Pearl Castle Cafe

Worst service and worst food. Does not even compare to the Richmond location one bit. Don’t waste your money here. Chatime, bubble world and bubble waffle are way better choices in surrey.

It used to be alright, until I found hair in my deep fried squid. When I brought it up to the manager, she did absolutely nothing to compensate for it except saying that they will be careful next time. Have not been back since

DH & I were here on a Saturday afternoon about 4:30 pm.
The Happy Hour crowd had left.
I ordered the Vegetarian Sweet & Sour Mock Chicken which included a bowl of steamed rice & a dessert (don’t order this for the dessert as it’s just a cube of taro-​flavoured jelly).
There were 6 chicken nugget sized pieces of mock chicken served with baby bok choy, pineapple bits, red & green peppers.
It was filling but the sweet & sour sauce was so acidic, I had to swish some water in my mouth afterwards.
DH ordered the Apple Curry with chicken nuggets.
It was served with the Apple Curry & some potato chunk in a pan over a candle, deep fried chicken nuggets (good portion) in a separate dish & a bowl of steamed rice.
He was disappointed that there wasn’t any visible apple in the curry. HE said the curry was flavourful.
I said «Maybe the apple melted».
This place is a bit expensive for our budget.
I prefer HK style cafes which includes the drink for less money.
One thing I forgot to mention: when the server seated us, she asked in Mandarin if we wanted hot or cold water.
We pretended not to understand her & then she spoke English.
Just because we’re Asian doesn’t mean we speak Mandarin.
Oh, this place is cash only.
There was a sign that said «debit is back» so they might take debit.

From someone who frequents Pearl Castle in Richmond, I was super excited for it to finally open in Surrey. Unfortunately this location terrible. You rarely expect service from an Asian place. But this place is ridiculous. Rude, extremely slow, food is not very good and bubble tea is sub par. Do not dine here if you’re not prepared to wait 30 plus mins for your meal in an empty restaurant.
Also, the debit machine is always down. What’s the point. Go to Chatime for drinks a few blocks down and Neptune Wonton Noodle House for food in the mall.

Strategically placed within T&T in Central Surrey. Got the taiwanese beef noodles. Slightly annoyed that thick noodles need an extra charge of $ 2. The execution is mediocre and presentation is similar to other Pearl Castle Cafes. The friday evening when I was here, the place was about 25% full yet my order took 20min. In summary, acceptable venue for a quick bite but eat elsewhere for quality if you have a choice. Personally by comparison, I rather hit the T&T food court about 20 meters away unless I have a craving for something specific.
An observation is that there is a large waiting staff… I counted 8 girls, most of whom stood around A LOT.

I ate at this place many times. The service was alright and the food quality is average for Taiwanese style food. 2 points off for today when i ordered hot bubble tea. The cup they gave me was weird for take out it was contained in a tim hortons coffe cup style, provided with a spoon and thick straw? I was questioning their decision on their packaging. I waited for 6 minutes for that bubble tea. When i got it, I went to my car opend my door and boom, the sticky bubble tea spilled everywhere in my front seat. Honestly the worst experience I have so far. Even Tim hortons cups aren’t easily spilled. Usually bubble tea places provide you with a pastic cup and plastic seal, not this café cup style. I would not recommand anyone to order take out for hot bubble tea. Expensive, long waiting time, and a big sticky situation to clean up. I made this punny.

Grooosseeee. i ordered lemon chicken and fish balls and got sweet aand aour balls and some random dish and it just sucked. the taro bubble tea tasted like a paste it left a powdery film all over my mouth. Never again. Plus they were extremely rude when we went in

I’ve eaten here a few times already and enjoyed the food. The food portion size is decent for this type of Taiwanese style restaurants and the food tastes authentic.

Disappointed on waiting so long. Wait for 30 minutes. Got nothing. Neighbour tables are all services. It was not so bad before. What happened?

BAD BAD BAD Services! There was one girl who worked at cashier was very rude and did not even try to say Thank you when she gave me the change back.
So I wanted to test her if she will at least try to say Thank you back if I say it first. But all she did was gave me a fake smile with out saying anything.
I loved the service in pearl castle in Richmond eventho they were busy. Today the Surrey restrant wasn’t busy at all and i understand why now. Cause the employees are scaring customers away from there negative attitude.

Bad Bad Bad Service!!!
The girl at the cashier counter was extremely rude with insulting attitude to the customer when made a comment about unateble rice and suggested maybe pass the comment to the kitchen. She said she will not pass the message with such an evil look and tone of voice. I work and live nearby and been here many time but service is always bad and this time is at extreme. Does management or the owner even aware about their bad reputations about the service???

