Chris E.
Yelp
Solid dim sum in the DC area, but, what really impressed me was the fantastic and friendly service.
After doing much research, Hong Kong Pearl Seafood Restaurant kept on coming up on "Best of..." dim sum lists in the area and, as you can see, they have LOTS of Yelp reviews so they MUST be doing something right.
We arrived at about 11:30am on a Saturday afternoon and easily parked in their huge parking lot, which is part of an Asian-oriented strip mall with a ShareTea nearby. As you can imagine, when a dim sum restaurant is popular, there are typically PLLLLLENTY of customers waiting and the surrounding parking area will be full....as was the case here. However, shockingly, the wait was only 15 minutes for our party of 3 and the turnover was quite quick! Of course, it didn't hurt that the interior of the restaurant was very spacious.
We immediately sat down once we went inside and, since we had a toddler with us, we needed a high chair and the hostess was very accommodating with our request. In fact, she asked if a high chair worked better or a booster worked better. Honestly, she couldn't have been any friendlier. More to come later.
There's nothing like the authenticity of having dim sum at a restaurant where the elderly ladies are walking around with carts full of delicious dim sum and Hong Kong Pearl Seafood Restaurant doesn't stray from that authentic experience. The restaurant serves pretty much all of your everyday dim sum goodness - roast pork/shrimp/beef rice rolls, shrimp dumplings, pork dumplings, beef meatballs, chicken feet, sticky rice, roast pork buns, pork ribs with black beans, shrimp and chive dumplings, mini egg tarts, etc., etc., etc. Of course, don't forget about the special order items that you need a waiter/waitress for, such as the variety of pan fried noodles. We just happened to eyeball a few tables that did order them and they looked really, really delicious.
During our time here, we stuck with just straight up dim sum and it was all so goooooooood. Not the best we ever had, but solid still. The only thing missing were the desserts, which we didn't see a whole lot of. Specifically, we didn't see my faves like coconut jello/pudding or the steamed sponge cake that is oh so good when nice and hot. Womp womp, oh wells. The same carts pretty much rolled around the entire time we were there, so chances are they didn't have them or maybe just not that day? It was a definitely a bit of a downer.
And, oh, about that fantastic service? Even though the hostess was super busy seating folks, she took the time to walk by and offer to take our photo when we were struggling to take a selfie. She didn't have to, but she did even when she was running around like a chicken without a head. She was really as nice as can be to us and our kid. As for the other employees, they were also super friendly to our toddler and us. I know, it's hard to believe, because stereotypically, employees at busy establishments like this don't have time to be friendly, but that wasn't the case here.
Overall, decent variety of dim sum and solid too. The restaurant was very spacious so turnover was high and seating was quick. Service was an A+ so brownie points for that. Definitely a convenient spot to drop by for dim sum, even on a busy day.