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Great Eastern Restaurant

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panda1
panda1
First Reviewer
2 out of 5
Avg. Member Rating
2
Reviews
3
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Overhyped and Overpriced

  • December 27, 2008
  • Rated 1 of 5 by Chloe_S from San Francisco, California
As a native Chinese, I'm an avid fan of dim sum and have eaten at quite a few restaurants, but I don't have anything good to say about Great Eastern. The food was only average (the shrimp dumplings fell apart when we picked them up, everything was lukewarm, and there was layer over our porridge after it'd been sitting out too long), the decorations shabby, and the service was HORRIBLE. The waiters were downright curt with us, dumping our food on the table with a scowl before they whisked off somewhere else. No joke - I think I've been treated that way only once or twice in my life.

I think it had to do with the fact that we had dressed casually and weren't foreigners, sadly enough. Many popular Chinese restaurants I've tried have always looked down on the "native" eaters, with the assumption that we're not the worthy customers. Paranoia? No, this behavior's common in China too, and I'm only sorry that the servers had such big egos here.

My suggestion is to try a smaller, less-hyped restaurant. The food here is only mediocre, and it can be had for a lot cheaper at a family restaurant. (Yes, they look cramped and shabby, but the owners love their customers!) My $7.50 quail egg porridge is usually only $4 anywhere else I go - the prices are so inflated because they know they can get away with it. Ugh. I'm sure many people have had great experiences (there's almost a cult-ish following for Great Eastern), but I would never go back to that restaurant. This place is popular for food that I could get anywhere else for better service, less wait time, and probably a cleaner restroom as well... although in SF, that's hard to find.

Great Eastern Restaurant

  • January 26, 2005
  • Rated 3 of 5 by panda1 from ., California
Great Eastern Restaurant

Great Eastern Restaurant, located in Chinatown and with authentic Chinese cuisine, has been around for years.

A lot of the Chinese restaurants will provide those dining in with a house soup without charging, but not this place. We ordered their special house soup for $5.50, which, on that particular day, included chicken feet, so our waiter advised us not to order it, but I ordered it anyway. It was tasty and I have tasted chicken feet before. We ordered Moo Shu Pork with eggs for $9.50, sautéed spinach with garlic sauce for $7.50, and sautéed octopus with snow peas, instead of with mustard greens, for $10. The moo shu pork was good but very messy to eat, leaving our hands sticky, along with anything you touch, so I wouldn't recommend that dish for that reason. The octopus was very good but too salty. The restroom is downstairs. The basic rule is one dish per person and maybe one for the table. We broke that rule and ordered too much food for two people, ending up not eating everything we ordered.

Open daily 11am to 1am

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