Pacific Grill
Okay. I’ve been caught. We didn’t eat at Zao Noodle on Friday night. We don’t own a new townhouse overlooking the Green River. We’re still here… in Tacoma.
On Friday night we found ourselves eating dinner at Pacific Grill with a friend. It’s a very impressive restaurant space. The dark wood. Tall Ceilings. The blown glass sconces and sculptures. The pseudo-industrial loft/modern/retro feel is very well done and the atmosphere was much more us than the Miami-Vice feel of Sea Grill across the street.
The service was quite good as would be expected. I swear our waiter looked like Beck and after a few glasses of wine we expected him to start rhyming a bit of nonsense at any moment. He didn’t, luckily.
The food… well… I think the onion rings were the best I’ve ever eaten. We left the restaurant feeling very full and satisfied. When trying to recall what we liked about the place, it came down to atmosphere, ambience, service, drinks, and decent food. Yet, the food wasn’t special. At our table we had a filet mignon, halibut cheeks, and pot roast. The halibut was very good and absolutely nobody complained. The filet was decent. Great? No. Very good? I guess. Was it $34 good? Maybe… I doubt it. The pot roast was judged just okay. The asparagus seemed over cooked. The starter salads were very good and the onion rings were absolutely amazing.
The general consensus was that the food, while it tasted good, didn’t seem particularly fresh. The entrees seemed more like comfort food than something at a reasonably expensive (for Tacoma) restaurant. We expected more depth to the flavors. The meat was fine. I think we just wanted more color and variety on the plate. The potatoes, filet mignon, and over-cooked asparagus didn’t exactly pop when it hit our table. It was what it was. It did it well, but it wasn’t memorable.
Would we go back? Yes, we’d give it another try. We loved the atmosphere. More appealing to us would be a few drinks at the bar and some of the appetizers.
Link to Pacific Grill
3 comments
S sooperhooman May 15, 2012
This is not meant as a slight or an insult by any means, but I doubt your article (or other Exit 133 articles, in general) reaches many who you describe as “under-represented, marginalized, and potentially alienated groups” of Tacoma – sadly.
J JJ May 15, 2012
One difference between some city governments.
I know of a local city government whose main concern is for the well being and welfare (safety too) of its residents.However the city of Tacoma’s government has it’s main concern aimed for the well being and welfare of its employees and project expansion plans rather than for the well being and welfare of it’s residents (except for the rich of course or developers or other greedy business concerns).The concern of the government of Tacoma is mostly all about money and development rather than people.
F fredo May 16, 2012
People are happier if they have a say in the design of their city… according to the story.
This is why we have council meetings with public discussion, neighborhood council meetings with public discussion, pta meetings, stakeholders meetings, business district meetings and all the attendant committee meetings with public testimony. The sad truth is that a lot of the decision making regarding development in a city occurs behind closed doors and pursuant to market forces that the typical person has no way of influencing. Of course any final decision will always be presented in such a way that the public thinks they played an instrumental role. This is the magician’s oldest trick…slight of hand.