Pearl Castle‘s main location is in Continental Centre in Richmond. They also have 3 other locations throughout the Lower Mainland. Pearl Castle is a Taiwanese Cafe and they have won the Chinese Restaurant Awards Diners’ Choice winner for ‘Best Taiwanese Restaurant’ year after year between 2010 and 2013.
I usually come to Pearl Castle late in the evening to grab a quick bite with friends and chat over some drinks. Ever since Deer Garden moved out from this complex, they have really been up-ing their game to expand their menu. I was invited by ChineseBites to try a variety of food and drinks off the menu, so just be warned, this isn’t a normal dining experience.
They offer a wide variety of tea-based beverages, slushes, bubble teas, and juices. They have added a few new drinks onto their menu recently and are launching their cotton candy beverages in mid June.
The group of us managed to sample (left to right):
- Pudding Milk Tea
- Coconut red bean
- Peach lemon green tea
- Green tea red bean
- Traditional black tea with jelly noodle topping
- Winter melon juice with jelly noodle topping
- Green lattea
- Fresh taro green milk tea
- Roasted rice lattea
There’s also a Ferrero Rocher chocolate milkshake too.
I had the Roasted Rice Lattea all to myself. I really enjoyed it because you can just sip away at it and it’s not too sweet. You need to drink it with a cream on top. Without it, the drink is way too bland.
Young Girl’s Dream is a new drink launching mid June 2015. It has grenadine, calpis, pop and cotton candy. It looks really fun and exciting but it is on the sweeter side.
Blue sky has blue tangerine, calpis, pop and cotton candy. Similar to the Young Girl’s Dream, its fun but quite sweet. I’m sure you’ll have blue lips after drinking and eating the cotton candy.
Wonton with chili sauce was decent. The skin of it was slightly thicker and the pork inside could have been more dense as it fell apart easily.
Deep fried fish cake was pretty good. I’ve never had deep fried fish cake like this before. I find that Pearl Castle makes deep fried things super delicious. It comes with a seafood sauce and house special sauce, so make sure you dip the fish cake into it because its delicious.
Deep fried mushroom was another great item. You should also dip this into their seafood sauce or house special sauce.
Deep fried tofu comes with a side of kimchi and sauce. I just really love their deep fried food with the spices they put on top. I didn’t like the kimchi that came with it, it wasn’t very fresh.
Taiwanese Sausages comes in nice thin slices. A good dish for sharing with a few friends.
Pineapple shrimp fried rice is a new item on their menu. Yummy and you can’t go wrong with fried rice.
Kimchi seafood fried udon was more sour in taste that I would have liked. It was decent, but not the best one I’ve had.
Three cup chicken is an award winning dish from the 2015 Chinese Restaurant Awards Diners’ Choice winner. The dish is served with 3 side dishes, rice and some cookies. These set meals will make you quite full. Good flavours, but it was a bit dry.
Marinated chicken with rice is another new item added to their menu. You have the chicken steal with some veggies and tofu. On the side, you have some cookies. It seems like all the set meals comes with cookies. These cookies will seem familiar because I’m pretty sure you’ve had them when you were a kid.
Milk seafood & pork hot pot is pretty darn good. I would definitely come back to have this again. It tastes like a savoury creamy soup rather than milk. It has a decent amount of seafood and pork.
Curry coconut seafood & pork hot pot is a new addition to the menu and it’s similar to the hot pot above, but it has curry and coconut flavours. Another good flavour combination, but I still prefer the milk version.
Garlic sauce chicken is similar to the three cup chicken dish, but with more garlic.
Fish Nuggets with Sour Sauce comes with the 3 side dishes and rice. Red chili peppers are hot, but it balances well with the fish nuggets.
Original Taiwanese beef noodle was surprisingly good. The beef was tender and the noodles were really enjoyable with a good texture.
Spicy incense pot is a new item on the menu and it is heated underneath to keep it warm. When they say spicy, it’s pretty spicy because of the red chili peppers. Watch out.
Marinated pork with rice is another new dish and it’s similar to the marinated chicken dish. The only difference is the protein.
Vegetarian abalone mushroom with three spices comes with rice and veggies. It’s not the most exciting dish, but if you’re a vegetarian, this may be for you.
We went through a lot of dishes for one dinner, so near the end, most of the dishes started tasting similar. We don’t normally have so many dishes come at the same time, so it was a marathon to taste everything unless a lot of the dishes contain the three spice powder. My favourite items are the hot pots.
Foodology Disclaimer: I was invited by ChineseBites to try Pearl Castle’s dishes with a few other bloggers. The service is not representative of their usual service since they knew we were coming.
We Rate Pearl Castle:
Address:
Continental Centre
1128-3779 Sexsmith Road, Richmond
Website:
http://pearlcastle.com/en/
