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Pearls
Rating Details »
Neighborhood: Theater District
732 7th Ave
New York, NY 10019
(212) 582-7380
732 7th Ave
New York, NY 10019
(212) 582-7380
- Nearest Transit:
-
49th St-7th Ave (N, R, W)
50th St-Broadway (1)
47-50th Sts-Rockefeller Center (B, D, F, V)
- Attire:
- Casual
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Price Range:
-
$
- Good for Groups:
- No
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- No
- Delivery:
- Yes
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- No
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Alcohol:
- Beer & Wine Only
12 reviews for Pearls
Disclaimer: My review is based on seamlessweb orders alone. I haven't eaten in Pearls proper so cannot comment about decor/ambiance/atmosphere.
With that out of the way, Pearls is my default choice for a quick Chinese lunch in the Rockefeller Center area. Their delivery is always rapid, as in, place order , wait 10-15 minutes, receive call from delivery guy.
If the food was terrible, no amount of speedy delivery would absolve such a sin. Fortunately all of my Pearls taste experiences have been positive.
I usually opt for the curry chicken lunch special, complete with white or brown rice, egg or spring roll. It doesn't break the bank, coming in at 5.95.
Friday's batch of curry is usually by far the spiciest. My non-scientific studies have demonstrated that extra heat is found on Friday's.
Thin pieces of chicken breast mixed with onions and curry best describe the dish. One or two times I've noticed that the balance of chicken to onion is skewed towards the onion.
On other occasions, I've had beef lo mein, seafood fried noodles and shrimp with garlic. Never has the lunch been salty, greasy or offensive. Portions are generous and packets of soy/duck sauce/fortune cookie included without fail. (One of the risks of delivery can be the exclusion of utensils, condiments,etc)
Another recommendation from Pearls is their order of fried pork dumplings. Coming in at 8 per carton, these dumplings are addictive!
I agree with Patrick C. This place is like any take-out Chinese food place, except double the price. Oh, they try to play it off like it's a "real" Chinese food restaurant, but beware the wolf in disguise!
The food is only mediocre but people still flock to this place, probably due to it's great location. There is also not a Chinese food place within the vicinity (unless you goto 48th bet 5th and 6th, which is a bit of a trek).
For better Chinese food, goto the joint on 48th. For ehhh food that will just tide you over til dinner, you can try Pearl's.
Bleh
ordered a lunch special... Tastes just like any hole in the wall asian restaurant... but the problem is... its not suppose to be...
Pearls is a pure diamond in the rough. Pressed for time before a matinee, we were scrambling like mad to find a decent-priced lunch anywhere in the remote vicinity of Times Square. Most nearby prospects were bleak: Overpriced and/or crowded. But the unassuming Pearls was just the ticket, with lunch specials under $7 each. We were expecting slop, but the food was surprisingly good. The spring roll was crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside. The shredded garlic chicken was VERY garlicky, and the veggies tasted fresh. The server wasn't exactly cheery, but she was fast! She knew we were in a rush and we were in and out of there in less than 25 minutes.
Mission accomplished, and we made our show with time to spare!
I'm not a chinese food connoisseur... Never been to China... Hell, I'm not even Chinese... nope nope nope... But I do know the difference between good Chinese take-out and bad Chinese take-out... This place is H-O-R-R-I-B-L-E.
I am pretty boring when it comes to ordering chinese take-out, because I always get the same thing... Chicken w/ garlic sauce and hot~n~sour soup... It's not that hard to make either of those and it's really hard to mess those two dishes up... Pearls messed up BOTH... the soup wasn't even edible... So sour and the tofu was really old... The chicken w/ garlic sauce was rubbery and again, the veggies were really old... had that really sour smell and foul taste... the sauce wasn't even like normal garlic sauce...
YUCK...
What prompted me to come here was a craving for Chinese beyond control and what followed was a disgust for Chinese which I didn't want till nearly 2.5 weeks later. Clearly a lot of Chinese foodie elitists may judge this place in a bad way given its Times Square location and the fact it serves sushi (clear warning sign) but sometimes a little bit of faith helps in making the plunge into a new non-authentic place.
What a mistake. The dumplings were disgusting and the meat tasted like it was frozen (not surprised). The wonton soup was equally bad, with the broth tasting similar to turpentine (yes, I know what it tastes like and its not good). The final straw was the mapu tofu, which the tofu was all broken up into little pieces leaving enough sauce to pour over pancakes as a maple syrup alternative. In short, the food was gross and the prices (TimesSquare esq) were not enough to justify it.
