Thursday, May 22, 2008
Restaurants Pearl Fusion Restro Opening Downtown
Posted by Carrington Fox on Thu, May 22, 2008 at 4:17 PM
Pearl Fusion Restro officially opens for business tonight at 10 p.m., after the conclusion of a private opening event early in the evening.
With a menu of Asian-influenced items, including sushi, teriyaki and grilled meats, and a full bar including hot and cold sakes, Pearl will serve dinner only, Monday through Saturday, 5 p.m. to 2:30 a.m.
Pearl is owned by Chao Liu, who also owns Sake restaurant in Cool Springs.
Located at 204 Commerce St. (Phone: 942-6918), between Sbarro and San Antonio Taco Co., Pearl fills the location that formerly housed Royal Thai and later a Chinese buffet.
Comments (22)
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you cannot offer mashed potatoes as your side item with teriyaki chicken and call it "fusion."
this place just has salads, chinese food (with sides of french fries, baked potatoes, etc), and mediocre sushi. all very much over-priced. no bar menu, all domestic beer except sapporo. bizarre/cheap atmosphere, complete with blue-lit ceilings and strip club leather couches. and an overly-enthusiastic yet inexperienced staff.
will i be back? no.
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you cannot offer mashed potatoes as your side item with teriyaki chicken and call it "fusion."
Sure you can. I believe it's called "Asian-Irish."
can we please get some more decent and affordable restaurants downtown? i have totally worn out my welcome at radius and city house.
Tried this place last night. Have to totally agree that serving sides of fries, caesar salads, and mashed potatoes with General Tsao chicken is ridiculous. Had sushi, it was attractively presented but not wow in taste. Staff was almost over-eager to help but pleasant.
One thing that really kind of bothered me though....we get one establishment downtown trying to emulate fine dining away from the crowds.....and they were piping in loud country and western tunes all night......wouldn't jazz or something be more appropriate! Bartender asked owner/manager who was sitting at bar if it could be switched to dinner music, but he just shrugged and continued reading. Hmmm.
Yeah, I went in this place too, and it is almost impossible to describe how weird it is.
There's a dude (bartender? Manager? dunno...) who looks like a circus ringleader: tall, bald head, black handlebar mustache, big earrings, boxy red blazer, WOW. I have to agree that it does look like a strip club, and a cheap one at that. The blue lights are just awful.
There was also a nasty couple, hardcore MAKING OUT on one of the creepy leather couches. For some reason they would pause occasionally, look at me and smile lasciviously. What?!
And finally, my favorite moment. Had a conversation with one of the managing staff (who stared blankly when I used the term "Front of House" and said, "Oh, I like that...lemme write that down"). In a fit of horrendously misguided enthusiasm for the quality kitchen staff, she uttered these words, and I quote:
"The sushi is AWESOME...we got real Japanese back there! I keep tellin' em we need to have an all Asian staff, or maybe some hot black girls serving...that'd really get some asses in the seats."
This place is fucking awful. between the bald freak and drunk door girl tonya, I couldnt tell id I was at a strip club or a sushi bar, sushi sucked by the way, and with fries? come on. Sucked
I agree, this place is a circus act. Toyna Angel actually was sharing her weed with another customer. She was so drunk it was sad. She stood outside the door tying to usher people in, but I think they just thought she was a drunken fool. Sushi was not good at all, and the circus man in the red jacket was very annoying. I say stay away from this place, it will likely go belly up soon.
Visited this place last week, and it was a complete disaster. This Tonya Angel chick was drunk the entire time, constantly having guys buy her drinks, and talking about sex. I kid you not, she actually got so trashed, she passed out on one of the couches there. No customers ever came in which was a very bad sign, place was always empty and food was horrible. Nice atmosphere, poor management. Great bartender Amanda Love, but that was the only staff highlight.
I had a HORRIBLE experience at Pearl Sushi on Commerce. Yes, the atmosphere, relaxed r&b music and design of the place, were excellent as well as unique. But on the other hand, the service and food preparation were lacking extremely! I had to find a server to place my order at the sushi bar after a 10 min wait. The surrounding area at the bar was wet and dirty. Then, after finishing most of my meal, I decided to order another sushi roll. After 30 minutes passed (keep in mind it was slow and 1am, which they were still serving sushi), I found my server and it turned out that he had completely forgotten to order my roll. While I watched the sushi chef prepare another customers order (who also had to ask if her order had been remembered, which it hadn't, after 30 minutes passed), I immediately became disgusted and cancelled my forgotten order all together. The chef was going back and forth from preparing the customers roll with gloves worn, to his nearby laptop, and again back to preparing the same roll. When I then asked for my check, the server presented it with charges that I had never even ordered in the first place. After speaking up about the obvious overcharging, he then removed it. I attempted to speak with the manager, who checked upon me throughout my visit, but he was too inebriated to hold a legit conversation with me. If you want to go to a new atmosphere for drinks, this may be a relaxing place to visit. But if you want to enjoy a nice meal, avoid this place like the plague!
I had a very nice time at Pearl! From the moment we sat down, someone came to our table to take care of all of our needs. The owner even came over and made sure that we were enjoying ourselves! The food was good. I really enjoyed the roll I had (I think it was called 'Rock and Roll) and the drinks were really good too! I thought the colored lights added a very relaxed effect to the atmosphere and the couches did not look like cheap strip club furniture.
I had dinner one night in July with family and the food and service were both awesome! The staff was very friendly and the overall presentation was great. To start, the everything in the salad was nicely cut so you did not have big chunks of lettuce. Kudos to the salad person!! My steak was seasoned well and cooked just right -- you could cut it with a fork.
Keep up the good work!!
I went to Pearl this past weekend and the food was awesome!! The service was also remarkable. I will definitely be back for the fried sushi roll I had!!! Excellent
!!!!!
Perhaps the management has changed, but I was at Pearl about a month ago, and the food was excellent. I had the dragon roll, which was both delicious and filling...I could barely finish it all. I enjoyed the atmosphere! They had appealing elements all rolled up in one: awesome sushi, club scene, nice atmosphere, pleasant people, convenient location... I've been trying to find time to go back, but the last time I went, the sushi guy was gone. :-(
I went to a private party at Pearl last night. If you want, good food, good service, or knowledgeble wait staff - don't go here. This is the worst restaurant I have been to in years. In fact it was a hot ghetto mess!!
I agree. The only 'fusion' I noticed was the ghetto vibe stripper scene. I mean, I know colored lights are an asian thing and a club thing too, but it's not a restaurant thing. the chinese disco black chick modus with stripper couches and drunk management is just not good for a dining experience. Ray's Boom Boom Room has very limited appeal.
Oh my gosh. Molly F is so right. The place is creepy/bizarre/odd. We were baited into going while in line at Demos'. We never really had a chance. It turned out to be an awesome experience just becasue of how weird it was. It is possible that this is a gay reataurant. ???? ...You cant have waitresses that look likt that and then get all uptight when i ask for a simple lap dance.
Okay we went back. Back into the eye of the storm. Round 2. For keeps. We try to order sesame chicken but the waitress said that it isn't good. Warning flag number one. A new feature to us was the bathroom attendant. This guy was nice, but it made for a socially awkward experience, seeing as we had no common ground. Warning flag number two. The final bizarre momont of the night was when we realized bouncers kept showing up. Final count of the night ended up being five. Warning flag number three. We had to get out. Get our food, and get out. The price was reasonable, but the experience was priceless.
