Pacifica Café

I am pleased that the hot and sour soup has some vinegar and pepper, and is not thick and starchy. They have good fish and some unique wine-​based sauces. If you want it spicy, say extra spicy. Good quantity on the carry out.

Three of us came here for dinner, no special occasion, on Monday evening. We ordered the Thai Basil Beef, eggplant, and calamari with black bean sauce paired so nicely with fresh green peppers. Even the rice was delish. Excellent. It would make me happy to eat here every night of the week! Also, excellent service. Fast. Fresh food and ingredients. Nicely quiet for conversations with your fellow diners. Clean and comfortable ambiance. Quite near the Kentlands movie theater too. Plenty of parking right there.

If you love lots of msg in your food, this is the place to be! I personally hate it when I drink more tea/​water than eat the food. Don’t people know msg is pretty bad for you?!? Service was fine. It didn’t appear to have any wait although we made reservations for our large party. But I would not return for another round of msg-​OD.

I came to this restaurant with friends again. We tried the giant hot pot and liked it a lot. It came with a huge pot with vegetables, meatballs, seafood, and tofu.
It is a must try of this restaurant. Strongly recommended.

Seaweed infused fish is amazing!

The best lunch deal and so delicious! Three of us had six dishes! Mom most favorite place to eat.

Pretty good food. I lived in Asia for two years, have been to China, and was raised in Chicago. I think I know food! I found the portions to be satisfactory, and the variety impressive. The atmosphere is pleasant… very mom and poppish, and the service was fast. The dishes and appetizers we ordered were delicious. We would definitely try this place again!

Review is not for the food but it’s for the hour of operations for the restaurant. We got here about 8.20 on a Monday night and even though the business hours were listed till 9pm they were closed. Door locked and the employee inside the restaurant ignored us when we tried to open the door.
Business owner should at least try to stick closer to posted hours so that people that drove an hour to get here don’t end up having to go somewhere else for dinner.
Huge disappointment.

It has been a tradition in my house to host New Year’s 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) Chef’s 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 weren’t any leftover the next day! Complement to the team. I plan to do it again this year with food from Pacifica Café.

Disappointed! We were hungry & came across this place. Oh my, what can I say, the worst Pad Thai I have ever tasted! I don’t think it can even be called that since it was lacking bean sprouts, Thai basil, cilantro. Not sure what we were served but it was noodles swimming in the most stinkiest fish sauce I have ever encountered. It was not palatable at all as it was served, but i was hungry, so i asked them to bring cilantro to cut down the fishiness. I would not give this place any stars at all, BUT their savior was the fried vegetable dumplings & spring rolls which were delicious. Maybe if we stuck to the dim sum menu vs ordering from regular menu we would of had tastier food.

Wonderfully authentic Chinese restaurant. Everything was delicious and the owner is very friendly. Our favorite restaurant in the area!

Very authentic Chinese dishes and owner came out to make sure everything was fine with the food and service.

when i’m in the mood for fried dim sum, this is the place to go. fried radish cake, shanghai kau-​fu, steamed pork buns, it’s all good. bypass the regular menu and go straight for the small paper menu. the chef seems to have pulled back on the previous excellent fried cooking technique, as things are just not as cripsy as before.

We had carry out from Pacifica Café this evening. Our total bill was 58 $ and change. We have ordered from here several times but this time dinner was terrible. The Pad Thai was vey very dry and noodles all stuck together. Crispy beef was soooooo crispy I don’t think there was any beef left in each piece. It was fried beyond belief. The Singapore fried rice was also so dry it was hard to swallow. We were given Drunken Noodles as a gracious entrée for free. It was possibly the only dish that had flavor. The wonton soups and hot/​sour soup were fine. Needless to say as faithful customers we are very very disappointed in this evenings meal. I don’t think we will be willing to spend this kind of money on a worthless meal here again.

What I like about Pacifica café is it’s kind of a combination of everything that you would want in Asian food but without the gigantic prices, bad service, bad parking, and bad quality of a lot of other places here in the burbs. This place is a no nonsense primarily take out Asian food place that’s Tucktaway in the Kentlands plaza next to Potomac pizza and around the corner from the theaters. I’ve been to Riverside hot pot about two or three times now and each time I am progressively more and more disappointed in everything about the place, especially the prices there. Go here instead! Bring your friends, don’t bring a ton of money, but come often and recommend this place on Unilocal.Good luck!

Went there for lunch during Labor Day weekend. Ordered Salty Egg Shrimp, Scallion Baked Fish, and Bamboo Stir Fry Pork. Although food were tasty, I was a bit disappointed since Scallion Baked Fish was not exactly «baked» but fried fish filet with scallion ginger sauce. Definitely not the traditional shanghai style. I will return and give their «pre-​order specialties» a try next time.

I came to this restaurant with friends several times, and almost ex tried every dish on the menu. I would have to say I was disappointed every time. In general, the sauce is too heavy and too greasy, including the house special 8 treasure stuffed duck. I would not recommend it unless you like salty and oily dishes.

