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| - This post is for my "good" friend Minnie. A while back she mentioned Dragon Pearl. I ignored her. It's technically not my fault. Dragon Pearl has a whole lot going against it. It's Chinese food. It's a buffet. It's gimicky - see here (that pearl has zero appeal to me).
Nothing works in its favour.
But last weekend it caught a break. See, once in a blue moon, I get a chinese buffet craving. Had I not been with Minnie the day of said craving, I would have gotten over it. Since she was with me when I said it, she put Dragon Pearl on the table. I was about to take it off, when she insisted that I would like it. She said it wasn't your usual chinese buffet, and that even if it was, at least we'd get a free lobster tail - and not the scrappy kind but a full large meaty lobster. She persisted and ended her pro-Dragon Pearl speech by saying that it might be the best Chinese buffet in Toronto. Big words for little girl.
Persistence pays off. She was right. Dragon Pearl is not your mother's buffet.
It will by no means make your heart sing from culinary delight, but it might make you dance, albeit offbeat and poorly. A dance nonetheless.
The entire place is full of petrified wood. It makes for very dramatic dining but odd. That aside, the food is not bad - there are some terrible things but doesn't every buffet? Overall it's not as greasy, and there is more substance than filler, including handmade noodles and peking duck. I LOVE PEKING DUCK.
Not the greatest. But for all-you-can-eat, it's good enough.
I won't be going back anytime soon. Like I said, I rarely do buffets, of any kind. But if I had to, I'd do Dragon Pearl again. It's $25 for dinner per person on weekends ($21 Monday to Thursday). Other bloggers have said it's expensive. Really? Mandarin is $18 for dinner per person on weekends. $7 for better food. Sounds reasonable to me.
It is the best Chinese buffet I've had.
Yes. I went there.
Sidebar: Cheap fortune cookie at end. Expected.
Cheapest fortune cookies ever. Not acceptable.
Dragon Pearl - Sell a petrified chair and buy better cookies.
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