Pearl House Restaurant - Burnaby, BC

I often have many discussions about food at work: what place do you like to go to?  Where's the best place for pho?  Have you tried this place?  And so on and so forth...  I'm fortunate to be working in a place with so many food passionate people.  So one insignificant morning at 5 am (yeah, brutal but it's my own fault), one of my work homies mentioned a place in Burnaby she says is her favourite Taiwanese/BB tea place.  So after a tiring 10 minute really expensive trip to Metrotown, Mr and I decided to go for a cheap meal.

Pearl House is located in South Burnaby in a small cluster of restaurants.  Nothing exceptional on the outside or the inside and we honestly wouldn't have ever come across this place if it hadn't been for my dear homie.  It's starting to snow - we definitely have to get something to warm up!  

Beef Sirloin Noodle Combo - $11.25 (extra $0.50 for thick noodle)

I don't understand why you have to pay more for a different noodle.  ANYHOO, the broth has some good beef flavour and the marinated veggies is a bit sweeter than we've had before but still good.  Even though I had to pay extra for the thicker noodle, we both still really enjoyed it.  It's got great bite and that kind of toothsome quality that only comes with thick noodle.  The beef was tougher than I've had in other noodle so Mr was naturally left to eat it.  This noodle is ok but our favourite remains a place a few blocks down.

Marinated Egg (came with combo)

This is OH SO GOOD.  The eggs are hard-boiled, cold and marinated really well with the flavours running through the egg.  I'm not sure what kind of sauce is drizzled on top but I must have MORE.  I think what makes this dish go over the edge is the simple addition of green onions - it provides a refreshing counterpoint to the salty-soy of the egg.  Yum!

Fried Rice with Taiwanese Sausage - $7.95

I hate ordering fried rice at Asian restaurants - it always seems like kind of a cop out and what an amateur would order but we wanted to try their version of Taiwanese sausage and it looked just so darn tasty in the photo!  How was it?  Pretty good actually.  The version is not as greasy and salty as we've had elsewhere and the flavours are good.  The sausage itself is not bad but a bit too much gristle for me whereas Mr didn't even notice.  It's not the best fried rice but still pretty good.

My coworkers were right, this place isn't bad.  It's not the best place to have Taiwanese food but it's certainly far from the worst.  Mr and I would absolutely recommend their marinated egg and we've also heard wonderful things about their chicken nuggets/popcorn chicken.  We'd come here again if we were in the neighbourhood and it's worth the try if you're here too.  Bon appetite!

Oinks:

• One of the rare Taiwanese places that accepts cards for payment
• Free parking out back
• Food is not bad
• Reasonable prices and portion sizes

Doinks:

• Food is not the best (like I said, it's not bad)
• Small place - not a lot of seats
• Service is hot and cold