Pearl Meatshop and Restaurant

What’s cooking? Samyupsal!

With Korean restaurants popping up literally everywhere, it’s hard to pick out one that will surely give you the authentic taste. That’s also not to mention the cost of how much these dishes are (more like how much we think these dishes cost). Most of the time it’s fear that usually stops us from entering any place that showed indications of being linked to Koreans. But that’s exactly what we need to lose if we want to experience the real thing.

Kimchi!

I have been to top places: Harubang and Miga in Lahug, Han Guk Kwan in Mabolo, Arira in Banilad, Da Rae Won (my first love) on the way to the Airport, and Pearl in AS Fortuna. All of them had their own way of presenting and seasoning each Korean dish. While Da Rae Won will always be my first love and Arira coming in close second, there are other joints that’s worth checking out, if price is your biggest concern.

Welcome to Pearl!

PEARL MEATSHOP AND RESTAURANT was just some place I passed by when I traversed AS Fortuna. It was nothing special I said. I even had the impression that it was some random Korean meatshop, which it is; 50% of it. Phoebe of Phoebe’s Cupcakery wrote about it one time and my friends and I were convinced to celebrate our July Birthdays there. It was surprisingly cheap for a Korean Restaurant, although the dishes that they served were quite limited. They focused more on serving choice cuts of pork and beef for Korean Barbecue.

Since my friends haven’t had their own experience in eating Korean, I had them try the Samyupsal (who wouldn’t want that?), the U-gupsal (beef cuts) and the Bulgogi. They only had a few side dishes to my dismay, but nonetheless, my friends were pleased we brought them there. The restaurant had dining areas for regular seating while a larger portion was allotted for those who would opt to sit on the floor. When you enter the place, you’d get to see why they call themselves a meatshop and the back part is the restaurant area. Having good company around, was part of a good meal, I guess.

Samyupsal!!

Rating:

FOOD: 7/10 – if you have been exposed to the really good Korean food, you’d find this place a bit out lacking in the food department. The side dishes were pretty basic with not much variety, the offerings were limited, but they have really great cuts of meat. They’re a meat shop after all. Their Doenjang jjigae was so-so and if I remember right, it was kind of bland too. The Bulgogi was another must-try and it costs just PhP 150!! Don’t be shocked when you open your rice bowl, it’s not puto; they use black rice.

and more Samyupsal!

VALUE FOR MONEY: 10/10 – what else can you ask for? Their servings are under the usual PhP 250 price most Korean restos offer their customers. Compared to them, this one’s the cheapest I have been in so far. There is one catch though. The number of dishes that you order should correspond to the number of people present. For our group of eight, we had to order eight dishes as well.

it was really a happy birthday then 🙂

SERVICE: 7/10 –  the servers were a bit unfriendly; the owner was, but the waitresses weren’t too happy to wait on their customers (just saying!). I didn’t know if they’re usually like that to locals, or just big groups. It took them some time too for a not so busy hour. At one point they were nowhere to be found because they were huddling up at the back.

CLEANLINESS: 9/10 – personally, I had issues with it being a meatshop. Not that the place wasn’t clean because it was! But anything that dealt with raw meat in the front part of the resto told me there’s the hundreds of tapeworms in front of you. That’s my personal opinion of the place, but really the place was spic and span.

busooog!!!

Update!!! So there’s a new branch of Pearl’s at The Strip near Capitol. I think it’s across The Boulevard, noh? 

Another update: PRICELIST, I haven’t looked much through their price list but their Samgyupsal surely increased from 160 early this year to 180!! Just got ate their tonight (9-2-14) and I was surprised by the price increase. The cuts are better though and the Kimchi too! 🙂 Still, not as many side dishes “banchan”. So yeah 🙂