Pearl — Restaurant in Novato

Really enjoyed our dinner at Pearl. The food is fantastic and the staff is super friendly.

They way it works is you choose a base for your poke bowl: rice or greens. I had Jasmine rice. Then pick 2 or 3 proteins: I chose ahi tuna and scallops. Then you choose as many "toppings" as you want. There are probably 20 or so options. You can load it with all if you want... there's no additional cost per topping. I loaded my bowl with edamame, crab salad, corn, peppers, and a bunch of other stuff. Lastly, choose a sauce. I had the spicy sauce (I can't remember what it was called) that was delicious.

We also ordered boba teas. They have a lot of them on the menu. You can also order banh mi...I might try one next time.

The only negative is that the ordering system is slow. We decided what we wanted while in line but it still took about 5 minutes to place the order for two of us. If there are several people ahead of you, I can assume it will take a while. I'm not sure how they could fix this since you have to select every ingredient in your meal. A second register would help, but there's not really any room for one.

But wow...the food is really good! I hope...

Not bad. I would say it's a decent lunch spot but wouldn't recommend dinner here. It's popular with the younger crowd so it can get busy, just a FYI.

My family and I came here at the request of my daughter (she loves boba. Actually, my whole family loves boba) and I was open to checking it out.

I played it safe so instead of a Poke bowl, I got a Bahn Mi sando and a bunch of sides. My family got Poke bowls. The sandwich was good, it had nice flavor and textures between the french bread, crispy veggies and spread. The sides were not bad but they were all fried so you can't really mess that up. I also ordered the Peach Iced Tea, which looked amazing in their picture with fruit in the tea but came out with no fruit. It wasn't the biggest deal since the tea was still very good but I would imagine that all their teas are different than the pictures.

We decided to eat there and luckily they have a few tables. I think their business is catered to "To-Go" service as we had to ask for plates.

I'll probably be back for some takeout boba and eats for the...

My friends and I were excited to find a tapioca tea place in Novato. The shop was well-lit, with ample room for people to dine in and/or to wait for their orders.

The staff was friendly, but made a mistake on our teas. We requested no-ice, and got our teas with ice inside. The staff removed the ice for us, but the teas were still very cold, making the drinks less enjoyable on a windy day.

We liked that the menu has unique tea flavors like lavender and rose; and there were a lot of toppings to choose from. Although the tapiocas were undercooked, the teas were nicely flavored. We were disappointed that the yogurt popping boba had no yogurt taste in them. The teas came in the old kind of plastic boba tea cups, meaning not sealed. It was a little hard to put the straws in since the tea was filled almost to the brim. One of us ended up spilling some tea onto the clothes.

The shop also sells Poke and other food items. If we go again next time, we might try the Poke--they look good in...