Dragon Pearl Buffet - North York

The prices during the Christmas season are excessively high and not worth the value. I received one ticket for a quarter of a cocktail, which I couldn’t even get a single bite out of. The food selection was lacking, and I didn’t enjoy my meal at all. I ended up wasting $70.

We went there because we heard it was better than Mandarin, but it was even worse. They charge much higher prices than Mandarin, and it's not worth it at all. The place looked dirty, old, and smelled unpleasant. The quality of the food was very low, and the selection and variety were limited. The most disgusting thing I witnessed was one of the chefs behind the counter touching his nose.

The seafood section is quite disappointing. Some of the crabs were spoiled, mixed in with the fresh ones. The crawfish had a smell reminiscent of an old wok. Overall, the taste of the food was very similar to what you'd find at cheap takeout kiosks. Additionally, we were given just 90 minutes to finish our meal, which felt rushed.

Food was good for the most part but the buffet area is FAR too crowded and the flow was not good with the most popular items are bunched in the same area and there was a free for all at the ice cream which did not seem sanitary so we skipped. I don't know if we would return with the high price tag since I have been to other similar buffets for a lower price and same quality.Favourite dishes- peking duck, spicy clams, fresh tofu,Disappointed that there was no snow crab (the crab they had was hard to eat) and that the crayfish was always emptyService was outstanding btw... one if the best I have had at a buffet restaurant.

I've been coming to Dragon Pearl since it opened and it's definitely impressive how it's grown to be one of the biggest buffets in the GTA. Even at the start, it's commanded a premium price for a great selection of buffet foods. At the current day, it's $49 for dinner on weekends, which is far more than I ever expected to pay for an AYCE meal. I think the price is the main reason that I probably won't be back, unless it's for a special occasion.Some of the notable offerings include roast beef, seafood boil, peking duck, and a half lobster per adult. I was disappointed that there wasn't something more on Saturday nights, as on Friday and Sunday night there are cold crab legs. I don't really understand why Saturday would be excluded from this. Their AYCE Wagyu promotion just ended too, so I felt like we got the short end of the stick from all sides. The other food was good, definitely good quality, but it's hard to justify the price tag without offering some more high value dishes.The environment has definitely changed as well, it felt more like they were herding cattle at the front as they read off numbers and names on a microphone. There were so many families standing around waiting to be seated, and this was only at 5:30! We waited around 30 minutes for our group of 6, which was actually pretty fast considering the 25 groups in front of us. The inside was just as hectic as the outside, as there were so many people walking around and it was difficult to really follow the flow of the room. People were lining up from both directions, making it hard to get where you wanted. They had employees serving high value items like peking duck and salmon sashimi, which makes sense, but slowed down the lines sometimes. I will say that both the Peking duck and salmon sashimi were great quality and I got some on each plate.Overall the food is good but I definitely cannot eat $49 worth of food on any day. I think if they offered more promotions on weekends (for example, birthday person free) I would be more inclined to visit. The food quality is higher than average for an AYCE restaurant and they refresh the dishes quite often.