chinese/dim sum: PEARL LIANG at Grand Hyatt Taipei

PEARL LIANG
at Grand Hyatt, 2nd FL
No.2, Sung Shou Road
(02) 2720-1234

Lunch 11:30am - 2:30pm
Dinner 5:30pm - 10:00pm

$$-$$$

kid friendliness: high chairs available, but seemingly quieter ambiance for business lunch set.

official website: at taipei.grand.hyatt.com
visits reviewed: 10/10/2006 and 10/23/2006



It's interesting that within the span of two weeks, two different friends choose Pearl Liang as the meeting place for lunch. Perhaps for its elegant, quiet ambiance or maybe for its varied selection of dim sum. The first visit (from which all the pictures are from), we ordered the Dim Sum set menu, which includes a soup, congee, fruit and all you can eat dim sum (which is usually available only weekends and holidays). The second visit we ordered the business set lunch available weekdays.

My lasting impressions from both lunches is that they have great dishes and they have some not-so-great dishes. It's a crapshoot. With the dim sum set menu, I really enjoyed the soup, most of the dim sum, but didn't care for the porridge.




With the business set menu, I didn't like the soup at all, found the scallops main dish to be very small, but thought the rice noodles were decent. In both cases, I didn't like the fruit which tasted as if they had been soaked in syrup or sugar water or something like that.



The all you can eat dim sum set menu is a good deal if you have a big appetite, or want to try a large selection.



Otherwise, it would probably be more affordable to just pick out your favorites if you have more people in your group.

I found the radish cakes not crispy or moist and the cha sau bao to be dry (even the bbq meat part).



The fried items were a bit greasy, but the steamed items were good.




I guess at NT$150 a basket for 3 or US$5, I expect it to be nearly the best dim sum I've ever eaten. But it wasn't, by a long shot and quite disappointing.



I've also been back to Pearl Liang since then for a family set menu dinner which was surprisingly good for my lunch experiences there. I suppose they chose good dishes from the menu or maybe their dinner is better than their dim sum. They have a lot of private rooms of different sizes so it's good for huge extended family sit down dinners.