Pacifica Café
| Address: | 621 Center Point Way, Gaithersburg, MD 20878, USA |
| Phone: | +1 301-519-3113 |
| Site: | pacifica-cafe.com |
| Rating: | 4.1 |
| Working: | 11AM–9PM 11AM–9PM 11AM–9PM 11AM–9PM 11AM–10PM 11AM–10PM 11AM–9PM |
Location
Photos 100
Reviews 9
DA
Dan Blitz
Unfortunately, this restaurant has not improved in the approximately 14 years it has survived in the Kentlands/Lakelands location. Area residents are still left searching for one consistent, reliable source of Oriental cuisine within walking distance. With one exception (the Tom Yum soup), the soups we ordered all had uncharacteristic after-taste. Over-salting may have been an attempt at masking poor quality ingredients. The substance in the Wonton soup was insubstantial. We ended up dropping most of the Egg Drop soup into the kitchen sink. The Sesame chicken is best avoided. The overly goopy sauce appears to have been applied as an afterthought. The white meat chicken was tasteless, as neither the breading seasoning nor the sauce cooked through. It was probably the extreme viscosity of the sauce that prevented it from penetrating the surface of the chicken. The Moo Shi Chicken might have been Moo Shi Pork -- impossible to tell, because there was practically zero meat in the dish. The restaurant appears to have a "bring your own sauce" policy, as the dish was barely more than a mix of unseasoned, steamed cabbage and mushrooms. My older daughter enjoyed her fortune cookie, and the fortune inside, which read, "Your life will be full of good meals." In comparison to this one, Im sure her fortune will come true.
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L Cindy
This place is amazing.I heard many friends talked about it. Eight people in my family came to see that there were many guests, no seats, and waited for more than half an hour. We ordered the scallion pancakes， fride pork buns，Bean curd wraps ，Dongpo Braised Pork，Chinese meatball stew ，Stir Fried Pork with Hot peppers，crispy duck,cashew nuts chicken，Salt and pepper pork ribs，Yangzhou Fried rice. My favorite is Dongpo Braised Pork It is very delicious with oily but not greasy taste and the fragrance of wine. All the dishes are particularly tasty，as my friend says. Best Authentic Shanghai style restaurant in MD area ！they have two menus ，one is large，the other one is small.Only weekend is a small one！You definitely should have the smaller menu because that is full of local shanghai style foods！！！ We booked our reservations and dishes for the next Saturday when we left. By the way，some of the traditional desserts are only provided on weekend，You need to make a reservation for a table in advance if you want to eat there. It is always busy！！！
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C. P. Chiang
Have a light lunch here. We ordered the 2 dishes with HS soup. The soup is realy sour and hot(also spicy), I could not do it at home - very tasty - I like it. Our 4 dishes are Seaweed fish filet苔條魚片, Soybeam sauce fish filet豉汁魚片, vegetable with to-fu skin and edamame bean雪菜百葉毛豆, and bamboo shoots fried with pork筍尖肉絲. The fish is very fresh that you can tell. The services are very good. I heard they heave new management, so far, the food and services are better than before. 08/18/2017 - I tried there Beef Noodle (Szechun Style), the soup is most delicious in the area and the beef is tender, they used the right beam paste to stew it. I strongly recommend you give a try if you are the beef noodle lover. You need indicate spice or not when you order. I saw next table ordered which was not spicy than mine. BTW, their rose jasmine tea is very helpful after having the beef noodle soup. Based on this, it is still 5 stars.
QI
Qin Jing Y
It has been a tradition in my house to host New Years Eve party since 1998. I never got involved in planning the food, but I had the opportunity to shoot a wedding reception at Pacifica Café in mid-December 2015, the food impressed me so much that I decided to take charge to plan the dinner menu. Well, part of the menu. I had 60 people scheduled to come, and many of them will bring something. Here is what I ordered: (2) Eight Treasure Duck 荷葉糯米八寶鴨, (2) Braised Pork Belly 腐乳肉, (80) Lobster Ball 灌湯龍蝦球, (4) Yellow Bird 素黃雀, (4) Pork Chop Peking Style 京都排骨, (4) Chefs Famous Fish 糟溜魚片, (4) Guo Ta To-Fu 鍋㙮豆腐, (3) Stir fried eggplants with basil九層塔茄子, (4) Crispy Shrimp with Walnut 核桃脆皮蝦, (4) Beef Chow Fun干炒牛河. It was a huge success, all 60 people loved food and there werent any leftover the next day! Complement to the team. I plan to do it again this year with food from Pacifica Café.
GA
gail wickert
We used to love coming here but since new owners, will never come back! Very inexperienced waitstaff who barely understand English. First we asked for ice water with lemon. Water was brought with no ice and no lemon and the straw had been completely unwrapped which meant the straw was totally unsanitary. The waiter brought my main course same time as appetizer and brought the wrong entrée to my dining companion (brought the selection that contained mushrooms which she had emphatically stated that she was allergic too!) When my main course was brought back after I finished my appetizer, it was so watery that I couldnt eat it. When we finally got the manager to our table, all she did was say "so sorry" and did not offer to make anything right. This all happened in April. I dont know if all their issues have been corrected but I will not go back to find out.
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Stephanie C. Whelpley
I have no complaints about this place. My husband and I live near my parents and whenever we visit, they take us here probably about 90% of the time. We tend to run into people they know, and they are familiar with the owner. The food is great. Their dinners are great, but what I can really speak to and where this 5-star review comes is for their weekend breakfasts. They run a gamut of small plates, including many the more Taiwanese-style breakfast and street foods - scallion pancakes, chive pockets, meat rolled in scallion pancakes, salty and sweet variations of soy milk, sichuan hot oil noodles and wonton (with more of a sesame concept), radish cakes, and soup dumplings, just to name a few. Delicious.
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A Private User
When you go into a restaurant and see primarily Chinese patrons, you know that the food is authentic. We live in the Kentlands and love this place as the owner always keeps the menu fresh - hes recommended some new dishes for us and we have not been disappointed yet. Theres a peanut butter sauce-dumpling that is delicious. Also, they have some spicy beef dish that is amazing. The codfish and tofu hot pot is also good. I really love their bean curd and shredded pork as well. Overall, most of the food is really good and not as greasy as other Chinese restaurants. I suggest to stay away from the "American" style dishes like General Tsos and Hunan Chicken try something authentic!
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A Private User
Was here years ago and just went back twice in the last week because the food was SO delicious! The Guo Ta Tofu was amazing, best tofu Ive ever had. Their $7.45 lunch has lots of choices and was perfect, large portions with plenty to take home to eat later. They can get crowded and its not a large restaurant so people need to wait at the door, or outside. Best to go early or order take-out. Service can be slow when they are crowded, yet the food is worth it. Their hot and sour soup is very filling and a bit spicy. Seaweed infused fish is light and delicious. At this point Im going to try new things since everything Ive had so far has been wonderful.
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A Private User
I went in for lunch and it took them almost 20 minutes to even take my drink order. The menu had a variety of dishes, including some that arent commonly seen in your typical Chinese or Thai restaurant. The orange chicken had a great citrus flavor, the mongolian beef and basil chicken were pretty typical, but the seaweed infused fish and egg drop soup were pretty both pretty bland. Condiments were not available, not even the standard salt, pepper, or soy sauce. The service continued to be unimpressive throughout the meal. My recommendation - takeout, dont eat in.
