Pacific Café
7000 Geary Blvd (corner 34th Ave)
387-7091. Dinner from 5pm every day.
Visitors, as well as natives, often ask for a good seafood restaurant with modest prices, which has become more difficult to find since seafood prices have gone thrugh the roof. I revisited Pacific Café with that in mind and found that, while prices have gone up slightly from two years ago, a) it is still a great buy, and b) the quality of the cuisine is still superb. It is also one of the few seafood restaurants in town where one can buy the fabuous abalone which, even at $34, is a worthwhile special treat. There are no reservations, but when one gets there, there is usually a waiting line and one is given a large glass of white wine to lighten the wait. This is a pleasant surprise for first-timers here. Once seated, service is prompt, personal, and attentive. Considering the free glass of wine, and the soup or salad with the entree, the meal is affordable. If one wants more wine, the modest price is a welcome bonus.
Appetizers include Pacific oyster cocktail $5.75, bay shrimp cocktail $5.75, Pacific clam chowder $3.75 cup, $5.50 bowl, dinner salad $4.50.
Entrees are served with a baby shrimp salad or clam chowder, country fries, rice, or red potatoes, bread and butter, and include filet of English sole $14.02, calamari steak saute meuniere $15.30, fried Pacific oysters $16.53, shrimp Louisiana with garlic, herbs, and wine $16.27, filet of sole Newburg with curried crab and shrimp $16.17, turbot baked in parchment in a cream sauce with crab and shrimp $16.98, prawns scampi-style $17.95, grilled rib steak (for non-seafood diners) $18.30. In addition, there are a number of special entrees, including the abalone mentioned above.
Desserts, all $4.50, include chocolate cheescake.
Beverages include coffee, tea, soft drinks $1.75, beer $4.25, champagne split $4, house wine, white or red, $12.50 bottle, $6.75 half-bottle, glass $4.75. Also, sauvignon blanc Kendall Jackson $18 bottle, chardonnay Clos du Bois $20, Piper Sonoma champagne $24, all good values.
Pacific Café reviewed 7/15/04 by Louis Madison
Editors note: I've been eating at the Pacific Café on Geary since the late '70s. It's one of the places I take out of town visitors and they always enjoy it.
|
click images to enlarge
Pacific Cafe - Geary at 34th
Pacific Cafe interior
|
|
