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| - You probably can't get more Chinese in terms of a restaurant name than Dragon Pearl. Unless you maybe throw "Lucky" in there some place. Actually, I think I want to open an Italian restaurant in Markham, near the Pacific Mall, and call it the Lucky Dragon Pearl. I'd serve dishes called shanghai spaghetti, szechuan scalipini, peking pizza, and lo mein lasagna. It would all be purely Italian food. Not a drop of soy sauce, nary a fortune cookie. I'd have table-side accordion players. Once in a while they'd slip into a pentatonic musical scale, until people took notice, and then they'd slip back.
It would be brilliant.
But Dragon Pearl Buffet. It really goes beyond the feed bag approach of many buffets. Variety was a bit less than Mandarin but the quality was a notch above. Service was exceptional. Fascinating was how easy it was to get a table Sunday noon. I got there about 20 min in advance of our 12:30 meeting time because I thought there'd easily be a 30 minute wait. No, sir.
A lot has been said about the food and decor. But I'll just say: Cage rooms? No cage dancers. No Jimmy Super Fly Snooka, either.
The only disappointment was the yorkshire pudding. Actually not the pudding itself but the gravy to go with it was watery and ghastly. Just ghastly. Oh I was so excited to see the combo on the buffet. Sigh.
Sunday lunch ran about $25 with tip. I'm coming back.
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