Oriental Pearl of Framingham Approved!
I had doubt when Hargau said Oriental Pearl was outstanding.
When they first opened, we tried their weekend dim sum. Our conclusion was "don't even bother".
As it is more easy for restaurants going downhill then getting better, I find it hard to believe someone would say it is outstanding. But since it has been in business for a couple years now and someone from this board recommended it, we gave it a try last weekend and I have to tell you, maybe because we didn't have high expectation, we were amazed by the quality and the variety of the food.
First, for the dim sum which we had no expectation at all after the experience from Yangtze River, we were very satisfactory with them. Certainly, they are not of Chinatown's calibre which you pay $2.5 average for one dish, the Siumai and Chicken feet are not bad at all.
As for the buffet table, they have a wide variety of food. The items include raddish cake, salt and pepper shrimp, five spice beef, congee, soy bean milk. What drove us to keep going back to for more were the pig feet and beef chowfun. They are better than a lot of places in Chinatown. Thier Fuzhou fish ball also adds person characteristic to this restaurant as the owner came from Fuzhou.
The best way to tell you how much I like it is I will pay $7.95 just for the beef chowfun, not to mention other items that you eat it not because you want to get the value back but they actually taste good.
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I have to pull back all the praise of this place. Now I live in Metro west and having a Dim Sum restaurant out here is a boon to the area. But I have bee there for the last two weekends in a row first on Saturday and then on Sunday and I have to say. I was disappointed both times. The dim sum here is not in the caliber as Chinatown as mentioned above. I have the constant feeling of eating left over dim sum when I'm there. Nothing seems especially fresh. The dough around the BBQ Pork buns is flaking off which is indicative of being over steamed for much too long. The egg tarts also feel as though they've been sitting for quite a while.
I only mention this to prepare people for what they may be getting. I will also point out that for the $8 per adult and for $3.5 for my kids this is the best dim sum deal around anywhere. It is also better than Yangtze River.
On a positive note regarding the food, my daughter still loves the egg tarts and the fruit buffet has been very fresh. Also the variety of dishes presented at the buffet before the cart even comes to your table is very impressive. Yes they did have chicken feet and pigs feet both times I was there. For such a cheap price and not having to haul my whole family into Chinatown we will be back I can only hope that the food improves a bit. But I’ll still swing in to Chow Chow city every once in a while.›1 Reply-
re: lavelanet
What time did you go? I have gone several times right at 11 when they open. We usually have to wait 20 minutes for the cart because nothing is cooked yet. Every time I have been the egg tarts were not out till about 1/2 way through our meal and then they have come out fresh HOT from the oven.
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Glad you liked it! If there is one thing i know its dimsum! We are going back this weekend.
I did try the normal dinner buffet out, figuring since the dimsum buffet was so good, it must be really good too. Well it isnt all that great! So stick with the dimsum!
Did you try the Taro dumplings? I loved them there cause the outsides were nice and crisp!
