Black Pearl Seafood Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in Edmonton

We came here for a birthday dinner. I booked it last minute and the manager was able to get us in at 4:30 pm. Sounded like they were fully booked so glad to have been able to get a reservation so quickly.

Let me start by saying the staff here are great. The manager was friendly and went around to check up on tables. Our sever Megan was phenomenal! Hands down one of the best severs we've had. She was on top over everything and 5 Stars to her. We were very impressed with the service she provided.

As with all my reviews I will be doing it dish by dish.

We had to get the buck a shuck deal. It had a limit of 12 person. I would prefer my oysters a little more meatier but for the price we could not complain. The oysters were shucked perfectly and were nice and fresh. They were served with dill pickle juice, red wine vinaigrette, and tabasco syringes.

Caesar Salad - this salad was over dressed. It had dried bacon or prosciutto bits in it, which was a nice addition. The dressing was creamy and was delicious just way to much.

Beet Salad - this salad was way over dressed. The beets were delicious. They were cooked so well cooked and had a nice sweetness to them. Lots of feta which I love but just too much dressing, caused the salad to be soggy.

Fish Tacos - we requested for the tacos to be deconstructed as we wanted to make them ourselves. The fish pieces were not salty. Fish was moist inside and had a nice crunch to the breading.

Side of Mac and cheese - this mac and cheese had a lack of cheese flavour. For me it was missing that homemade complex. Like either a 3 cheese or even stringy cheese. It was almost like a package of kraft dinner.

Kings Platter - this platter was disappointing. For the price of it at $265. I was expecting much better. The Atlantic lobster was over cooked. The lobster had a tough rubbery texture. Some parts of the lobster would even stick to the shell. The king crab was delicious. This was probably the best item of the platter. The crab meat had a nice spicy flavour and the meat was sweet and well cooked. The octopus was chewy, which was unfortunate. I love octopus but this was a fail. The mussels were cooked in a nice curry cream sauce. The curry added a nice flavour to the mussels. The squid ink risotto had nice flavour but the texture was mushy. The ahi tuna sashimi was very thinly sliced and was topped with too much sauce that it over powered it. Sashimi should be nice thick slices. It also was out of its element on a fully cooked platter. The seared haddock was way too salty and seemed to be deep fried on a bed lettuce. The lettuce wad soggy and stuck onto the fish so I got soggy lettuce with my fish. The grilled calamari in a coconut sauce was not good. I tasted no coconut at all and the calamari was rubbery and had not taste at all. It was like chewing on a tastless rubber band. The black tiger prawns were huge. We got 3 of them on the platter and they were huge. These were well cooked and we enjoyed it.

Creme Brulee - perfect crack with a little tap of the spoon. The sugar top was perfect thickness. The custard was rich and creamy. Perfect sweetness when combined with the caramelized sugar top.

Nutella Cheese Cake - this cheese cake was really good. It was very rich and but not overly sweet. I found the texture of the cheese cake to be more chunkier, which I liked. Not that smooth cream cheese texture. I much enjoyed this cheese cake.

I will note due to our last minute reservation we only had an 1 hour and 45 minute time slot for our table. Megan really didn't want to rush us but we had to squeeze in our dessert and were not able to finish it. The restaurant size is smaller and does get very busy. When we were there every table was occupied. Over all I rate this restaurant 3 stars. I probably would not get the platters again if I came back here. I was disappointed that for a seafood restaurant that many items were not very good. I can't stress how good the service was, it just...

Food 2 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 3

First of all, this restaurant has been on my list for some time now. I got excited when my husband brought me here because of my love for seafood. However my experience on Nov 24 was nothing short of disappointment.

Service Upon arrival, greetings were a bit delayed. Even though my husband had stated in his reservation that this was for a birthday celebration - I was surprised that none of them greeted us 'happy birthday' nor ask whose birthday it was. Service was not polished, but rough. They offered drinks but didn't bring any water until we asked for some. It was pretty sad to observe how the server greeted another couple entering and literally flung her hand pointing to the corner table for them to seat themselves close to the cold entrance. The couple appeared a little confused and didn't seem too pleased. The hospitality in me cringed. As we finished up, we wanted to look at the dessert menu, so my husband asked the server if they had any birthday specials... and the server responded sarcastically "We can put a candle on it for you". I was stunned. A proper response would have been, " unfortunately we do not, however.. we do have some wonderful selections of dessert here like the moist chocolate cake or creme brulée etc..."

Perhaps it is time to train the servers on how to respond professionally with care rather than abrupt and seemingly improper.

Service can either make or break your guests' experience. For this one, it broke our experience.

Food I ordered the cold seafood tower that came with Atlantic king crab, imported caviar, tuna crudo, ceviche, jumbo black tiger prawns, jonah crab & east coast oysters. (The prawns were poorly deveined and cleaned which I had to wash it in the glass of water that we had to ask for, the imported caviar (which is a lumpfish roe) is technically not caviar. Caviar should never be served with a silver spoon as it interferes with the flavor, causing an undesirable flavour. When I saw the little tin full of caviar and a metal spoon - I knew this wasn't right. In addition to that, I ordered the Ahi Tuna Sashimi - it was delightful, however it was surprisingly warm and wasn't served with the appropriate utensils, such as a pair of chopsticks.

As for my husband, he ordered the only non seafood item on the menu which was the filet mignon and truly enjoyed it.

Atmosphere The Black Pearl gives off an ocean side pub vibe. The restaurant was fairly empty when we arrived for our reservation. Overall, it was "okay". The music selection...

So I decided to take my parents here for Father's Day because both me and my father have roots in the East Coast so we love sea food of any variety.

Me and my father ended up getting the seafood boil where they bring out the large pot of seafood and pour it on your table. don't get me wrong it was an ok amount of food and the tables around us were not able to finish their portions fully but me and my father put away the whole pot of food within 20 minutes and we were still hungry afterwards. I was under the impression we could get another pot of food dumped on our table considering it was $130 per person for this but we were given just a plate full of more seafood. We thought it was weird but understood just in case we don't eat another full pot and they have to throw out left overs, I'm all for saving on food waste. One issue with the plate that was brought out is that the sausage that was given to us was not fully cooked, we ate everything on the plate except the sausage, we told and showed our waitress. We were given yet another plate of food after this to which we finished but sadly again had to skip the sausage as it was still uncooked and almost cold in the centre. After this, we just wanted to wrap up the night though both me and my father still feel like we could have had more. We were purposefully not eating all day expecting a massive feast considering the price.

Now not everything was bad, the seafood, corn, potatoes and the sausage that was cooked was very delicious, and this boil apparently is only offered once or a couple times a year so I understand if some things get messed up. I have not completely written off Black pearl as I believe their normal menu even though I have never had it would be good. Its mainly the fact for the price I was expecting as many pots of food as we can handle, but that did not seem like the case. Overall, the Vibe was good, food was good when cooked properly, but my parents and I have to admit, it's hard to justify the price of the boil considering for similar prices we can have multi course meals at some of the finest restaurants in Edmonton.

To end this review off, I asked if we could get some kind of discount on our food but that was denied, we were offered a dessert on the house that we passed up on as previously mentioned we just wanted to wrap up the dinner and for our drinks to be taken off the bill (I ordered a $15 glass of wine and my...