Dragon Pearl - Toronto, Ontario

This was a bit of a surprise. When Dragon Pearl first opened years ago, there was nothing like it. The atmosphere, the food, value for money was all top notch. In comparison the other all you can eat Chinese restaurant chain seemed stale and dated. You can tell the owner ... put a lot of thought and money into this place and building its reputation. Things have sadly changed. One example is they used to have a soup station with a chef cutting freshly made noodles into this large cauldron. That beef soup was amazing! Over the years that chef became a quirky robot, hacking away at the noodles with a large chef knife. This was fun for to watch and the soup was still delicious. This time I went to that same area to get my soup and it just wasn’t there anymore. When I asked, one of the workers said “we don’t have that anymore, it wasn’t popular” That’s sad! Okay what about the rest of the food? There’s noticeably much less selection than ever! Okay well, how about the quality? Not near as good as it used to be. The Duck was dry and almost tasteless. The oyster was okay, I guess that’s why there was a lineup for them. The rest of the food I had was mediocre to just okay at best. My whole party felt this way including a friend from mainland China who ended up just not eating much at all. (We hyped the buffet and she was genuinely excited to try it out) This is so sad! I sincerely hope Dragon Perl becomes less complacent, adds more variety, and most importantly improves the quality of their food. Good restaurants need to be consistent and speaking of that older chain I mentioned in the beginning, that one is consistently good. The atmosphere isn’t nearly as nice as Dragon Pearl though. So sad!! Read more

They are currently offering all you can eat oysters on weekdays (Monday-Thursday) dinner for $47 per person until mid June. They have 3 different types of oyster, raw, grilled garlic and mayo cheese. They have a good selection from the basics like fried rice to sashimi to charcuterie to peeking ... duck and more. The quality of the food was pretty good. However, the lines for oysters and peeking duck were extremely long. Their seating area is quite big but the area where you grab food is on the smaller side. So it was very packed. We went on a Thursday night and they actually ended up running out of oysters. Which was disappointing, they did end up giving some people including us a discount but it wasn’t given to everyone. We just got lucky as my friend went to the oyster station just as they ran out. Read more

This is a great buffet if you’re looking for some premium items you wouldn’t find normally at Mandarin. Went on a weekday but I believe they have crab legs on the weekend. Highlights are Peking duck, raw oysters and sashimi, baked oysters that came in huge shells, jumbo prawns, bbq selection ... and stir fried crab. Dessert section is also pretty nice and has some Asian desserts like green tea/mango mousse cake, mango jelly and hot mango & taro sago. My girlfriend also said the mashed potatoes were surprisingly good and were made from real potatoes lol Read more

I recommend making reservations, especially during the weekend as it is very busy. Friday's and Sunday's they feature all you can eat crab. There is a 90min time limit while seated. Buffet style Chinese food and all was great, and did not disappoint. I would definitely return. ... The service was rated 4 stars as I think they were understaffed, and very slow to refill our water and take our dishes away. Read more

We came here around noon on a Wednesday for the lunch buffet, and there was plenty of seating available, but it got really busy shortly after. All drinks other than water are an extra charge. The food was fairly decent. The Peking duck was the one we most enjoyed. You need to ... line up and get the item from the station handed to you by the staff, but they're pretty quick and will give you two portions or two pieces of duck on one wrap if you ask for it. The skin was crispy! Lots of other items to choose from for lunch, including sushi rolls, western style breakfast (eggs, bacon, etc), lots of Chinese food (meats and veggies), dim sum, salads, fruit, lots of desserts and ice cream (I enjoyed the green tea flavour mousse cake and ice cream). I would be interested in coming back to try their dinner menu at some point. Service was good and they're quick to clear your plates. Paying with cash will give you an 8% discount. Read more