Oriental Pearl Restaurant

I recently dined here again and was disappointed that they have a new chef. The food is definitely not as good as before. The marinade and grill on the meats are far inferior to the old chef. The phở isnt as flavorable. Still decent if you are craving Vietnamese food.

I was torn between 2 & 3 stars. First, based on my experience tonight, do not believe the photos. The amount of «toppings», like beef, chicken, shrimp, etc. are overrated. My dinner, a combo of beef (2 small pieces, shrimp (3 small) and a very thin chicken fried spring roll) over vermicelli and lettuce was mostly lettuce and vermicelli. My appetizer of 2 shrimp and beef summer rolls were large but again, mostly filler material. I guess the Vietnamese diet is mostly vegetarian and if true, need to understand that before going. Should be priced accordingly though. You do get free hot tea but disappointing to find they had no ice tea on menu.

Good, solid experience. I’ll be happy to come back, but probably won’t go too far out of my way to do so.
The good:
Good food with some excellent elements: A variety of Asian dishes, well season and filled with good fresh veggies. The service was quick and polite.
The less good:
The atmosphere was murky. Not really a place I’d bring a date… or my mom.
To sum: I wish I could conveniently swing by for an occasional takeout.

Always delicious and fresh.

Food was great, but customer service was a little iffy.
Two delicious experiences here. All was very very good food. All items were made per instructions, ready on time, hot and well-​packaged for takeout. They used quality ingredients, fresh vegetables, and the presentation was artfully done, and very colorful. Even in our takeout containers, the food came out beautifully. The chef knew how to put flavors together, and put out the (albeit Americanized) Asian taste craved and expected of a good Vietnamese/​Thai/​Chinese restaurant.
We were drawn in by the great reviews and a certificate they offered on a discount site. Our visit was a little while back, so I don’t know what their current offers are. But for us, before purchasing the coupon, I called to make sure I understood the terms. They are over 30miles roundtrip, so I did not want to waste anyone’s time buying something we couldn’t use. When I called, I spoke to the manager, and he was very friendly. He made it sound like he was happy for the business these certificates were bringing him. He said it was fine to use on takeout, and when I asked about the number allowed, he said I could buy one for myself and give one as a «gift» to my husband, so we could both use them. I asked if hubs could pick up each time, and again, that was all fine. After the conversation, I bought and printed the certs and wrote his name and notes of the conversation directly on each one.
The first coupon was used just fine, no problems. The second one, which we used about a month later, was when the story changed. The second certificate had the same notes on it as the first. The conversation I’d had with the manager was right there for him to read, as he himself was the one taking it when my husband went it. He didn’t refuse it, but he acted like it was making an exception to take it when he had given his word that it would all be fine. Having used these kinds of offers in the past, it is sadly kind of common for business owners to go back on promises, and sometimes to refuse to honor their own terms. In this case, I went out of my way to speak to the person to prevent problems and was given a hassle anyway. Long story short, it wasn’t the worst experience ever, and he did finally honor it, but when someone has a log of their call to you written on the coupon, with your name there, don’t you think you should recognize that in a professional way?

The only choice for phở! I love getting take out since I can stretch the generous portions into two meals and put it together myself. The service for take out is quicker than most restaurants. Chicken phở is my favorite for take out and rare beef for dine in. My boyfriend usually gets the pork BBQ and egg rolls broken rice dish but if your S.O. wont eat Vietnamese food there is a pizza place next door so everyone can have their own take out in one stop. I highly recommend this restaurant. My only complaint is that they don’t deliver :-)

WoooHooo. A Vietnamese /​Thai place that offers a free pot of Jasmine tea!
Hungry and bored I took a 7PM Sunday night drive and I stumbled by Oriental Pearl before I hit the Delaware border. What a treat! What a delight! I was warmly greeted by an energetic hostess, seated and asked if I wanted a pot of tea. Hell yea! The fun continued when I read the mission statement/​greeting on the cover of the menu (pic). They truly want your experience to be good. And what a varied and exciting menu this was. Vietnamese and Thai. I settled on
Curried Seafood: A beautifully colored meal that contained tender chunks of seafood in a fragrant and delicious red curry sauce with thinly sliced red and green peppers and various other vegetables. Tasty meal when fresh. Very good leftover for breakfast. Yum!
Bin Bo Hue to go for a sick friend. Today he reports it’s the best he’s ever had. Kudos to the hostess for packing it extremely well to go without me asking. Happy to report a rare «no spillage in the car» event.
Oriental Pearl is BYO. This place is as good as any of the Washington Ave or Upper Darby Viet/​Thai establishments and the prices are right. Can’t wait to return, wine bottle in hand.

Seafood noodle soup lacked seafood. Fake crab and fish loaf. Yuck. Curry chicken was greasy, bones and skin, no vegetables. Not greatest curry sauce I ever had. Restaurant needs TLC.

Wow might be the best broth of phở I’ve had. Great pieces of meat and the noodles are cooked well. If you’re looking for a bowl of phở with a very rich flavor, this is one to check out. Friendly service too

I’ll start first by saying the food was very very good. The beef phở broth was one of the best I’ve had.
When we arrived at the restaurant my Vietnamese parents hesitated to go in saying it doesn’t look authentic but we were starving & gave it a shot. We were surprising pleased, food was authentic & good portions. Cook was vietnamese & came out to talk to my parents. The server was very nice & attentive, which is something u don’t get at most Asian restaurants. Definitely will return.

