Pebble Street

Cross-posted from Calgary is Awesome

Apologies for being completely MIA last week - a girl has to keep her figure (and wallet, more importantly) in check sometimes... that's what the "almost" in the description is for!

Continuing on with our Asian/Chinese food theme from two weeks ago, did you know that Calgary is home to a mini-Asian food empire? The restaurants Calgary Court, Pebble Street, Forbidden City, Misai, (and if I'm not mistaken) T.Pot, and Café HK all belong to the same owner.

Yesterday my mom wanted to go pick up a few groceries from T&T at Pacific Place in Marlborough, so we stopped by Pebble Street for a late lunch. Though the cuisine is HK-style café (which is basically a little bit of everything, really, with a bit of an Asian twist), the dark decor and wooden accents make it a far cry from the cramped, noisy, fluorescent-lighted cha chaan tengs of Hong Kong.

The selection on the menu is extensive and there were dishes inspired by cuisines from all around the world - Cantonese, Szechuan, Beijing, Malaysian, Japanese, Indonesian, Thai, you name it! If you're stuck, the menu does have some tantalizing photos to hopefully make the choice a bit easier. My mom and I hemmed and hawed for quite a long time before deciding to share beef brisket noodles (lo mein) ($7.25), Indonesian fried rice ($11.95), and some stir-fried Chinese broccoli (gai lan - one of my favourite veggies!) ($5.25) Usually I drink water when I'm out, but just for you guys I decided to try out their coconut pearl drink ($4.25).


I'm always a little weary of ordering tapioca pearl drinks at these restaurants because most of them are limited to milky, flavoured powders as opposed to the fresh juices and teas you can find at bubble tea shops around town. The choices at Pebble Street included strawberry, mango, taro and coffee with ice cream, but I thought coconut tended to pair well with a more creamy texture, so I went with that. Unfortunately, while the drink had a distinct coconut flavour, they were a bit heavy handed with the syrup, so it was too sweet and had a strange aftertaste. I took a few sips of it and wasn't able to finish... perhaps I'll have better luck with the "red tea with lemon" next time.

Fortunately, our food made up for the bad drink.


The noodles in the beef brisket lo mein had a springy bite to them, and the brisket was very tender, though there were some fatty pieces. Though they provided us with a big bowl of broth, my mom and I barely dipped into it as the noodles were coated with the juices from the brisket. The Indonesian fried rice came in a cute little wok with a fried egg on top, and when it was pierced, the yolk blended well with the rice which was dotted with little bits of beef, bell peppers, green onions and egg to add some interest in the flavour and texture. I think I've had a version of it with pineapple once somewhere else, and I sorta wished that they had that bit of sweetness in there though.

The portions at Pebble Street (and at their sister restaurant, Calgary Court in Chinatown) are huge and although we forced our way through the noodles and most of the Chinese broccoli (my mom complained that some of the leaves looked a bit "old"), we ended up taking most of the fried rice home, which made for good leftovers for lunch with a bit of leftover vegetables from home.

My experience yesterday barely scratches the surface of all the different types of food at Pebble Street - my brother is partial to the hot & sour soup and baked mussels, and there's something for almost anything you're craving. Top that off with the fact that sometimes ladies walk around the restaurant with trays of dim sum from Forbidden City next door, and I'm sure you can have a different dining experience every time you drop by Pebble Street - who needs to wander off to the other restaurants in the "empire"?

Pebble Street
220-999 36 St NE (Pacific Place)
Calgary AB T2A 7X6
(403) 204-1616