PRICE:
Frommer's Highly Recommended

Wherever the Chiu Chow region in southern China is, one thing's for sure: They're eating well there! Oriental Pearl specializes in regional Chiu Chow cuisine, a variation of Cantonese that's unlike anything you've ever seen or tasted, such as the house special chicken meatball -- a delicate mix of shrimp, chicken, water chestnuts, and ham wrapped in a thin veneer of egg whites. Other recommended choices are the pei pa tofu with shrimp, seafood chow mein, and spicy braised prawns, all served by spiffy waiters wearing white shirts and black bow ties. The roomy, spotless restaurant is so obscurely located on the second floor of a business complex that it must rely almost exclusively on repeat and word-of-mouth clientele; but the word must be spreading, because it's usually packed. Unlike most other restaurants in Chinatown, dim sum is ordered via a menu, which isn't as fun but guarantees freshness (the steaming baskets of shrimp and scallop dumplings are excellent). Prices are slightly higher than average, but most definitely worth the extra money.

Copyright: Excerpted from Frommer's San Francisco 2009, (c) 2008, Wiley Publishing, Inc.

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