Pacifico — Restaurant in New Haven

I hate to do this because I LOVE Pacifico and I’ve been here several times. It’s usually my go-to spot when I have friends who are visiting.

But holy cow - I had the WORST experience here of my entire dining life. No exaggeration. Let me tell you why. I understand it was restaurant week which can be extremely stressful, however we were the only table out of 5 when we got there In addition, it was my friend’s birthday who was visiting from Boston and that puts an extra sour taste on the entire experience because now I feel embarrassed for even taking him there.

Part 1 - we arrive and we’re seated without a reservation. Great. My partner and I wanted to split the restaurant week 4 course meal because we were ordering appetizers and knew we couldn’t eat it all....and we didn’t want to waste food. The horror! Our waiter literally said, “You can’t do that because I’ll be losing money” with the most matter-of-fact and arrogant tone. Unless you’re the owner, I’m unsure how he’s losing money, but that’s fine. Whatever.

Part 2 - we asked him if we can split the meal since we were ordering 2 appetizers and our friends were also ordering the restaurant week menu. That’s a no.

Part 3 - the guacamole. I swear they put half an avocado in there and mushed it around. No salt. No flavor. No onion. Nothing.

Part 4 - the queso fundido. Very cheesy, but the type of cheesy where it’s almost like glue. It’s also an extremely small portion.

Part 5 - the margaritas were sweet and sour mix.

Part 6 - let’s add being continually ignored by our server. We tried making eye contact. We tried waving our hand (something we never like to do since we’ve worked in restaurants before). He looked at us and briskly walked away. I don’t if he has a problem with gay people or what....

Part 7 - the meal. The flank steak was tough, cold, and I’m not sure if they know the definition of chimichurri sauce. Argentina was disgraced by this entree.

Part 8 - veggie arepas were good.

Part 9 - our server was present only once to bring out the food, but he had other people bring the drinks and appetizers so I hope they got tipped, too.

Part 10 - at this point we had to go since we were late for an event and he took forever. We had to stand up and get him to get our check and told him we had to urgently leave. He then hustles to close us out and offers to put the drinks we ordered (not ready yet obviously) in to-go cups. Very nice.

Part 11 - my birthday friend talks to the manager about our experience with the intention of letting him know what’s going on. The manager replies, “why didn’t you tell me earlier?!” Well, we were trying to give your awful waiter a chance to redeem himself. But I guess it’s our fault?

Part 12 - we split the check two ways. Except he comes back with only one receipt and two cards. The other 1/2 receipt was missing. We asked him about it (because we’re good people instead of just walking away with only half of our meal paid for) and he couldn’t find the receipt.

Part 13 - I opened my baking app and figured out my card hadn’t been charged. Only one card was charged 1/2 the amount and the other was not. We find it curious because how was he able to close the check if he didn’t run the other card? Our hypothesis is that 1/2 of our meal was paid for by the restaurant. BUT once we told him the other card wasn’t charged, he quickly took it and ran it. I don’t know. It was weird.

Part 14 - we didn’t even get our desserts!

Part 15 - his general attitude made us feel small and like we were constantly bothering him. If you work as a server, then it’s your job to serve us kindly. I’m sure there are plenty of unemployed people who’d love to have your job.

I honestly don’t know if I can go back here. There are plenty of other delicious places downtown like Elm City, Te Amo Tequila, Barracuda, and Olives & Oil where I’ve never been treated like dirt.

I hope others don’t have the same experience as me and if they do. You also need to have a serious talk with this server because you just lost me and my friends...

I recently heard of an extremely disheartening, clearly racially-charged experience had by a friend of mine at Pacifico during nightclub hours. After purchasing two drinks for himself and his friend, he was singled out by management who demanded he leave if he wouldn’t purchase a drink. Even after explaining that he had bought two drinks they refused to believe him and asked for proof. When they continued to try to kick him out they said that this was just how they do business. I, a white female, have been to hundreds of bars and have never once been approached and demanded of to purchase a drink or leave. I had also worked in the restaurant/service industry for years and have never seen this be an issue from a staff side or experienced this as a policy for employees to enforce and adhere to. There have been countless nights where I have gone out to spend time at a bar socially with friends and have only gotten waters. Or where I have switched to drinking waters at the end of the night after friends have been the ones buying my drinks for me all evening and so the bartender and management would have never seen me purchase a drink personally. And, again, I have never been asked to buy a drink or leave. People go to bars purely for the social aspect without drinking for a myriad of reasons (sobriety, diet, health, religious/faith based reasons, being the designated driver, etc.). And I have never witnessed someone be demanded of to purchase a drink or asked to prove a previous purchase when they already had bought drinks (I personally never take my copy of the receipt at a bar so I would never have proof of purchase if asked)! The lack of logic or policy precedence for this confrontation, as my friend was a frequent patron of Pacifico and has never experienced or witnessed this policy in the past, is astounding and baffling to say the least. The manager singled out a black male and then tried to double-down with a pathetic, unsubstantial excuse of “that’s how I do business” because he lacked the integrity to admit he had wrongfully targeted and accused a paying customer on the basis of his skin color. If that’s how Pacifico “does business” then I would urge anyone reading this to stop giving them yours. They need to educate themselves and their staff on diversity and inclusion and make corrective actions for their behavior to ensure something like this does not...

Food is good but the service is miserable. I came for Mother’s Day brunch with my husband and daughter. Although we had a reservation, there seemed to be some issue when we arrived regarding our table. After a hushed conversation between the hostess and manager, we were escorted upstairs and taken to a rather small table for two in a corner by the AC unit where the hostess proceeded to add a chair to make it for 3. There were empty tables scattered throughout the second floor (more than 10, at that point) so naturally we asked to move but we were told there was no other seating available. This was disappointing but we took them at their word and expected it to fill up shortly. We can make do! Let’s just be positive and enjoy the meal. After a few minutes, water is poured for us and then the staff comes to take our order yet we had never been offered menus (note - no QR codes for menus were available). Cue to another 5 minutes to fetch the menus. No drink menu was ever provided. After another 15 minute wait, we finally flag down someone to ask to have our order taken. Upon ordering, having been there now for roughly 25 minutes, not a single empty table has been seated during this time. When our first course arrives (roughly 10 minutes later), a party of three is brought upstairs and seated in the 4 count table immediately next to us. You can imagine how that made us feel. It was too late now to leave having already ordered so we opted to stick it out. Over the course of the meal, we had to repeatedly ask for water refills, they tried to give our desserts to the wrong table, and we had to ask for cutlery, twice. By the time we left (2 hours in total), all remaining tables had been reconfigured to accommodate larger parties even though we were told those were reserved for parties of 2. At first I assumed this restaurant might not like young children as I had not previously dined there but upon leaving I saw many families with little ones so that wasn’t the case. The food was good, if somewhat misnomered (Tres Leches pudding? Come on - that was rice pudding with icing) but the apathetic nature of the staff/management left us bitter. There are many delicious places to dine in New Haven - seek those out...