The prices at lunch time are really good and service was super fast for carryout. I was excited to try a place I’ve never been to but I won’t be back. The steamed dumplings had raw onion chunks in them and the spring roll was filled with weird goo. The general tso’s chicken had a thick breading and it was really really soggy. Maybe the Americanized Chinese food there is just not that good and I just chose the wrong things. I won’t be back though. There are much better Chinese food places nearby.

My tastebuds are angry at me right now. Seriously, it’s the worst pad Thai I’ve ever had in life. I’m not sure what it was exactly, but it was awful. I gave it a few bites, but between the burnt taste and the complete lack of seasoning I couldn’t force it down. Gave it one star because I had to.

They have fresh vegetables. I usually order the chicken with mixed vegetables.

We tried Pacifica because our usual Chinese place closed (Peking Palace). We were very pleasantly surprised. The ambiance is quiet and pleasant, the service is very good, and the food was fantastic. Each dish was seasoned just perfectly. Definitely coming back!

Shanghai Vegetarian Delight [Chef’s Specialties] 3 stars. Just OK, kinda bland.
Bao Bao Platter 3 shrimp batter way too heavy
Lo Mein chicken 3 lo mein cooked with some fish oil, I’m not used to this, but otherwise OK
Dumplings [Steamed-​pork] 4 light and tasty. Best item
Kung Pao [Shrimp] 3 good, but sauce too oily.
Crispy Fried Calamari 4 good, also better item.
White steamed rice, low quality rice 2
Probably won’t be back.

Came with a large party with my friends after a satisfying and exhausting day in our nation’s capital (D.C)!
We ordered a plethora of dishes which all seemed mediocre to me. Here is what I remembered:
–lion’s head=giant meatballs with noodles at the bottom
–seaweed infused fish fillets (the best thing that night)
–chow fun
–8 Treasure duck (a duck that’s been deboned and stuffed with rice that’s been seasons and other stuff. The reason we came to this place in particular though was for this one particular dish that you have to request 24 hours in advance. Honestly, it wasn’t as good as I hoped.)

I went here for a late lunar new year meal with my family. Although the restaurant was full when we arrived, the owner was very helpful in trying to find us a table and setting up the table as soon as the previous customers left. We ordered Spicy Eggplant with Garlic sauce, Chinese meatballs, Giant Hotpot, and a Baked Fish. Overall, I was impressed by the size and content of the hotpot and meatballs, but I’ve had better Spicy Eggplant at other places. The hotpot had meatballs, various dumplings, tofu, noodles, and seafood and between five of us there was still a lot leftover.
I’ve also had the eight treasure duck (sticky rice, de-​boned duck), which is amazing and a great idea for parties. It has to be ordered in advance though.

Warning: I’m biased… I really don’t like Chinese food (not even «American» style)
I came here with co-​workers, two of which were Chinese, for the Chinese new year, which is a tradition in my group. Normally I would not set foot in a place like this. But, I’m a good co-​worker so. let’s go.
We started out with dumplings, one order steamed, one order fried. Both meat and veggie too. They were pretty good, although I’m used to the more Japanese style preparation (gyoza). The dipping sauce was pretty good though – I did enjoy that. We also had some green beans, but they were incredibly oily and I do not like that at all. (I’m a purist with green beans. Why mess with something nature perfected already? A simple steam is all they need!).
My meal was some sort of «crispy pork», but it tasted kind of like fish to me. I could barely eat an entire slice. We were doing lunch tapas style (Or, dim sum style? not sure). It was indeed crispy, but it was coated in some sort of flour, and tasted mostly of oil. There were various fish dishes that were gelatinous looking and covered in thin sauces (I did not eat any of them, being that I really hate most seafood).
The tea was alright, not the best quality tea I’ve had.
Service was OK. A little slow, especially considering how empty the place actually was.
My co-​workers all seemed to like it, and I’m sure it was solid food, if that’s your thing. I’m not a fan, but I didn’t have such a horrible experience that I would want to rate it lower.

Pacifica café is simply an under the radar Chinese restaurant in the Gaithersburg area. While it won’t wow people who are looking for authentic or Americanized Chinese food, it simply does a little better than the average in the area. Rockville still offers better options, but convenience trumps quality when it is 10 degrees outside.
The atmosphere is run-​down, and they charge extra for hot tea, but what they lack in ambiance, they gain in having a menu that is a mix of authentic and Americanized Chinese dishes. I highly recommend their sauteed green beans, Guo Ta Tofu and Chef’s Special Fish (white wine sauce).
They also have decent lunch specials too, where they have either the traditional $ 6.95 combo meal, or you can get 3 small entrees and soup to share (or pig out yourself).
You’ll easily find parking spots and no waiting in line when you arrive to Pacifica. People who live nearby (like us) treat and keep it as an under the radar restaurant that offers above average food and that it thrives on anonymity.

I usually only come here for my husband’s family gatherings since it is not really close to us, but I say the food is pretty good. This review isn’t going to be that helpful since I don’t know the names of the food items that we got but hopefully my pictures will help!
The quality in the food was definitely there. One special thing that we did order was this duck rice. Apparently you have to call ahead to order it, which my mother-​in-​law did. The staff were very friendly and attentive.
This place is a bit small so if you have a big party, you should make a reservation.