Julia Pearl Southern Cuisine

For the last few months, Julia Pearl Southern Cuisine has been on my "must try" list.  Being fond of all things Southern, and especially Southern food, I had high hopes for this restaurant.  I had also read favorable reviews, which sang the praise of this place.

Cornbread

We had reservations and were immediately seated and given complimentary cornbread.  The cornbread was pretty basic and nothing special, but I was hungry and we dug in.  I inquired about what soup of the day was and was told that they didn't have a soup on this particular day, but didn't give a reason as to why this was the case.  With no soup to choose from, we settled on the Black-Eyed Pea Hummus.  The hummus was okay, but the dish has a very high hummus to bread ratio and we quickly ran out of bread.

Black-eyed Pea Hummus

For my entree, I ordered the Oven Roasted Lemon Pepper Redfish. The fish was quite good and was served with a terrific sweet corn succotash and hush puppies.  Although the hush puppies were rather bland, the rest of the dish was very good and I would not hesitate to order it again.

Oven Roasted Lemon Pepper Redfish

My wife ordered the highly acclaimed Fried Chicken and attempted to order a side of Collard Greens.  Our waiter said he wasn't sure if they had any collard greens left and recommended she order a second side in case they were out of collards.  She ordered the Bacon Cheddar Cheese Grits as a back-up.  When her meal arrived, it arrived with the grits, which leads me to assume that they were out of collards.  The chicken had a tasty batter, but it was cold and dry.  The grits were fantastic, but couldn't compensate for the disappointing chicken.

Fried Chicken

Bacon Cheddar Cheese Grits

For dessert, we shared the Julia's Chocolate Cake.  The cake itself was dry and not great by any means, but it was served with a coffee ice cream that was commendable.  If I had a mulligan, I would have ordered the Lemon Cake or the Peach Cobbler.

Julia's Chocolate Cake

I arrived at this restaurant with expectations that it would be of the quality of Sissy's Southern Kitchen in Dallas, but it was anything but.  The food was disappointing overall and I was put off by the fact that neither the soup of the day or the collard greens were available on this night, despite the fact it wasn't even 7 p.m.  The noise level was moderate and the wait staff check on us regularly, but I am not sure if I would be willing to give this place a second chance.

http://juliapearlsoutherncuisine.com
Livin the Good Life Rating = 2