Name of Restaurant: Pearl’s Oyster Bar
Location of Restaurant: Ameristar Casino, St. Charles, MO
Date of Visit: April 21, 2007
Pearls Oyster Bar is advertised as “the best of New Orleans come to St. Charles.” I’ve never been to New Orleans, myself, but I did enjoy myself at Pearl’s. I’d like to do this review a little differently in that I will simply list the pros and cons of our visit this past April.
Pros
Once we were seated, we were treated quite well and served in a rather timely manner.
The food was wonderful and brought to us in large proportions. We were able to take a good amount home. My husband ordered the Cajun Shrimp & Crab Pasta (shrimp, crap, andouille sausage, Cajun cream sauce, penne pasta) while I had the Fried Seafood Platter (fried cod, shrimp and oysters, french fries, coleslaw, tarter sauce). Sorry, no photos this time – while there was enough light to see, there wasn’t much to get decent photos of food.
I don’t believe they cook all of the food here, but the area where the bar is, also has a cooking station and it was quite entertaining to watch the cooks at work.
Cons
The restaurant is inside the Ameristar Casino complex which may not be an attractive thing for a lot of people. We had some time to kill and thought we’d check out what kind of restaurants were in the casino, otherwise we would normally not have been there ourselves.
The atmosphere is quite noisy and busy because of the casino, people – especially the employees – are prone to yell quite a bit. The restaurant itself is open on at least two sides so quite a lot of noise filters in, as well.
It took a while for anyone to pay us any attention. We stood waiting to be seated for quite a while and honestly nearly left. The restaurant was by no means full (we were a bit early for the dinner crowd) and was actually quite empty and slow. Once someone started to seat us, they tried to seat us in what appeared to be the most undesirable location right at the edge of the restaurant in a little hallway-like area. However, upon asking for another table, we were accommodated.
Overall, I think that between the food, service, and atmosphere, this restaurant deserves four stars.
Final Rating: 4 Star(s)
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