The Pearl
Kim's egg rolls are named for Tommy Nguyen's mother, whose recipe they are, and who stood in the kitchen watching him make them the week the bar opened.
Why go
Nguyen cooked at Takashi, Rye and Post Office Place before he opened this with Jacob Hall, Chase Worthen and Mike Askerlund, who run the Main Street cocktail bar Alibi (Gastronomic SLC). It is a bar first: you order at the bar, and the door is 21-plus.
The egg rolls are the thing. Light, brittle, packed with pork, shrimp and wood ear mushroom, and Melling's line three years on is that they are probably the best in the state (Gastronomic SLC). The caramel pork belly arrives with an egg barely set, which you break into the sauce and eat together.
Nguyen made the James Beard Best Chef Mountain semifinalist list in 2026. The room he did it in has changed around him since 2022: the bar has stools now, the menu has grown, and Melling found it packed by early evening on his return.
The fish-sauce lacquered wings go half price on a Wednesday.
Order this / avoid
- Order: Kim's egg rolls.2
- Order: the caramel pork belly with the egg, and break the egg into it.1
- Order: the chicken skewers with madras curry and lime, which carry real heat.2
- Order: the Ca Phe if you want a cocktail with the meal, built on robusta, chicory and coco dan.1
- Avoid: arriving with anybody under twenty-one, and avoid arriving late on a Wednesday if the wings are what you came for.
What locals & experts say
- Stuart Melling, Gastronomic SLC, on the egg rolls:
These are light and brittle, packed tightly with pork, shrimp, wood ear mushroom and more. There's little greasiness, and from start to finish, the experience is revelatory.
1 - Melling, three years later:
Kim's Egg Rolls are still here – a recipe snagged from chef Tommy Nguyen's mom – and probably the best in the state.
2
Good to know
- What it costs: small. The skewers and the egg rolls ran five to eight dollars at opening and the plates above them into the teens.
- Booking: none. Order at the bar.
- Where: 917 South 200 West, in Central Ninth, the neighborhood of Bar Nohm and Water Witch.
- Who eats here: adults. The room is 21-plus.
- The menu moves: it was rewritten at the end of 2025, so read the card rather than an old write-up.
Verdict
should-visit — Tommy Nguyen made the James Beard Mountain semifinalist list in 2026 for a room that is a bar first, and the dish it is known for is his mother's egg roll recipe cooked under her supervision. Stuart Melling has reviewed it twice, three years apart, and the second read is the useful one: the menu grew, the bar got stools, and by early evening the place is full. What holds it here is that Melling is the only voice on it. He wrote both reviews and judges the awards it won, so one person accounts for nearly the whole file.