[REVIEW] Pacificana Restaurant, Brooklyn, NY

Badda bing badda boom, The Chinese Quest was in the House.  Fuggeddaboutit!  The Chinese Quest came to Brooklyn, and we left our mark.  Our mark this evening was Pacificana Restaurant in Brooklyn’s Chinatown section (8th Avenue in the Sunset Park area).  Good thing we had a trusty map because even after parking literally right in front of it, we walked right past the entrance!  What the entrance lacked in appeal, the restaurant made up for in Spades.  Glitz.  Very very fancy second floor Chinese restaurant.   Though it seemed to us that the trip from Long Island to the restaurant felt longer than it took for Moses to cross the desert, it was well worth the trip.

Pacificana Restaurant is THE Chinese restaurant in Brooklyn that all other Chinese restaurants are compared to.  That said, it was clear that Pacificana Restaurant was the first Chinese restaurant that we had to review in Brooklyn, NY.

Pacificana Restaurant is located at:

813 55th Street 2nd Floor

Brooklyn, NY 11220

As you can see, opulence is the visual that you get upon entering.  Surprisingly, for an extremely authentic Chinese restaurant, there were chow mein noodles on the table.  Perhaps those were just for us.  I didn’t notice them on any other table.

I think they were on to us, and they made an extra special effort to make our meal memorable.  Aside from our standard order of spareribs, which were BBQ Honey Spareribs, we let the choices pretty much up to them.

Seafood Hot & Sour Soup

It was a cold and rainy night, and we needed some warming up, so they suggested Seafood Hot & Sour Soup, which consisted of shrimp, scallops, clams, and a bunch of other seafood.  The soup was sour, but almost a meal unto itself.  The spareribs were pretty much the only true disappointment of the evening.  Not very meaty and not very tasty, it was good thing that the Soup washed whatever memory we might have had of the spareribs out of our mouths.  But, not out of the mind of the diligent recorder.

Four main courses were ordered, plus rice.  A fifth entree was required to completely sate our bellies.

We had:

Pacificana Home Style Seafood Mushroom, which included Sea Cucumber, Squid, shrimp, scallops, and even macadamia nuts!  We weren’t expecting that!

Lamb Chops

Lamb Chops with Fried Garlic and Chinese Celery, Guadong Style.  The lamb chops weren’t dry.  The were fried, and the fresh garlic left a bit of a salty taste in the mouth (as did a number of the dishes.  I definitely suffered from dry mouth on the way home… and the fact that by the time we got to Carvel, it was closed… but, I digress, as I do get too far ahead of myself at this time).

Crispy Garlic Chicken.  Lots of fried foods on the menu today, and lots of garlic too.  But, the chicken was most excellent, and the crispy garlic would have made Colonel Sanders rethink his secret recipe, Mee thinks!

Sauteed Chinese Vegetables

Sauteed Mixed Chinese Vegetables.  GREAT dish.  Always love sauteed Chinese vegetables, and I’m always a big fan of Lotus Root.  I also though that the snow peas were out of this world as well as some of the other ingredients in this dish.

Young Chow Fried Rice.  I wasn’t blown away by the rice dish.  But, we needed some rice.

Fried Kowloon Squid

Still not full, we asked for one more dish… they huddled up trying to think of the dish that would really wow us (I really do think they were on to us), and they brought us Fried Kowloon Squid Stuffed with Shrimp and Pepper Salt.  This was quite a tasty dish.  But all this salt was making me thirsty!

Dessert was sliced and peeled oranges, and coconut flan (jello?).  I love coconut, and this had a nice subtle coconut flavor, and the oranges are always sweet.  Totally not expecting to see Fortune Cookies on our table this evening, they did have five on the dessert platter.

Our Fortune Cookies:

What is to give light must endure the burning.

Watch out for emergencies.  They are your big chance.

There is no substitute for hard work.

You can keep a secret.

When you’re finished changing, you’re finished.

But of course, we’re not finished until we present our rating of Pacificana Restaurant:

Pacificana Restaurant was bit on the pricey side, but the food was fresh, well presented, and the restaurant clearly exuded class, and the servers, panache.  It did whet our appetite for future trips back to Brooklyn’s Chinatown.

What are your favorite Chinese restaurants in Brooklyn, NY?

Humbly submitted for your consumption,

—Mee Magnum  (“Chop!  Chop!”)