I can’t give this venue a positive review. When this place first opened, they were extremely rude to me and my friend. We got there at 5:30pm, and the place was HALF EMPTY, and my friend and I asked for a booth seat (there were tons of booth seats available). The waitress declined and said she couldn’t give us a booth seat (there were empty ones and there were already people sitting in the other booth seats). When I asked «How come?», the waitress replied, «Oh well, we have to keep our booth seats open for 6 pm dinnertime.» That absolutely made no sense, because I saw people eating at the other booth seats. So then I said, «This makes no sense and you have poor customer service, I’m going to leave.» So she and the other waitresses all bowed and said «Shi-​Shi» (mandarin for «Thank you») while my friend and I left. They were so weird! When I emailed this complaint up to management, they just said they would send a cheque of $ 10 to compensate for the problem. What an odd reply. That doesn’t solve the problem nor address the issue at hand. I called the manager at Pearl Castle Surrey and she apologized and said that since they were newly opening, they had «waitresses with no common sense» and «that they were untrained and not smart». Wow, the manager even insults her own staff! I haven’t been back since then until recently, and the service was still terrible. This time, they did allow us to sit at a booth seat, but they took so long to get our order and one of my friends had to go up to the counter to remind them. I think they actually forgot one of our meals. When the food came, it was mediocre at best. The only redeeming thing I like about this place is the Roast Rice Tea Latte. Anyway, I’ll only go to the Pearl Castle locations in Richmond. I should have known — with poor customer service right from the beginning since grand opening, it hasn’t really improved. I will never go back. I’m not trying to stereotype, but I guess what they say about Surrey is right!

This Pearl Castle is strategically placed within the T&T in Surrey Central Mall haha. I actually quite like the location, it’s super convenient, you can do your shopping at T&T, and then grab a quick bite to eat after!
This Pearl Castle is decorated just like the other locations. The service here is quite efficient and the girls all speak distinct Taiwanese Mandarin. The menu is the same as well, none of the dishes are omitted from the menu like the Burnaby location. I’ve tried several dishes here and the only dish that was off was the black pepper chicken w/​rice. It was nothing like the one I had at the Richmond Centre location. It was as if it was a completely different dish, in a bad way.
Overall, I really like this location, it’s also less busy/​hectic than the other locations, which is a huge plus.

That’s for visibility and directions, with the way it’s hidden inside a parkade literally, with an overhead concrete roof, how would anyone give directions would be a game itself. Oh well, one could say it’s the south side of the parking lot, beside T&T.
Decent food, typical Taiwanese bbt, and the almond with cocount spread on top of thick toast — as you can see from the pic, it’s just alright, nothing to write home about.
But it seems new, trendy as usual with the colourful purple lights, and nice column of booth seating when you first walk in.
Wouldn’t say it’s quite as warm and inviting as it’s a bit squished at the front, but if you’re a student at nearby Surrey SFU Central city, this is more than one can ask for if you’re in the mood for bbt.

The Atmosphere:
What you’ve got here is a typical Asian restaurant/​hang-​out for high school kids (seems to be their largest demographic, and I admit to being part of this crowd back when I was in high school), strategically placed inside one of the most well known Asian supermarkets in the Lower Mainland, T&T. There really is not much to say about it. The air reeks of Asian teen spirit, and it seems like the employees are as well. Now I’m not saying the service is horrendous or anything; they still greet you by the door, sit you at a table, take your order and bring you the food (and I’m assuming they do not spit in it)… But don’t walk in here expecting a five star treatment like you often see nowadays at Western style restaurant. This is an Asian restaurant inside an Asian supermarket through and through, you’re lucky they even smile at you (yes it is probably a fake smile, but a smile is a smile).
The design scheme seems pretty consistent with the other Pearl Castles (along with most Taiwanese Bubble Tea restaurants); I tend to call it a «trying-​to-​be-​modern-​but-​cannot-​afford-​any-​of-​the-​designer-​branded-​furniture-​so-​we-​will-​settle-​with-​cheap-​Asian-​knockoffs-​bought-​wholesale-​from-​some-​sketchy-​uncle-​from-​some-​part-​of-​Asia-​and-​try-​to-​piece-​it-​all-​together» look — They even have over-​sized Santa hats to cover the chairs to show that they are trying to celebrate Christmas as well (note that not all chairs are covered by the Santa hats… [insert your own story of why not all the chairs have it here])!
Now when I said «situated» inside T&T… I was not joking. I sat by one of the window booths with my buddy Semaj, and we had a lovely view of the produce department and various Asians on the hunt for the best deals on Mandarin oranges and Bok Choy (feel free to stop reading if I’m being overly racist here… But I’m from Hong Kong so I’m all right with cracking jokes at my own race). Long story short, you feel very «Asian» when you enter this area.
The Food:
Ordered your typical Bubble Tea restaurant dishes, such as noodles with meat sauce and salty peppery chicken; my buddy ordered a szechuan variant to the chicken. Overall the food was not bad — the meat sauce was not too salty and actually had bits of meat in it, the noodles were springy and was not too soggy. The salty peppery chicken lived up to its name, nicely fried and although was salty, was not nearly as bad as let’s say… a KFC Double Down. My buddy’s szechuan chicken had a nice flavour to it (although I have a sneaking suspicion that it was just salty peppery chicken covered in sriracha sauce), and went very well with rice.
Overall:
I mentioned earlier that the service is quite minimal at these type of restaurants, but it wasn’t too bad here. The servers were all nice enough, and the food didn’t taste like anyone spat in it… Kidding. Our order came out quite fast (which is always nice when one is starving), and I didn’t find any hairs/​foreign objects in my food (again, kidding). All jokes aside though, there really isn’t too much to say about this place. I wanted to write a bigger review in the food section, but it really is just… Quite normal. I would never come here out of my way because of a certain dish that doesn’t taste as good anywhere else, yet I would drop by for lunch or a quick dinner if I was in the neighbourhood and craving Bubble Tea.
Final Thoughts:
I feel like I am just repeating myself, but that is exactly the feeling you get when you eat here. It isn’t amazing food, it isn’t horrible food; I would not drive specifically here if I had a craving for Bubble Tea, but I wouldn’t mind dropping by for a bite if I was in the area. The verdict? Come here if you’re in the area, otherwise there are better places.
— Malffej
From my «food bite» on my blog:

