Pacific Paradise

I came here with some local friends while visiting the city.
These friends have a few serious allergies they deal with, and I could tell the care that everyone at Pacific Paradise took to make sure they were not only safe, but having a great time.
That’s a very awesome vibe to bring to a restaurant these days.
It made me wish I lived in the area so I could become a regular! And that was before even trying the food.
I’d come here for the food even if the service weren’t so great, but here you have a place that has both, and that is not easy to find. Highly recommend the eggplant.
I’ve never tried anything like it and now I’m having daydreams about eating it again.

We have driven by Pacific Paradise hundreds of times, but never went in.
So when a friend wanted to meet us there, we readily agreed.
How have we missed this wonderful restaurant all these years? We loved it and returned within a week. Their food is delicious and their menu goes on and on, with dishes from a wide variety of Asian countries...oh, and Hawaii.
Plus they have an excellent sushi bar.
(The Pacific Paradise Roll is amazing.) We need to go back many times just to try all the dishes that called to us. But it's going to be hard not to order the crispy eggplant every time.
We ordered this just because it sounded good and it was a huge hit.
Disks of deep fried eggplant in the most delicious, addictive glaze! If you go here, you MUST order this dish (you must, you must). Also, the rice pizza is amazing...either the seafood or the drunken versions.
Sounds weird and it's hard to describe, but trust us, it's delicious. Photos are the crispy eggplant (after almost half was eaten) and softshell crab and vegetable tempura. Go on line and look at their menu, but leave yourself lots of time because it's like reading War and Peace. Lots of food! Not a lot of bucks! (The price we paid per person included apps, sushi, and sake.) Heartily recommend!

We tried Pacific Paradise on a weekday evening. We were sat quickly and were greeted by our server, who was friendly.
There’s both booth and table seating, all of which is indoors.
There are menus for non-sushi items, then a 8.5x11” paper menu for sushi which the diner can mark with a pencil. We each got a small cup of soup: the miso and a chicken and corn egg-drop.
Both were bland and uninteresting; we’ve had better elsewhere.
I’d give them a 2/5. The Japanese steamed dumplings were good; we both decided we’d get them again if we returned.
I’d give them a 4/5. I wanted the coconut fried rice, but the coconut is the pre-shredded, dried, and bagged kind instead of fresh and seared, so I opted for the pineapple fried rice instead.
It had a good savory-sweet flavor to it, and both the tofu (you can order whichever protein you want) and pineapple were finely chopped, which I enjoyed.
I haven’t run across that in a Thai fried rice before, and I’ve had a lot of those dishes.
I added raisins to the entree because otherwise the contents would have been pretty paltry with just eggs and the protein.
I would have liked to have seen green onions, onions, cashews - anything - added to the mix.
The flavor and serving size was a 4/5. My dining companion got the crispy Hawaiian chicken and said he would not get it again.
We both agreed it was bland.
He gave it a 2/5. Our server said anything on the menu can be made bespoke, and adding raisins to my dish was no issue.
Some restaurants take umbrage at modified orders, but Pacific Paradise is fine with it. Overall I’d give the restaurant a 3/5.
The soup was bland, but my entree was flavorful, if lacking multiple ingredients.
I’d give Pacific Paradise another try, but it wouldn’t be my first choice.