Getting to Bright Pearl was quite easy. It’s located in one of the three Chinatowns in Toronto, within minutes of downtown. We enjoyed the food so much that we ate lunch here all three days we were in Toronto!

On our first visit (on Friday), they had a dim sum happy hour, which meant that every dish was C$1.68, regardless of size. This is a truly great deal, as prices normally range from $3 to $5 per dish. The happy hour is available on weekdays from 9:00-11:30am and again from 1:30-4:00pm. On weekends, the restaurant offers 20% off the menu prices from 9:00-11:00am.

The food was extremely fresh. We ate shrimp dumplings (ha gao), barbeque pork buns (char siu bao), Chinese broccoli (gai lan), shrimp wontons, carrot cake (lo bak go), and more. Quick note on the carrot cake: it’s not what it sounds like. It’s actually made from daikon radishes and tastes wonderful. To accompany the food, we drank jasmine tea, which is supposed to aid in digestion.

My son is a huge fan of ha gao and can eat four sets by himself (16 dumplings)! So, when the dumpling cart comes by, we keep our fingers crossed that enough will be available! Given his appetite and the reasonable prices, this is the best deal in Chinatown for our family.

Bright Pearl Seafood Restaurant home page

The food is quite tasty. In general quite excellent with very good service. A 6-8 course meal will run you between $20-30. And it's worth it. But I might have expected larger portions for that cost. Or maybe not, but I wouldn't say it's the best value for the dollar in the city. But that said it's very good food and the price is reasonable.

Try Dim Sum for $1.88 a dish. Quite enjoyable, and less expensive than the full out dinner. You can check the website at click here.

Also keep in mind that the management is quite good at going out of it's way to accomodate large groups. At least that's been my experience. They do catering too.