The service was actually really good. The waitress was kind when answering my questions. I kind of wish the consistency with this restaurant chain wasn’t so all over the place though. The quality of food definitely varies from place to place. I had the braised tofu fire pot and while the taste was good, half of the pot was literally filled with oil. To be honest it kind of grossed me out. i haven’t really seen anything like it before. I showed the waitresses and while she said this was normal, she apologized and offered to help me drain the pot of the oil. Extra star for the good staff. The pearl Castle in Richmond has much better quality food though.

I was avoiding this place like the plague because of the poor Unilocal reviews. However, one cold Friday afternoon, the Boy finally convinced me to try this new Pearl Castle out.
I ordered the Kimchi Hot Pot which came with rice. The Boy ordered the Chicken Nuggets with Fried Rice. We had an Earl Grey Milk Tea to sip on during the meal.
That Kimchi Hot Pot is to die for. Not too spicy, tons of kimchi and random seafood bits and pieces. I devoured the whole hot pot, soup and all, and didn’t touch the rice one bit. I also had a nibble or two of The Boy’s nuggets, which were yummy — super moist on the inside with light breading. I count my lucky starts that I have a partner in crime who is willing to share his food with me every time we go on a food adventure.
The next Friday afternoon (yes, I had Pearl Castle the following week), I was going to order the Kimchi Hot Pot again, but seeing that all 5 tables around us ordered the Apple Curry Chicken Nuggets rice set, I ordered the nuggets. The Boy had the honey chicken rice set. The Boy’s set was really nothing to write home about. My curry on the other hand, came in a mini pot which had a mini candle warming the candle all throughout my meal. The combination of the curry and the nuggets was just amazing.
Love the Kimchi Hot Pot and the Apple Curry Nuggets.
Love this Pearl Castle because service is good and kitchen is clean, unlike the one in Richmond Centre, I didn’t get a tummy ache after eating the food.
Will come back again… very very soon :)

Dropped by this place for a quick bite before shopping for groceries at the T&T Supermarket in the same building. It was mid-​afternoon on a weekday so it was understandable that there were only 2 other customers in the whole café at the time. We were seated promptly choosing seats by a window and browsed the menu. Typical Boba Tea affair with a variety of Boba drinks and Taiwanese style snacks and meals.
We waited for about 15 minutes and none of the 4 waitresses came to check on us to take our order. They were not even paying attention and just huddled in their corner by the kitchen. Needless to say, we walked as it was apparent they did not care to serve their own customers. Truly appalling service and would not recommend this place to anyone ever.

I’ve been to pearl castle in Richmond and that’s ok. But this location is seriously sub par. The service was ok. But the food was horrible. Ordered a chicken hotpot that had more broth then ingredients (5 small pieces of chicken). When their picture clearly showed the pot was packed full of ingredients. Also ordered a black cod in pepper sauce. Cod was freezer burned and pepper sauce had completely wrong flavor.
Here’s the kicker, their rice was literally mush (I mean come on — I’m Chinese– how could they screw it up that bad!). Not coming back! Won’t recommend and do yourself a favor and go to bubble 88 down the street for food, that place has good food. Btw I don’t really drink BBT, not a consideration for me.
Also their desert was a jelly cup (one of those from T&T superstore), don’t bother including a desert if your not going to make it. I can go buy jelly cup myself. So disappointed called it quits half way through my meal