Good food, poor service.
Food here is great. Always fresh and well prepared. The problem this place has, and the reason for the rating, is the weak service I get every time I order food here (usually take out).
The gentleman usually at the counter spreads himself too thin and at times lets it get the best of him. He has little patience and does not have time for substitutions or modifications to accommodate dietary restrictions. If you are vegetarian or vegan, your limited to one entrée and 2 appetizers. He sometimes tries to put on a friendly façade but it never works out.
The place has 4 stars because it’s city-​quality in a town that lacks variety. The rating says 2 but if you’re in a pinch, and stick to the menu, it’s worth it.

I can’t believe I’m even giving this such a bad review because I used to love coming here. The food and service and overall experience use to be so much better. Now prices went up a lot compared to the old prices. I wouldn’t mind paying the prices now if the food was as good as it used to be with the previous chef lady. because her food was seriously that good.
phở broth now is dark. And murky and meh. Service is ok but not as great anymore. What happened !? I was so thrilled to find really good vietnamese food in the suburbs.
I don’t come here as much anymore and after the previous visit I just don’t think I’ll be coming back. Not for awhile. It really pains me to say that !
I really hope the best for this restaurant. But it’s gonna need some serious improvements.
(Hopefully the previous cook returns! Her cooking was really spectacular.)

I’m so glad I found this place, it’s definitely gives Phở Cali and Phở Nu Vu competition in my favorite phở places. Alot of the same dishes are common Vietnamese food, but Pearl has quail and some other things Ive never seen on the others menus.
I tried the brisket phở with tripe and cartilage, and vermicelli noodles with pork, both dishes were delicious. This place is also ten minutes from me. Even better. I’ll be returning.
9÷11÷15 Check your CC/​Debit account, I was charged $ 10 on a $ 6 tip, it could have been a mistake, but I’m always suspicious of that type of thing. And the manager never called me to remedy the error, I had to go through my bank. Not very good customer service.

The food is always delicious when I come, but the service is not that great. Sadly, I don’t come here as often as I used to or want to because I know other places with the same quality of food and much BETTER service. It’s fine when there are one or two tables filled, but once it gets busy, you will be waiting a very, very long time to order food and be served.

I moved to delaware county from Philly, and gave up on getting good Asian food of any type. Last night I tried to get the BF –as he drove down to visit — to pick up thai, but I was too late and he was already on the 95. So began my search for thai food in my own neck of the woods.
How unexpected to find this little place in boothwyn!
Ok, four stars because it’s BYOB, the ambience and servers are really low key but the place actually feels kind of classy. The spring rolls were overlooked but the chicken basil thai dish was spot on and they brought me two very small chillis, I believe they were Thai hots, when I asked for some extra spice with my meal.
The prices are extraordinarily fair for hot, fresh, authentic Vietnamese and Thai in my hood, and I hear the phở is outstanding.
All is not Lost out here in the burbs.

It pains me to give this review because we’ve had a lot of good meals here in the past but our last two dinners here had identical problems.
We went here for dinner last night. It was pretty busy for a Tuesday night so we expected a little bit of a wait for our meal. But the wait was compounded by service issues.
We ordered the Vietnamese Pancake for an appetizer and Phở and Vermicelli for our entrees. Our order was taken pretty promptly but it took over a half hour for our pancake to be served. A party who arrived after us got their appetizer about ten minutes before us.
It took another twenty minutes to get my vermicelli but Baby’s phở was nowhere to be found nor did our server (the older gentleman) offer an explanation or apology. We waited a minute or two but when the phở still didn’t come, I flagged down the other (young) server who said he would check into it. He came back apologetically alluding to some issue and promised it would come soon.
Finally, about five minutes later, our original server delivered the phở without a word nor any acknowledgement of a problem. This is the same guy who at our last dinner forgot to place part of our order and then double charged us.
It seems we’re not the only ones whose order he screwed up. As we were taking care of our bill, we heard the party behind us pointing out that something was missing from their take-​out order.
The owner used to be here frequently but we haven’t seen him in quite some time so I’m wondering if in his absence he’s taken his eyes off the ball leading to the slippage in service.
We really want to continue supporting Oriental Pearl so I’m hoping that they take steps to get back on track.

Went to go have their great steaming hot phở that I’ve come to love but over the past couple months we noticed that they had no heat and are making no attempts to fix it but rather upgrading their space heaters. We wanted to give them another chance because their phở is so good, but it was once again an ice box in there due to no heat and the door constantly opening from high take out traffic. So we left disappointed. We will not be returning until they fix their heat or it gets warmer out which will be harder because we probably won’t want soup in the warm weather. Highly disappointed.

Thanks Unilocalers for introducing this vietnamese restaurant to us. I would never discover this place and from the outside appearance, it didn’t look very appealing as it’s located nearby other shops, I think like nail salons…
I order broken rice with grilled pork chop, meat patty and shredded pork, fried egg, and pickled carrots and veggies. It was yummy!
The service was nice. We went on Sunday for 7pm dinner and soon after arrival, the place got packed so I suggest come on early if you want a table. Otherwise, order
for take out.

Came here on a week night with my best friend to pick up some phở. (with this cold weather, I feel this is the only thing I want to eat!). Called to order and drove there 15 min later to pick up. The people on the phone were really not the nicest and when we got there the food was not ready so we waited.
The food was really good but lacked some meat in there for my taste. Beside that, the broth was tasty and overall was pretty good. I will probably go back once I am around.

Winner winner chicken dinner! If you are a fan of Phở this is a must go to. Great appetizers to have before the soup and tasty entrée dishes if you want more then Phở soup. It’s a BYOB so you can bring your children and feel comfortable. Not big on ambience but keep your eyes on your plate and you’ll be fine. Try the broken rice dishes they are great. My favorite Phở is #13 not going to tell you what it is you’ll have stop in and try it. Tonight I ask Phil the waiter to surprise me. This is what I got!!! Wow delicious