Cafe Pacific

Cafe Pacific opened in 1980, but it wasn't until 2004 when it was reviewed at the Observer. Back then the restaurant was described as a cliché and right now that claim still holds true. There's sole amandine on the menu and the waiters are starched and wrangled with ties. The food is fine enough, but you get the sense that most of the customers in the dining room are here more for the familiarity than that haute cuisine. The restaurant bills itself as a seafood concept, but skip the seafood platter. Appetizers and mains are a better place to spend your money. Just make sure you save a little time to sit at the bar. The customers imbibing there may have been in those same stools since the place first opened. Chances are, they'll be there for many more years to come.