The City E-Zine

Feeling guilty for never having patronized the Blue Gecko (though I’ve been told I didn’t miss much), we made a point to check out the newest riverfront restaurant, Pearl on the River.  The quick take: some atmospheric and menu hiccups keep this from being a must-visit quite yet.

There were five of us dining last night.  We gambled that it wasn’t yet popular enough to require reservations on a Thursday.  We were half right.  The hostess directed us to the bar area saying it would be about 15 minutes until they could seat us. Not a big deal, since we weren’t in a rush, and not an undue wait in any case.  The cocktail menu reflects the hottest trend-word of the hour: muddled.  Turns out, it would be a fairly accurate term to apply to the night, beyond just what happens to the strawberry and basil in one drink or the mint and ginger in another.

My ginger mojito was tasty but a bit too sweet.  Despite the bartender telling us he’d transfer the tab to our dining bill, a very enthusiastic waitress was in for the bill-kill immediately after each round of cocktails presented. Okay then! We’ll pay now.  Not the end of the world.  After the promised 15 minutes, we were escorted up the staircase to the main dining room. (Note: I didn’t see an elevator in the space, though one may exist.  There did appear to be dining seating on the first floor, for those with accessibility questions.  I would presume, then, however, that the view seating around the upstairs grill, however, is inaccessible.  But a phone call is warranted if this is a concern for you.)

The restaurant is decked in eggshell walls, high exposed-beam ceilings, modern fixtures, and plenty of dark wood.  There were ample larger-group tables.  We were seated at a long, somewhat narrow booth that was set to accommodate six.  We five adults fit fine, though I would think that anyone above a certain size would be hard-pressed to feel comfortably seated (probably literally).  The table presented the first of a few design choices that I’m thinking came from a designer and not a chef or frequent restaurant patron.  It was impossible for the server to place everyone’s plate in from of him or her – the handing out of plates required group participation. This isn’t bad, but the server wasn’t going to let go of her job easily and some rather awkward reaching and fumbling occurred.  Not the end of the world, but not the best either.

Pearl’s website describes the menu as “live” – as in, it changes daily, so you won’t get the same thing on repeat visits. Some of the offerings seem close to standard based on what was available last night and the “sample” on the website.  Plenty of seafood is available, along with the inescapable Niman Ranch meats (note: not all Niman Ranch meat is still the Niman Ranch you think it is, but it’s still tasty.)  My friends started with the spicy calamari small plate (small plates, also inescapable). I don’t do spicy, but they said it was both spicy and good.

Both the small plate menu and the full menu offered a seared ahi tuna option ($11.99)  – the latter priced $3 higher and listed under the salads. I guessed that $3 was for the bed of lettuce on which the ahi would appear.  I decided to order a small green salad and the ahi small plate – but on the waitress’s suggestion, swapped the small for the salad and paired it with a clam chowder ($3.99).  My husband ordered a shrimp cocktail and a plate of fried stuff.  Two friends had the king salmon and the last ordered the spicy fettuccine and prawns (probably a regular on the menu).

My soup arrived in a bowl that was – like the table – surely designed by someone who doesn’t eat.  The circular, amphitheatric shape was cute, but a recipe for increased dry-cleaning bills.  Perhaps, however, it is an ingeneous design aimed at ensuring a return to proper soup ettiquette: you should scoop soup away from you, not towards you – which you would need to do since the “front” of the bowl is about 3 inches shorter than the back.  Once I mastered getting the soup on my spoon and not on the table, I found it to be just this side of stone cold.  Sure that they weren’t offering clam gazpacho, I sent it back.  It returned warmer, but far from warm or hot.  I ate it at that point anyway.  You could taste the ample butter and some bacony flavors. It was good. But I imagine it would be vastly improved at soup temperature and will less all-out fat included.

And then we waited. And waited. And waited.  We weren’t really bothered – again, nice evening out, new restaurant, they’re still getting their groove, whatever.  Our waitress fell over herself with apologies for the delay, pointing out frequently that she had no control over the kitchen. (Apologies good, crap-talking the kitchen, um, okay, but we know  you aren’t actually cooking the food yourself).

This brings us to bad-design element 3: like Lounge on 20, this place would benefit tremendously by wrapping more things in plusy, sound-absorbing fabric.  I think the Chron’s Michael Bauer would give it a bomb rating, because there aren’t enough bells to cover the noise.  All that wood, glass, and the open space between the first and second floor . . . it ain’t the spot for a cozy dinner or the soft spoken.  This was potentially compounded last night by the quadrant of space occupied by the local Rotary Club having some sort of organized dinner (this probably accounts for both the initial wait to be seated and the snail’s paced arrival of our dinner – however, the Rotarians enjoyed speedy service, so Pearl can do large groups well).  They mingled. Then they made a few speaches.  Then they clapped. And we all tried to shout the remainder of our conversation at each other while passing the time waiting for dinner. Again, not really Pearl’s fault and we weren’t put out by the Rotarians or the wait. We were abit peckish.

Dinner arrived seconds after the waitress said she was going to give us some key lime pie, on the house, for the undue delay (specifically – not just a free dessert, but two key lime pies. We really hoped for two entire pies . . . ).  Everyone enjoyed their dinner – the fettuccine probably earned the most praise.  My ahi salad was – okay. Not fabulous.  The better iteration is found at Scott’s and comes with 4x the amount of ahi (per my memory, anyway).  The pricing seemed a bit steep for 4 slices of seared ahi, what amounted to probably a quarter of an avocado, and some lettuce.

And again, the bowl for my salad and for the fettuccine was designed for maximum food dumpage potential – leaving, also, no place to rest one’s fork or knife without it sliding down and dropping off the edge.  Change this, Pearl!  I think they will in about 3 months – watch.

The bill for 5 people (including 4 entrees, 3 small plates, 1 cup of soup, and 4 beers) came to around $141 (cocktails downstairs were about another 20).  A decent meal, decent value, and decent service.  However, if you’re looking to splash out for dinner on the river, I’d probably give the edge to Scott’s.  Then again, I wouldn’t discount trying Pearl again in a few months, after they’ve had longer to refine their restaurant a bit.  The elements are there (especially if they can take any steps to lower the sound a bit and get rid of that stupid, stupid bowl design) and the location is stunning (it also classes up South Natomas a bit).  I’d give it a B- for achievement but a B+ for effort. And I wish it luck because starting a new, nicer restaurant right now is ambitious and worthy of praise.