A few weeks ago, Mr. K and I celebrated our second wedding anniversary. Boy has time just flown by! Following with tradition, we revisited the spot where we had a our ceremony (La Jolla Cove) and also went to have a meal where we had our wedding reception banquet (Pearl Chinese Cuisine).
One issue with having a wedding date during such a popular time to get married is that it’s hard to revisit your wedding spots. Pearl’s was completely booked for the weekend we intended to celebrate, so we ended up having to make due with lunch instead of dinner. The clubhouse at the Cove was also booked for a private event, so we just walked around.
Last year, we attempted to order most of our wedding banquet dishes. This time, we didn’t go as crazy. For some reason, it just seemed too extravagant for lunch. But we still ordered a lot of food.
Crabmeat Soup
This tasted a lot like the version we had at our wedding. Last year, we tried another variation with vegetables that we didn’t really care for. We liked this one much better. I know you can’t really see it because of the thick soup, but there was actually plenty of crab meat chunks inside.
Tea Smoked Chilean Sea Bass
This was the most popular dish from our wedding banquet. We attempted to order it for our one year but were told it needs to be special ordered ahead of time. So this time, I made sure to call ahead. Unfortunately, as soon as it arrived it didn’t look right. This was way overcooked and the smoked flavor was too light. It just tasted like a regular sea bass and not worth the special order or the price ($32). There had been an option to order the full banquet size one, and I’m wondering if it would have tasted better had we done that instead. It’s too bad as we had really been looking forward to this one.
Scallop and Egg White Fried Rice
We had a seafood fried rice at our wedding and we attempted to order the same one last year but the regular menu one didn’t taste or look as pretty. So this year we tried another variation and I actually liked this one much better. The rice was actually a lot fuller when it arrived, but then the staff dished it out into small bowls for us before I could snap a picture.
Cubed Filet Mignon with Garlic Sauce
For the wedding banquet, it had been cubed filet mignon inside a bird’s nest. The regular menu offers several versions of cubed filet mignon and this year we tried the garlic sauce. We love how tender the cubes of beef were but the garlic sauce was too sweet for our liking. We preferred the French-style version we ordered last year.
Since this was lunch, we also ordered a few dim sum items, another reason why we didn’t order the entire banquet menu. I’ll share those items at a later time.
Overall, we loved coming back and revisiting. Afterwards, we went outside to take some pictures.
I was especially excited to see so many turtles. It seemed like every rock had a turtle resting on it, and some rocks had 2 or 3 of them.
Our wedding banquet post can be found here.
First year anniversary dinner post.
Happy anniversary! We’ve been to pearl a few times after our wedding to use up a table refund credit. Mostly it’s dim sum but we did go back for the sea bass at least once! I’ve definitely never seen it so yellow looking (kinda looks disgusting). Was your wedding in June? Summer is such a busy time for weddings!
July! Yeah it was way too yellow. sad. hopefully better next time.
Happy Anniversary!
thank you!
Happy anniversary!! Love that wedding photo 😀 Glad that you two had a great meal at Pearl – I still haven’t been there yet 😛
i’m surprised you’ve never been! when we are looking for sit-down dim sum in sd, we usually go there because it’s less hectic than jasmine or emerald.
Happy Anniversary Kirbie! Time sure does fly!
thanks Kirk! it sure does! i dont think we can call ourselves newlyweds anymore..
Happy anniversary! Wow, 2 years already.
We actually went to Pearl last year for our anniversary dinner and uh, let’s just say that while I love their food, I’ll never go back for dinner again, ever. Service was absolutely horrendous, almost to the point where we walked out. It wasn’t just us either. So I’m only going for lunches from now on :-p.
You two have some of the most beautiful wedding pictures, btw.
yikes! i havent had the horrendous service yet but i really dont visit here much other than special events. Thank you!
Happy Anniversary!!!!!
I like that you revisited your wedding/reception sites. That is a great idea! My husband loves Chilean seabass, so I will have to take him to Pearl next time to try their version.
The last photo is amazing! Love the shots of the buildings and you guys (you even wore your wedding dress on your 1st anniv.!)! 🙂
make sure you order it ahead of time if you do go to get the seabass! hopefully it will taste good when you go. I had it twice before, both times banquet style though and it was really good. the smoking process made the fish taste like crabmeat. But this one wasn’t so great, not sure what happened
Happy anniversary to you both! Fun that you revisited the same places again 🙂 I love the photo of you and Mr. K at the end.
thanks! i love that picture too. hehe.
Happy belated anniversary! I’ll have to try one of their filet mignon dishes sometimes. We only ever go when we want dim sum (and are too lazy to drive to Convoy) or Peking Duck.
i dont go back much either. it’s either dim sum, or some wedding event, or anniversary. hehe. The nice thing is that they offer the full dinner menu during lunch so you can always supplement your dim sum with some prepared to order dishes.
Happy anniversary Kirbie – that last photo is honestly breathtaking. Where was that one taken?
That’s sad the Chilean Seabass wasn’t a success. Hopefully it was just an off day.
Outside of Disney concert hall in LA! We took some photos there for our first year anniversary. Not nearly as nice as the Taiwan ones but this was definitely one of my favorites.
The rice looks really good! Don’t think I’ve ever been to Pearl but must give it a try someday.
And love all the turtles, I remember when the pond at Balboa park had a ton of turtles. Sadly ever since they had to drain it then refill it I don’t see very many turtles anymore.
it’s a little out of the way compared to the rest of the chinese stuff on Convoy but I actually like going there. the dim sum is good and the view is so pretty. Last year I discovered a pond nearby my house which had ducklings and we visited nearly every day. Then this year, they drained the water, so no ducks. So sad.
Happy anniversary! I like the idea of re-visiting your wedding locations on your anniversary. Mine is this month, too; it was at a friend’s home and we can’t just stop by (they are out of town a lot).
Happy anniversary to you! it is definitely nice that we are close enough to revisit our spots. I actually thought about that a lot when we went this year since some of the other venues we had considered, we wouldn’t be able to do it.