Restaurant Review: Pacifica

Last night, Badger and I went out for a fancy dinner to celebrate our six month anniversary (June 14) and Badger's birthday (June 17). Rather than hitting up the usual spots, we decided to try something different. Steak was out since we went to Donovan's not too long ago. Exotic food was also out after our Indian wedding weekend. Seafood, however, seemed light and tasty. After some googling, I found a highly rated restaurant in Del Mar called Pacifica, and off we went.


Once there, we were seated next to a large aquarium which I found hilarious but Badger found slightly disturbing. For starter, we ordered calamari which came with two different dipping sauces. It was good but nothing to write home about. The table bread was actually quite tasty and despite Badger's warning to save room, I ate three well buttered slices. For the next course, Badger ordered a butterleaf salad with blue cheese dressing which was very satisfying. I, however, was lured into ordering a Japanese clam chowder which turned out to be the broth kind of chowder instead of the creamy kind that I was expecting. Displeased, I could not look at the soup with an unbiased eye. I did not much care for it. For the main course, I had halibut which was cooked perfectly and served with lobster, gnocchi, and leek cream (see top picture). Pretty good, but again nothing too memorable. Badger had sea scallops which were flavorful but texturally not as melt-in-your-mouth as other scallops we've had before (food snob alert!!). And finally, we had a blackberry peach crisp for dessert. Not much crisp, scoop of ice cream that didn't seem to melt for some reason, and peaches that were a bit slimmy. Bleh.

Overall, it was lots of fun to get out of the house and try something new. However, the restaurant left much to be desired considering the price tag that came with the meal. While nothing was worthy of real complaint (except maybe the crisp), nothing was inspiring me to jump from the roof tops either. Unlikely we will return.

Rating: 6.5/10.