Pearl Asian Kitchen
I had such high expectations for this place, but sadly, we were both disappointed. At first glance, the menu looked like it was going to be a cross between PF Chang’s and your typical neighborhood Chinese restaurant. There were many of the usual entrees, along with soups and starters. We were really hoping that because of the distance, we were going to be pleasantly surprised, but sadly this wasn’t the case. Upon entering the restaurant, there was an odd, unpleasant odor (never a good sign) and it tended to put a serious damper on our appetites.
We each ordered a glass of wine, which given the brand and the size of the pour, was a bit on the pricey side. That wasn’t too disturbing since we’ve run into that in pretty much everywhere when dining out. We each started with a bowl of wonton soup and an eggroll. Mr. Z was more critical about these than I was. Aside from the soup being lukewarm, I really liked the homemade wontons, but other than that, it was pretty bland. I know it sounds petty, but they don’t have any type of crunchy noodles for the soup (not even chow mein noodles). They offer shrimp chips as an appetizer (for a price of course) but since neither of us can stand them, that wasn’t an option. I thought the eggroll was ok – not great, but ok. Mr. Z felt that it had nothing inside except shredded cabbage, plus it was a little on the greasy side. As for the entrees; we decided to share the Kung Pao Pearl and the Mongolian Beef. We knew we were taking a chance ordering a beef dish; afraid it would be tough and unchewable, but surprisingly it was very good. The dish itself was, again, a little bland. We were told by our server that we could have had the kitchen add “zip” to any dish, and after the fact, we wish we had. The Kung Pao Pearl was pretty good, with a little more flavor than the beef, but unfortunately not enough to recommend.
The bottom line is that as anxious as we always are to try a new and really good Chinese restaurant; Pearl Asian Kitchen didn’t fit that bill, so we’ll keep looking!
Pearl Asian Kitchen is located at:
20060 Van Aken Blvd.
Shaker Heights, OH
(216) 751-8181