Pacific Catch — Restaurant in Mountain View

A solid 4 stars. The fish, both cooked and raw, was good quality. I normally wouldn't order sushi from a restaurant that is not strictly a sushi place, but the rolls and sushi tacos were good. The sushi rice was a bit overcooked but good nonetheless. The bowls are massive, but most of the food is rice; the fish portions are rather small but are a good value for the relatively low prices. The bowls listed on the menu mentioned several different sauces, including a cilantro-pepita pesto that sounded tasty. And it was. It's unfortunate, though, that they only put a half spoonful of the pesto on your cauliflower and just sprinkle whole pumpkin seeds on the fish. I would have liked to have more of the pesto. The spare ribs need some work; the meat was not tender at all. It was quite chewy and a real bother to remove from the bone. Never had quacamole with tuna before, but it was a delicious combination on the pupu platter appetizer. The tortilla chips could use some work, though; they were all really hard and a bit stale. I can't speak to the quality of the cocktails, but the beer selection is decent; not overloaded with IPAs. I was a bit disappointed that they didn't have the beer that I ordered in stock, but there were plenty to choose from. I like the 20-oz glasses; that's a nice alternative to ordering more pints than you can finish. A couple more weak points: 1) the place kept filling up with smoke and the aroma of burnt fish skin (my eyes were watering and we could see the smoke flooding the entire dining area), and 2) I didn't appreciate the payment system; they bring their digital handheld device to the table so they can stare you down while you decide how much to tip the waitstaff. It's not a huge deal, but I prefer the old-fashioned system of dropping the receipt and card back at the table and skedaddling while I do the math at my own pace. As for the smoke issue, I couldn't tell whether it was a regular thing or just a one-off result of the entire kitchen staff gluing their eyes to the television while the Mexico vs Ecuador Copa America game was playing. Another small point is the state of the place with regard to cleanliness; the floors were a little messy; alot of food and beverage spills that were only half cleaned, and the men's room was in a sad state. I don't expect the place to be in a spotless state all day, but I also don't expect to see huge spills and chunks of food laying around everywhere, or the men's room shellacked in piss. I'll definitely come back during the week to try the happy hour menu and have a couple more pints, but maybe that will have to wait until after the Copa America...

I have no desire to return. If you were to judge a book by its cover, pictures included, your expectations would be quite high. That may have been part of the problem. On the walk in, pointed out to Dad how the tiles were likely meant to emulate the scales of a fish. Clever. Upon entry, the hostess was gorgeous, yet genuinely nice. Odd combination, but I'll take it. As expected though, seated us in one of the least desirable spots. The food continued the gradual letdown of not finding that next hit with the parents. Dad was impressed by the appetizers, which I think were just calamari that did seem fresher than any we had before. And based on that he made the call that he likes the place. I reserved judgement until our actual meals came and the consensus after the truth finally came out was no one was impressed. Deep fried food that you'd expect from a less glitzy establishment. Service seemed irritated by having to serve us -- oddly, essentially, that's his job. The guy who appeared to either be management or owner ignored us on the way out while the hostess did acknowledge us nicely. So, the takeaway was the hospitality from the one person who was really doing her job wasn't enough to make up for anything else. It's popular enough though. Many people seated outside during an uncharacteristically warm winter week, and it seemed like a decent enough place to pass time with loved ones. But I really can't find reason to come back other than to possibly try one fish that neither my Dad nor I recognized. The most expensive one on the menu, so that was the only reason I stalled. I'll give it one more chance, but my expectations will be...

3.5 stars.

Hubs and I came to Pacific Catch on a Wednesday evening around 5:30pm, just in time for happy hour. We were seated on the outdoor patio right away and the server brought us a tray of goldfish pretzels and edamame.

Service was great all around. It took a bit long to get some of the food items, but the place was pretty busy and only one server covered our entire section of the patio. She apologized for the long wait, but checked up on us frequently.

We ordered: -pitcher of MaiTai - they say this is equal to 5 servings but we poured more than 5 glasses so this is definitely a great deal for $35 -ahi mac nut poke - a lot of flavor, but a bit on the strong side, in my opinion. I like it when I can still taste the fish and in this poke, the original flavor of the fish was a bit lost. -white tuna poke - I did not really like this poke, unfortunately. -$2 tacos - we tried grilled mahimahi, original baja, shrimp, and steak. Our favorite was definitely the original baja. -korean ribs - for $7 this is definitely worthwhile. The serving size was huge. The only downside is that some of the pieces were not as tender as they could/should be and was a bit hard to chew. Nonetheless, very flavorful. -spicy fries - decent fries -- eat these fast as they got a bit soggy towards the end.

Overall we enjoyed our food and the hawaiian music that they play over the speakers. The atmosphere was quite nice and the service was good. I would definitely come back! Next time we'll try the regular menu which has many...