WineDine & Entertainment Section

By Paisley Wood

Red Pearl Kitchen is definitely one of the brightest newcomers to hit the downtown dining scene in the past year. With its casual, yet chic atmosphere and wonderful service, it has become one of my Rolodex regulars when it comes to recommending a great place for dinner.

The Red Pearl concept is the brainchild of husband and wife restrauteurs Tim and Liza Goodell. The duo opened their first Red Pearl in Huntington Beach and have plans for another later this year in Hollywood.

The deep red dining room is long and skinny with PebbleTec floors (a treatment usually reserved for swimming pools) and dark wood accents. The dimly lit room and trendy music creates a sophisticated, big-city vibe and serves as the perfect set up for chef Jason Marcus’ Chinese/East Asian cuisine.

The expansive menu offers a wide variety of well-priced dishes designed for sharing. Be sure to start out with the flash-roasted edamame; this traditional Asian starter is taken to new heights here. The chef sears them in a smoking-hot wok with some sesame oil and salt and they arrive tableside still sizzling.

Under the Dim Sum heading there are several dishes that I’ve fallen in love with. Do try the refreshing Vietnamese Shrimp Summer Rolls. Rice paper is rolled around chilled shrimp, mint, and shredded lettuce and carrot, and served with a spicy peanut dipping sauce. The dish is decorated with a squeeze of chile oil, which not only adds beauty but

heat if you’ve got the hankering.

I also always order the Salt & Pepper Calamari, which is lightly breaded, fried, and served with a fantastic “hoisin-aioli:’ which combines two of my very favorite things:

pungent hoisin and mayonnaise.

When selecting from the Grill section of the menu, there are difficult decisions to make. One must decide among such dishes as the tender Strawberry-Cinnamon Ribs, the sweet Miso-Glazed King Salmon, and spicy Yellow Curry Chicken Satay. I have a hard time making important decisions like that, so I make sure to dine at Red Pearl with several people so I can order and taste a lot of dishes.

The Ginger-Scallion Scallops & Snow Peas entrée is one of the best dishes on the menu. Almost a pound of tender- sweet dayboat scallops along and fresh snow peas are quickly wok-fried and served with a pungent, yet clean-tasting sauce. The dish is completed with a topping of micro-greens, which add an element of freshness as well as color.

On a cold winter night (okay, maybe a cool winter night), I look forward to going to Red Pearl for the udon with pork belly, fried egg, and smoky miso. An oversized bowl of steaming hot, thick, sweet noodles and broth is topped with pork belly and egg, which add a perfect salty finish to the dish.