Peart Castle (Sexsmith, Richmond)

Pearl Castle is another restaurant that we've regularly frequented after Tuesday sports night. It's a Taiwanese bubble tea house, as its namesake suggests, but we come here for the food, which is surprisingly decent and reasonably priced. I find their drinks overpriced, as with most bubble tea joints, and come here exclusively for the food.

As with a lot of Taiwanese restaurants, they offer "set meals" which encompasses an entree with a bowl of rice, some daily appetizers, and a dessert. Pearl Castle offers set meals for under $9. I've been told that their food used to be over $10, but they've lowered their prices in recent years to be much more reasonable prices.

I felt like having fish today, but most meats in Taiwanese cuisine is deep fried,  and I didn't feel like a deep fried dish today. I asked the waitress which fish meal wasn't deep fried, and it turns out there was only one: Sliced Cod with Dried Soy Beans.

I've never seen this item before and wasn't quite sure what to expect. It turned out to be a fillet of cod topped with a puree of soybeans stir-fried with scallions and dark soy sauce. The soybeans were very crunchy and nutty, and complimented the cod well. It was a little on the salty side on its own, but was delicious when mixed with the cod and rice. I enjoyed this dish quite a bit, and the fact that it's healthier than their usual fried meat dishes is a big plus.

The appies today consisted of stir-fried celery, stewed cabbages, and sweet and sour tofu with scallions. The veggies were well-seasoned and very tender. Both were cooked in a nice broth and not overly salty. The tofu was very nice and tangy, and I wish they gave me more than the 5 tiny pieces.

Unfortunately, the dessert have been quite underwhelming here lately. Maybe it's because we come here so late, but we've been getting just a small cup of prepackaged lychee jelly. The first time we came here, we got some house-made sweet grass jelly, but since then it's been this crappy commercially bought crap. I hope it's just because they've ran out for the day, and not defaulting to this to cut costs.

Only Material Boy came out with me today for late night eats. He ordered the Fried Pork Chop with Rice, which turned out to be fried rice. The is your typical Taiwanese fried meat, which some people love but I'm not a big fan of. This pork chop was lightly breaded and not overly oily. There was also a lot of bone, but I guess it's the luck of the draw.

The rice was fried with egg, scallions, grated carrots, and large slices of onion. This was a very large portion, and also very delicious. Material Boy thought it was a bit on the oily side though. He though his meal was too large and couldnt' finish it all. He elected to eat all the rice instead of all of the pork chop, and I think  he made the right decision since the rice was very tasty. This also came with a complimentary dessert, which again, was the store-bought lychee jelly. He also ordered a Mango Slush, which was nice and refreshing, but again, I think is overpriced.

I think the food at Pearl Castle is well-priced for what you get. It's also well-executed, and we're sure to be back from time to time in the future.

Pros:
-good food
-decently priced
-decent portions

Cons:
-overpriced drinks (IMHO)

Notes:
-plenty of free parking in the complex 

Menus: (Argh! blurry pics again...)