Chinese, Thai, Japanese, BYOB? This Place Has It All

Once again inspired by Laura, I was in the mood for Thai food. I thought of going uptown to try Osha after reading her review (the BYOB was particularly appealing), but much to my delight I stumbled across a new Thai place of my own to try. While walking around the neighborhood the other day, I spotted the cheesy triangular strands that mark a Grand Opening and I immediately changed direction to inspect further (Grand Openings are typically associated with deals). I was in luck – it was a new pan-Asian restaurant with a 30% off special through August 31st.

East Pacific (it has a restaurant on Staten Island, which I’m sure means nothing to most of you) is a blend of Chinese, Thai and Japanese, and while this usually makes me suspect (how can they do all three well?), the 30% was certainly enough of a reason to try it. I was going to patiently wait to try it out with coworkers for lunch this week, but when a friend called with last minute dinner plans the other night, I suggested we try East Pacific.

Two things to quickly note: First, East Pacific is BYOB, at least for the time being. And it’s nice that they’ll take your white wine (if that’s what you choose) to chill in the back so it doesn’t get too warm on your table. Second, you even get 30% off on the lunch menu.

On to the meal… We started with a seafood spicy salad – octopus, shrimp, calamari, cucumbers and flying fish roe in a spicy mayo sauce. Think of it like a pile of the filling that you’ll find in a spicy salmon roll, but the seafood was shredded and not quite as chunky. It was delicious, and unlike “spicy tuna/salmon/yellowtail” rolls, this salad actually was quite spicy. They had a light hand with the mayo, which I appreciated, and the fish roe added just the right amount of salt to the dish. I highly recommend it to those who enjoy a spicy tuna roll.

For dinner I was boring and ordered the chicken pad thai – it’s how I judge a Thai (or partly Thai) restaurant. The first thing I noticed was the portion size…it was enormous. I’ve already made three meals of it. There was a lot of chicken, which surprised me, and overall it was very good. However, I like mine to be a bit more saucy, so I could have used more liquid and more of a peanutty, sweet flavor. Unlike Laura, I like egg in my pad thai, and it didn’t have much at all which would please her, but disappointed me. But again, it was good and I’d probably order it again, after I try the rest of the cuisines offered at East Pacific.

My friend got the Thai Mango dish with shrimp. In a word, it was outstanding. The sauce reminded me of a sweet and sour sauce that you’d find on a Chinese menu (not surprising given the circumstances), but it wasn’t as goopy. Instead, it was a lighter sauce that was sweet, but not too sweet so that you think it’s just full of preservatives or it’s been sitting in a pot for the past 12 hours. The mango strips were excellent and the celery strips added a nice crunch to the meal.

But I just couldn’t get over the size of the shrimp. This restaurant did not skimp in the slightest. The dish was served with approximately 8 large-to-jumbo shrimp that were cooked perfectly. This is a hard thing to accomplish, but the shrimp weren’t too rubbery, which often happens since it’s easy to overcook it. It was a great complement to the sauce and made for a delicious meal.

Now on to the check. Ordinarily the meal would be approximately $40, with tax and tip, but with our 30% discount we paid just under $30 total, with tax and tip. It was a nice $10 savings, and the BYOB really helped too. While the regular prices are about $1-3 more per dish than I typically like to pay at such restaurants, the quality of food may win me over once the deal is over. So go while you can, the discount is well worth it, the food is excellent (thus far), and come on, isn’t BYOB reason enough to go?