Pacific Rim By Kana — Restaurant in Ann Arbor

This review is unfair, because five stars cannot possibly do this place justice.

It's BECAUSE of this restaurant that when I visit a friend out-of-town I ask them what their favorite dish is anywhere in the area. Why? Because in Ann Arbor, a place where phenomenal food is everywhere you look, the sablefish at Pacific Rim is the absolute most mouth-watering delicious dish that I've had in Ann Arbor. Period. I've been everywhere around, and there is a lot, a LOT, of great food here. And quality is absolutely not lacking around the city, but this place is legendary.

I've had the opportunity to house many guests from all over the country from California to New York, and even China (technically not this country :P). What do they all have in common? They all message me from time to time about how they need to back to Pacific Rim for more of that sablefish! This reads like a straight up ad, but it's just seriously this good.

Okay I'll stop raving about their sablefish, because that's only one dish and what if you're allergic to fish - oh please don't be I'm so sorry :(. They used to have an appetizer called the Monsoon Plate (sort of an appetizer taste test with four different parts), and that was spectacular as well, but by now I've had about everything on the menu and it's all been great.

Even their espresso was awesome! I won't ruin the surprise, but if you're in the mood it's worth it.

Of course the superb taste in my mouth would not have been possible if the service had left a bad one in it. It just sounds like compliment alley in this review, but this is seriously my all-time favorite restaurant, what can you expect? If you're visiting from out of town and there's only ONE place you go for dinner, let it be here.

For some reference, I've been to some of the best places in Denver, San Francisco, New York City, Dallas, and New Orleans (to name my favorites, also been to Chicago and Detroit obviously). I can't say none of those compare, because all those places have their own mind-blowing restaurants, but even in NYC (the city where even amazing food never sleeps) there wasn't anywhere that could stand toe-to-toe with Pacific Rim and have anything less than a nail-biting match. We're talking Michelin rated restaurants in many of these areas.

So basically if you haven't been here and you live ANYWHERE within an hour of this place... then what are you doing? You owe it to your taste buds to check this place out! Seriously though, if you see this and decide to try it out but it wasn't to your liking then please send me a message and I'll find a way to make it up to you. To everyone else?...

I have been to many upscale, mid tier and hole in the wall Asian restaurants. I am Asian, Asian food is very close to my heart. That being said this place was surprisingly affordable for a nice moderate upscale dining experience, with excellent serve with good food. To elaborate, we made a reservation for my bf and I’s birthday. Our waitress was extremely friendly and attentive and helped with my lactose intolerance. Other servers/people stepped in as well to clear any dishes and refill any drinks. Our cocktails were really good and well balanced. What we ordered was the Tuna with Taro chips, the Pork Belly with Soba Noodles, Duck Entrée and the Veggie Noodles. All the food was good…but not fantastic in the sense that nothing really stood out to me. The Tuna and Taro chips were good, the taro chips were really tasty and light but the tuna mix felt like it was lacking flavor. The pork belly with soba I found interesting, plating wise not the easiest thing to try to eat together. The pork belly seems a little over cooked, I usually expect the outside to be crispy and the rest to melt in my mouth but it did not. The sauce with it was overpowering the soba noodles in my opinion. Typically soba noodles have a lighter taste to them. The sauce made it feel heavier. The Duck Entree I had was yummy, the duck I think was cooked pretty perfectly, the sauce it was in was yummy but almost too overpowering of the flavor of the duck. I won’t make comments on the risotto as they modified mine without lactose and I thought it was lovely they did so and it tasted pretty good. Bok choy seemed a little over done but together as a whole dish I loved the idea and it was good. My boyfriend had the Thai Peanut Noodles in what seemed to be a curry type sauce. I personally did not find it that good, just lacked depth of flavor, I thought the choice of vegetables was kind of interesting. The sauce itself I think should have been slightly thicker to help it stick to the noodles better. I didn’t eat that much of it but what I did have I wasn’t interested.

For dessert we had chocolate cake with ice cream and then a mango Thai basil sorbet. The warm cake and ice cream was pretty good and that sorbet was wild!! Should probably call it Thai basil mango sorbet because wow it definitely reminded me of Asian desserts I grew up with, very strong in the Thai basil realm as you continue to eat it tho but I enjoyed it!

TL;DR Great service and atmosphere Cocktails were on point Food was good but nothing special but since prices weren’t really that expensive for what you got, it was worth the cost...

Stopped in on a freezing cold night and enjoyed every bite of food we ate. We started by sharing a bowl of the coconut curry soup. This heat from this soup quickly warmed us up both from the temperature as well as the spice. Now, I generally don’t love spicy food, but this heat stayed on the palette without feeling uncomfortable. The sweet potatoes and squash tempered the heat perfectly and we found ourselves pondering the wisdom of sharing the bowl over us each getting one for ourselves.

We then had the house salad: lovely cleanse of our palettes before having our entrees. We decided to share the Seared Big Eye Tuna and the Thai Peanut Noodles. When those dishes came, our already wonderful lives just got better! Because the dishes were so very different— the noodles being comfort food and the tuna being a lighter fare, we started with the noodles. The curried chick peas were out of this world! And the peanut sauce was perfection. Each bite made me want more. I even loved the tofu, which I’m not usually a big fan of.

Once we decided to switch to the tuna, we set the noodles aside to take home and dove right in to the next round of deliciousness. The rice was crispy on the outside and warm on the inside and the tuna was seared just enough to not make it tartar. It was smooth and creamy and oh so fantastic. I used my fingers to make my own sushi, layering the tuna under the rice and avocado and rolling it a bit for my bites and dipping it into the ginger-miso sauce. Yes, I was clearly having a good time with my food!

Ohhh were we full, but not done yet, for, how could we stop there?! My partner got the Crème Brûlée Tasting (green tea, Thai-lime, and ginger). Who knew crème brûlée could be so interesting? And delicious! I didn’t think I would like it (being a chocolate kind of girl), but I did. I had the Chocolate-passionfruit mousse, which was divine, albeit a tad different. It, as the name, suggests, is not your standard mousse. The passionfruit has an equal flavor profile as the mousse, so you would want to go for the chocolate cake if you want a heavy dose of chocolate. I was very happy with my selection, especially because it was so light after eating all that food.

One last note: the service...