East Pearl, web site, 838 B Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD, 301-838-8663 (Metro Trip Planner – opens in new window) [Google | WaPo | Washingtonian | Don Rockwell | Yelp]
Ugly pearl statue in Doha, by Erik (HASH) Hersman
This is now a clear first choice for the best Cantonese place around. Maybe that’s not saying much but it is genuinely tasty food. The tofu dishes are especially good and the Congee is also worth trying. Many people do not like the service, which is diffident at best. Still, this place delivers on some key dimensions. It tends to attract a mix of Chinese grandparents and and people who do not know how to order as they apparently do not read TCEDG, so be it.
I agree with you on the tofu dishes. We had a stuffed tofu and eggplant dish that was yummy. The shrimp stuffing reminded me of crystal shrimp dumpling dim sum. However, the meat dishes my friends and I tried were mediocre. The beef brisket dish was a huge disappointment in every way, which is surprising because it’s not easy to mess that up. (Perhaps it was because they were busy?) They also charged us $5.00 for rice, which was extremely weird. On a last point, all the dishes were really overpriced despite the simplicity and lack of quality of many of the dishes. I likely won’t be coming back. Next up: Sichuan Jin River!