I live in the Bay Area and eat a lot of Chinese food, so maybe I'm biased but I thought Pearl was really disappointing. My fiancee and I spent over $300 and the food was just not great. We ordered the Chef Yau's Tasting Menu. The spide prawn dumplings were the best thing we had. The minced chicken in lettuce cups was bland. The spare rib was really tough. The chowder was also bland. I expected a better cut of meat with the XO sauce and the stir fried vegetables came out of the kitchen cold. It was pretty basic Chinese, nothing advanced or inventive and it was sloppily executed. I would recommend you spend little more and go to craftsteak or Joel Robuchon.