You might ask and wonder how a table of 8 can be seated immediately at a Chinese restaurant located only a block or two from Times Square during prime lunch hour 12:30pm. The main reason is that this place is a little further north than where the tourists tend to travel and it is quite hard to catch if you are walking by at a brisk place. One of my colleagues wanted to check out this place for lunch so we decided to hit it up looking forward to some good Chinese eats.
Upon walking in, I noticed there were only 5-7 small tables in the front. The decor was very basic to what you would normally expect from a ordinary chinese restaurant. When we had informed the lady that we had a party of 8 and she proceeded to grab the menus, I was wondering how she was going to cram us at all these tables. We were soon directed to an upstairs seating area with an additional 10-15 tables. On the table were the typical standard-fare American Chinese fried noodle-like crackers with duck sauce.
Looking at the lunch menu, prices were on the cheap side, ranging from $5-$7. I decided to play it safe and ordered the Beef with Broccoli with brown rice and substituted the egg/spring roll for Hot & Sour soup for no extra charge. Our appetizers were brought in less than 2 minutes. Looking at the Hot & Soup soup, it was extremely dark, I'm assuming because they overloaded it with dark soy sauce. I took a few sips, and it was a bit salty, slightly to not spicy. The flavors were just off in every way possible and was a bit of a foreshadowment of what was to come. In only mere minutes thereafter, our lunch entrees were brought out. Woah, this place is quick with their food! The beef and brocolli was average-sized in portion, as well as the brown rice wihch was approximately a bowl-size portion. The brown sauce with the beef was a bit darker than expected and the beef was very tender though not very flavorful. The brown rice was slightly undercooked and hard.
Service was a bit quick, and felt as if we were almost rushed so they could bring in the next crowd. But as we were leaving, I did not see any other large groups waiting for tables, so why rush us out?! I figure so they can be ready to seat the next large group if and when they come in.
In all, food was quick to come though disappointing in taste, service was a bit fast-paced, and ambiance was nothing to rave about. The cheap prices of the food speak for itself.
Very good, it's been a year but I just found the menu in my suitcase and realized I meant to write a review. This place has a great location and is reasonably priced.
This place is a sort of a hole in the wall but the food was very good. It was a quick stop for Chinese instead of trekking over to Chinatown. There is a small dining area with like 5 tables and a few business people were dining alone. Service was quick and above all its inexpensive.
I worked in the neighborhood and went here regularly for inexpensive and consistently good Chinese food -- the best in this area. (I like it better than the Chinese immigrants' favorite, Wu Liang Ye, a few blocks away. And the takeout places nearby are not in the same league at all.)
A really tasty lunch is in the $5 or $6 range -- untouchable in midtown. My favorites (broccoli chicken, cashew shrimp, various soups) are done just right, and a Chinese friend tells me the twice-cooked pork is one of the best around.
hmm
its funny, im reading the reviews for this restaurant and clearly i have a completely different view of the place.
i have never been to China so my only reference to this country food is what i have eaten around the world. however i can say that i like Sichuan and Hunan style Chinese food and that means spicy!!
i believe they have the best chili oil/sauce in Manhattan and basically it is what attracts me.
i do agree that the food is slightly salty, but i kinnda like it.
young chow fried rice awesome!
braised beefe with chili sauce, spicy!!
wonton soup salty
gui zhou spicy chicken good
chicken with garlic sauce, i like
and on to super cheap
the place is super super busy during lunch, so if you come by at 4 or 6 and nobody is there i basically cuz the majority of their clientele is the office people in the neighborhood
you do see a lot of Asian people eating here which meant to me it must be good and no there is no sushi here (a previous review stated)
i have been coming to this place at least one a month for the last 5 years and i used o be called something else and went through renovations but the menu and flavor stayed the same.
enjoy
I have been to China and I have NEVER eaten Chinese food in this country that tastes as good as what I ate in Beijing. That is just not going to happen. But when evaluating Pearl's my standards are very low because it's cheap Chinese food. My sister and I ate from their lunch menu and the tab was less than $15. Hallelujah there is a waitress that can take my order and bring the food to my table. It already tastes better than Yips. So fast food that you don't have to take a number or slop it from a salad bar, already earns this place a star. Sure it's cramped and you may be rubbing elbows with the stranger sitting next to you but the lunch menu is unbelievably cheap that you may think you are in Jersey. Also the food is hot and doesn't look like it's been sitting in a stainless steal container for 12 hours. Most of the Chinese places in this part of Midtown are woefully overpriced or looks like the cafeteria line in a soup kitchen. As for the quality of the food, it's okay, nothing less, nothing more.
