Pearl Garden - Auckland

July 2021: Called to book a table and the woman that answered the phone had very poor English that no table was actually booked in the end. Also, I've noticed on each visit, the owner at the counter has been overcharging us a few bucks extra. If they do this to everybody, everyday, that is a good amount of they are stealing from customers... 1 star. November 2022: Took parents here as they never been to this restaurant before. With paper menu, pricing is much more transparent. Food was good; although a prawn dumpling kinda tasted like it had a bit of detergent in it? The food arrives quite quickly. Staff present at the time were nice... 3 stars. January 2023: Much improved. Went here on weekend with 10 others and we paid 30each which was reasonable. I enjoyed all the dumplings, prawn on toast, sticky rice, and desserts. Everything is delicious. Just teapot needs to be filled up more often. 4 stars

Good yum cha place. Quite tasty and they have a good selection of yumcha here. No cart, you write in the paper to order. No photo on the menu, so it may be a bit difficult to order for people who is not used to yum cha. Chili oil and tea felt a bit bland.

The veggie mushroom dumplings had way too much celery, and all the dishes are quite oily, with some having too much ginger also. The bbq pork buns and pies are great, and there's plenty of variety. There is quite a bit of wait time between dishes to come out unlike Western restaurants they don't bring out a table's order at the same time. Prices are slightly high, but that's expected with the high cost of running a restaurant in Auckland. Worth going back to once or twice a year for yum char.

What we ordered: Golden Custard rolls eggs tarts steamed grilled rice roll steamed chicken feet Prawn dumplings Mini Shanghai rolls The golden kiss balls were so fluffy and not too sweet, but the kiss was thick and the best I ever tried. The egg tarts were also amazing with flocky pastries and this soft silky texture. It was just so good! The prawn dumplings (har gow) and steamed prawn rice roll (cheung fun) were not so different, but in both cases the prawn was so bouncy and tasty. The rice rolls come with this sweet soy sauce and they are extremely slippery and extremely worth it. The Mini Shanghai Bungalows (xiao long bao) had not as much soup as I thought they would, but they were so juicy and tasteful, the wrapping is soft and slippery and the meat has only this incredible bite to it and the whole juice just runs out of it (it is wonderful. And last but not least, the chicken feet were good, it was the first time I ever had them, but my God are they a pain to eat.

I love this place. Once we got out of Locksdown, we book this place and we check three times to make sure we didn't make a mistake when booking! If you love steam stuffing on yum char, this place offers great food with good prices. I love her beef ribs, chicken feet, siomaie, pumpkin.. Wait, I really love all her food!!!! It's full of taste!