Lincoln Square and Pearl

I don't know what happened to me today, but I just really wanted to go to a happy hour and relax after running errands. (What was I thinking! I know! It's a Friday!) Bradley and Mikel's Pearl Bar and Dining opened recently in Bellevue. So I thought I'd give it a try. Pearl is located Lincoln Square replacing Trader Vic's. I remember thinking Trader Vic's had a bad store front since you couldn't see them from any streets, and you have to walk along or in front of some cars to get to the restaurant. To improve this parking situation, Pearl is offering free valet parking. I decided to self park at Lincoln Square for the first time. (Why not free valet, you ask. Well, I'm just not comfortable with valet. It feels more pretentious to me for some reason. I'm sure it's just me. Plus, if I were trying to be frugal, free valet isn't really free since you (or at least me) feel obligated to tip, whereas self parking IS free after validation.) Self parking at Lincoln Square is NOT fun. I don't know who designs these parking structures. (The parking spots are not tight for once, thank goodness!) If you are going there to shop or dine, not only you are limited to which floors you can park, there are rules about which spaces you can occupy as well. For someone who's going there for the first time, this is quite confusing and annoying. And don't get me started on stopping on an uphill when getting out of the garage.

Anyways, I arrived at Pearl shortly after five when the happy hour was in full swing. (Their happy hour goes from 3 to 6 everyday.) The bar area was so crowded at I couldn't even find a place to stand by the bar. I felt rather silly at this point about going to a happy hour solo on a busy Friday, and contemplated about going over to Palomino or STIR. But at least this once, I persevered - I stopped a waiter to ask for a menu, and a nice elderly couple by the bar let me have some space next to them. Everything on the bar menu is half price. So I got a Shiso Wild Drop that contains Finlandia wildberry vodka, triple sec, house made lemon sour and muddled shiso leaf in a huckleberry tea sugar rimmed martini glass, and an order of ahi tuna. The Shiso Drop was very good, sweet but not syrupy, just the way I like it. The seared ahi tuna on the other hand, was unconventional. It was wrapped in nori (seaweed), dipped in a spice rub (according to the menu, though it looked and tasted like Tempura batter to me) and fried. It was accompanied with some soy vinaigrette. The soy vinaigrette was nice, the ahi, though stayed raw during the quick frying process, tasted floury to me for whatever reason that I couldn't figure out. (No, it wasn't the batter either as I tried a bite of tuna without any nori or batter/rub.) While the taste was a little disappointing, at least the price was good. (The total came to $10 + tax + tip.) I left in a hurry to go home to make dinner for the kids without much relaxing or people watching. =) But I'm pretty sure I'd be back again. Maybe next time, I'd try the pork slider or crab cakes.

Pearl Bar and Dining
700 Bellevue Way NE, Suite 50, Bellevue, WA 98004
(425)455-0181