Pearl Castle

Restaurant: Pearl Castle

Cuisine: Taiwanese/Chinese/Bubble Tea
Last visited: Sept. 19, 09
Area: Richmond, BC
6551 No. 3 Road
Price Range: $10-20

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 3.5
Service: 1
Ambiance: 3

Overall: 3
Additional comments:

• Taiwanese dishes
• Specializes in bubble tea
• Wide variety of drinks
• Offers hot food/mini hot pot/snacks
  
• Service is never great at either location
  
• Busy/line-ups during peak hours
  
• More spacious than Continental Plaza location
• Affordable food/lunch specials
• Pricier drinks
• Quick sit down lunches
• Open late
• Set meals available for lunch or dinner

** Recommendation: Bubble tea, chicken nuggets, Pepper-salt Chicken knees

This is perhaps the most popular bubble tea place in Richmond. Everyone loves it. It's open late and attracts a younger crowd at night. It's brightly lit so older people go as well and there's always a line-up at peak hours.

The newest location (I think the 4th one now) is located inside Richmond Centre across from Carlton Cards and McDonald's. It's quite spacious compared to the original (on Sexsmith), but still busy.

I've been to the original one numerous time. However I must say I'm a bit nervous about it now ever since a friend of mine got sick from a milk-based bubble tea she had there. Apparently they didn't store their milk properly. Please comment on this post if you have had a similar experience. I have never gotten sick, so I hope it was a rare case that they learned from.

On the table:

• Japanese Green Tea Frappe with Milk and Pearls 4/6
• It's pretty expensive at $4.75 and that's not including pearls.
  
• It was a tad sweet but the pearls are great. Nice and chewy and they give you a lot.
  
• The slushes are called "frappes" here.
  
• They use a lot of Matcha powder in this as you can tell by the colour. It's very pungent in green tea flavour and you get that slight bitterness. A lot of places use green tea ice green or substitutes for real Matcha powder - but you get the real deal here.
• **Chicken Nuggets 4/6
  
• I didn't order it on this occasion, but their deep fried items are actually really good here. These chicken nuggets are surprisingly good! They're made in house with white meat and they have a really crispy and flavourful breading.
  
• **Pepper-salt chicken knees 4/6
• Again, I didn't order on this occasion.
• If you like salt and pepper chicken wings you'll like these. It tastes and looks like popcorn chicken. The breading is just really good and they're really fresh. They serve it with a plum sauce.
• House Special Beef Noodle Soup 3.5/6
• This was quite tasty. The beef broth was pretty thick and flavourful, but I can't help but to think they used some pre-made beef broth for assistance. The colour was just so deep it didn't look natural. It was a bit oily and they used chili oil in it so it was nice and spicy.
• The noodles were nice and chewy and had a firmer texture. (Not made in house and I don't expect them to be...for a place that specializes in bubble tea)
• They give you about 6 chunks of beef brisket which were relatively lean for beef brisket. They were really tender and really did fall apart.
  
• For what it is and this kind of place it's actually pretty expensive at $7.95.
• Taiwanese Egg Roll 2/6
  
• This is a fried egg rolled in a deep fried Asian style pancake or crepe.
  
• I had to wait like 15min for this, which is good because it means they're making it fresh...but 15min. was not worth the wait for what it was.
• The pancake was a thin deep fried crepe but it wasn't very good because it was soggy and kind of stale. It's not fluffy or crispy, just dough like. They either buy it frozen and deep fry it or the oil was not hot enough and they allowed it to soak in the oil rather than fry.
• I like the crispy fried egg on the inside though - the only thing that gave it texture. The break the yolk during the frying process so it's fully cooked. It's the same thickness as the pancake so you get really even layers in the roll. When eaten together it's good, but overall it still needed more texture. The pancake part just wasn't done well.
• It's served with a garlic Teriyaki-like sauce.
  
• The red sauce on top is a spicy red sauce that's really salty and pungent. It's definitely some kind of fermented sauce, but I'm not sure what.
  
• It was worth a try and it's an interesting appy, but it's also kind of plain.
• 
• The dessert they serve with all their set meals - a frozen Costco cream puff.