Luxury... definitely no offense taken. Love sharing and comparing restaurant experiences.

With regards to Pink Pearl, I used to go there fairly regularly (once every month/two months) for dim sum, dinner, or the odd banquet. From a dim sum perspective, our bills typically ended up over $15 a person and it seemed like we were always complaining to each other that the dishes we liked (haw gow, spring rolls, cheng foon, etc) never made it to our table. We almost always had to order directly from the kitchen, which isn't necessarily bad, but it's kind of frustrating when you patiently wait for the cart which then runs out of your dish just before it reaches your table. We've since started frequenting Fortune House in Eaton's Centre. Our bills are now just under $15. Tho we've lost the push cart ambiance (order directly off a menu sheet), the food is hot & tasty (the haw gows are huge) and it has nearly all the dishes we like to order. We still go to the odd hole in the wall also but then it's easily sub $10 per person (tax & tea incl).

From a dinner and banquet perspective, I feel it's a bit overpriced for the quality. Most recently my fiancee's Aunt was holding a baby shower banquet for her granddaughter. When we compared it to a few wedding banquets we attended at the Kirin restaurants around the lower mainland and Sun Sui Wah recently; it really didn't come close. We actually ended up booking Kirin Richmond for our reception this summer.

We still go to Pink Pearl the odd time (Christmas day dim sum the most recent). While it's probably one the best/safest bets in its neighbourhood (up & down Hastings and around Chinatown) we just feel there are a lot of other Chinese restaurants around that will give you better value and/or quality if you don't mind driving a bit.

With regards to the Cannery, we typically go once a year (with the exception of three years back when my company regularly entertained visiting employees from a Korean firm that we had a joint venture with and I got a free lunch paid by the company as their farewell lunch every other week for a few months <yum>). Our bill typically runs just over $100 for the two us including drinks which I think is quite reasonable. We find the wait staff very friendly & accomodating (minor substitutions to our meals were no problem) and really enjoyed the salmon dishes and the unique lobster oil (oil & balsamic vinegar for the bread). Our last visit to the Cannery was spring 2004 (I think we're gearing up to go again shortly) so your experiences might be more up to date than ours if things have changed.

(BTW, I could be wrong but I don't think it was actually a former working cannery but just decorated to look that way.)

Edits - Grammer errors and wording clarity.