For anyone in the Rockford, IL area.... I would like to post a review for a fairly new restaurant named Pearl.

I was pleasantly surprised that it was not as "fancy" as I had anticipated. Not that I am beyond getting dressed up now and then, but this was one particular evening I was in a "jeans" mood. The inside is very modern, adorned in all white (for the "pearl" ambiance I suppose). The center is occupied by a horseshoe bar and is equipped with numerous "big screen" tvs for sports viewing. There are tables around the outside walls, some cafe (high) and some regular. It would seem their specialty is wood grilled pizza! This came as another surprise to me. The full menu consists of 4-5 spectacular appetizers, 4 steak (meat) entrees, now that I think about it one of those was pork (which I tried and will get to a little later), 2 chicken, and 4 fish and a couple pasta dishes. Soups and salads were alacarte. A great beer and wine selection and from where I was sitting I saw alot of martinis being created :)

As for me... I had the pork because it was served with grilled polenta and you just don't see this on many menus. It is one of my favorites. This was grilled to perfection! We began our evening with a prosciutto appetizer... yummy! My husband ordered a seafood trio, but on the advise of our great waitress, ended up with the grilled salmon dinner. She indicated the trio was just not enough food (guess she thought he looked hungry) lol. I selected the house cabernet and it was a great choice, while my husband chose Fat Tire beer that they had on tap. We finished our evening with a chocolate dessert (the name escapes me) but the taste is still lingering! Delicious.

The most expensive item on the menu was $24.95 for the fillet mignon. I give it 4 out of 5 stars only because it was "noisy". I felt that since it was a smaller restaurant it should have felt more quiet and cozy. Everything else was very pleasing. Thumbs up!

Thanks for reading!