerings from the cart ladies.
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* See photo

Hmmm… well, I’m a bit torn on how to review Bright Pearl. I mean, I LOVE dim-​sum, but I’m no means an expert because I get overwhelmed by choices quite easily. I always (and I mean always) go with my Chinese friends in SF, who are familiar with the food and I trust them to order based upon my known likes and dislikes.
This time was no different. I went with two Malaysian/​Chinese and one American-​born Chinese friend and I relied on their expertise.
Some positives are that: 1) there was not a wait to be seated on Sunday morning, 2) the bathrooms were clean, 3) there were dim-​sum menus with pictures and short descriptions in English (for those folks like me, who are dim-​sum dabblers) and 4) the food was fresh and warm.
Yet, I think that I may have some of the same criticisms as other reviewers on this establishment: 1) Most of the dim sum choices have shrimp, which may not work well for those with shell fish allergies (like one of my friends) 2) They really don’t have a lot of vegetable choices. 3) The same carts kept coming by and there weren’t really variation in dishes.

This is the first time I’ve had Dim Sum so I have no other comparison, but I found the food to be excellent. I didn’t have a dish I didn’t like, and the experience eating here was fun.
One note about the Happy Hour is that you get the Happy Hour prices with their VIP card, which I think costs $ 15 a year. The prices were still reasonable without it, and we ended up trying the dishes and sharing as the carts came by.

Ehhhhhh.
I eat a lot of dim sum. I forced myself to learn how to say my favourite dishes in Cantonese. I love dim sum.
And I did not love Bright Pearl. During the late «happy hour», they claim that everything is so cheap, but only because there’s nothing left. We got a couple dishes that I wouldn’t have normally tried, just because there was nothing else to eat and we were STARVED.
Eventually I just gave up and asked them to bring me what I wanted. Which was NOT $ 1.88 a dish.
Ended up being $ 20 for two people, which isn’t as pricey as Rol San, but it also wasn’t as good. And dim sum should be WAY cheaper than that around 3:30 pm. My favourite places in Scarborough can fill you up for $ 11.
And they had the WORST shrimp rice rolls (chun fun) I’ve ever eaten. GROSS.

One of the worst dim sum places I’ve ever been to. If they’re going to advertise that dim sum is their thing and they serve dim sum all day, then they better have some good dim sum (which they don’t)!
Main reasons why I don’t recommend coming here:
1) They only have like 20-​ish dishes
2) Of those 20, 12 – 15 of them are shrimp variations (and while I like shrimp, I felt like I was at a shrimp buffet, not dim sum where the whole point is variety)
3) The service is incredibly slow (we got there halfway through their «happy hour» on sunday and it was half full and there was only one cart on the floor at a time)
4) The dim sum itself is very low quality
5) Half the food was served cold cause they just circle the carts around forever
This place is popular with tourists and is believed by many Chinese to be haunted (as it used to be a funeral home, and hence the lions outside).
Regardless their food upset my stomach as well as my friends and I will definitely not be going back.

Bright Pearl seems to be endlessly debated as to whether it’s the best ever or the worst, but no one can deny that it’s one of the big contenders for classic dim sum experiences in Chinatown. My aunt wanted to take me out for lunch one weekend last year and I suggested that dim sum might be fun, and since we were just walking out from the parking garage at dundas east of spadina, the first place I thought of was Bright Pearl.
Walking into Bright Pearl, I tried to imagine how big a party you would have to have for them to turn you away and couldn’t. It is positively cavernous. The décor reminds me of a convention hall for 1980s realtors. But you don’t come here for the decorations — you come here for the delicious dim sum.
Because my aunt and I came a little late in the day (I’m told that dim sum is best left as a morning sport), the carts going around were a little slower than I have experienced in the past. But to their credit, nothing came around that wasn’t hot and seemingly recently made, so hopefully they weren’t recycling unpopular choices from earlier in the day.
I wouldn’t have wanted to bring a vegetarian with me, as it seemed that there might have been pork in almost everything I ate. But it was all delicious. And it felt after a while like we would never finish all the little plates that had started to accumulate — soup dumplings, bbq pork buns, spring rolls, chewy rice noodle rolls (not sure what those are called), and a wide assortment of my favorite foods, «fried things». Lol, I don’t even care what’s inside, if it’s breaded I will probably try it.
Stuffed and trying to calm our stomachs on just some tea, we were offered dessert and sadly had to turn it down. But we had spent a good hour and a half gabbing and sampling all the tasty dishes, and like everyone else in the dining room we had a really great time. At the end the bill (not that I paid, heh) was much lower than I would have thought. Great times! Take a bunch of friends and try everything, just GO EARLY.

The Bright Pearl is a great example of Toronto’s mixed urbane mentality.
Most noted for its weekend Dim Sum, the restaurant seat 350 and it’s usually filled with a healthy mix of young, old, families, twenty-​somethings and Chinese locals, which is the key in knowing it’s a reputable place.
The owner, Steve Chan is usually bopping from table to table, greeting people and keeping an eye on service.
Once a year they do a party with my company, Pink Mafia, called Sport Pig. For one-​night only, they let in about ⁴⁰⁰⁄₅₀₀ scenesters to get down to the sounds of local DJs like: kos, Justin Peroff (Broken Social Scene), Lil Jaz, Eon Sinclair (Bedouin Soundclash), MANSION, Syntonics, Nasty Nav and tons more.
It’s this kind of forward thinking attitude that keeps the Bright Pearl on the cutting edge of what Toronto is all about: a healthy mix of explorative people looking for a good time. Whether that be for Sunday brunch, or beats on the dance floor.

This is probably Chinatown’s best dim sum restaurant. The prices are reasonable and for the most part the food is served fairly hot (we all know how much it sucks to be served cold dim sum!). Service is good — they do not mind showing items for all you non-​Chinese. Seating is ample and I have never had to wait for a table.
However, compared to some of the suburban dim sum places, the Bright Pearl is only average. The only places better than this in the downtown area are all in swanky Yorkville — no thanks. Stick to the Bright Pearl and get a decent dim sum experience for a reasonable price.
For all those interested, many Chinese people think that the bathroom in the ground level of the Bright Pearl’s building is indeed haunted. Just thought I would throw that in there for you all.

Hands down, one of the BEST dim sum places I’ve ever been to (and trust me, FOB that I am, I’ve been to many.)
People either walk out of Bright Pearl Restaurant with clogged arteries (previously clean upon entering, fyi) or ten pounds heavier, or both. And trust me, it will all be worth it – at least for dim sum. Prices are ridiculously cheap for the quality and quantity that you get. If you come in earlier in the day, you not only beat the rush of diners, but you also get a good percentage off the total bill. Call it whatever you like, but I see it as a perk for early birds like me: P.
The affable cart ladies and the polite chefs added to BPR’s overall homey atmosphere. Paying in US dollars was a blatant giveaway that we were not Canadians which led a couple of the folks to ask where we were from. «Ohio? Where’s that?» one grandfather-​like employee asked us. *sigh*
Despite the wide array of dim sum dishes, certain ones can still be specially ordered; they came out in no time fresh and piping hot! The restaurant itself is huge with ample seating. In fact, it’s not uncommon to see an elderly plopped in a table for eight reading the Sing Tao Daily over dim sum and tea for hours on end.
Now, if only I can convince the owner to set up a sister branch in Toledo, my life would be c-​o-​m-​p-​l-​e-​t-​e!