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Over-hyped restaurant with bad service, mediocre food, and a long wait time.
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, 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 food. This is one of the best restaurants in Chinatown or anywhere else. The food is always fresh. Helpful friendly waiters. It can be very busy at lunch time but always a lot of tables. Always full of families and tourists.…
great duck! mmm.... This place has really good duck! amazing duck! they also have a lot of other good chinese food but I can't get enough of there duck. For a chinese restaurant, it is very very clean. There is definitely a wait during the weekends!…
Fantastic Cantonese. The last reviewer who said blah blah blah mentioned you wouldn't be happy with great eastern if you are looking for Mandarin or Hunan. Well, guess what? This is neither of those. It's Cantonese, and the flavors in Cantonese are much more subtle than throwing a heap of red peppers on something and calling it flavor. This is a great restaurant and I highly recommend it for Dim Sum and regular dining. If you want Hunan, don't go to a Cantonese restaurant then trash it because it isn't something it never purports to be.…
Should be called Nothing great Eastern. I was completely underwhelmed with my experience of great eastern. There plates were so bland that it left me wanting, we family styled some 8-10 dishes, and none of them were exceptional, few were average and several were downright awful. With acess to so many fresh vegetables along Stockton, I was disappointed to see mostly canned goods making there way onto these plates, Rehydrated oyster and shitake mushrooms, cannned bamboo shoots and baby corn, zero ginger, crappy white sauces, frozen goyza potstickers. I could have put together a better meal at home. With the final bill coming to 165 USD, I was amazed to see people putting up with such poor food. Out of towners may like the feel of a Chinatown experience, but for locals looking for hunan and mandarin its blah, blah, blah.…
