My husband and I have been going to Pearl City for about 7 years. It was one of our first dim sum experiences and we continue to return. The restaurant decor is shabby, but the food is good. It has a relatively small front room and a large back room. Especially on Sundays, the restaurant is full of multi-generational family groups. Usually we are the only Anglos in the restaurant. This leads to servers avoiding our table if they are offering things they think we will not want, like stewed chicken feet (which we DO, in fact, like).
Seafood is the star here. While Gold Mountain (see separate journal) has better meat-based selections, Pearl City has better seafood-based dim sum. The shrimp has always been sweet and fresh-tasting. Unfortunately, all the shrimp-based dumplings taste alike; pick one shrimp-filled item, then switch to something else, like a scallop dumpling, to get the most varied meal. The salt and pepper fried squid are outstanding. The other selections have been inconsistent. The service, too, is inconsistent. Some days, the servers have been happy and energetic and on other days the entire staff seemed to have been recovering from a wild party the night before. The best time to come is between noon and 1:00 when the largest variety of dim sum emerges from the kitchen. As is true for most dim sum places, Sundays offer the most variety, but also the biggest crowds.