Pacifica Del Mar

Dennis and I wanted to celebrate our 10 year dating anniversary and picked out Pacifica Del Mar, OPPOSITE the direction from the traffic madness of December Nights in Balboa.

Pacifica Del Mar is in the Del Mar Plaza which has a parking lot underneath. The restaurant can validate your parking for up to 2 hours free so we thought this was very useful for a busy Friday evening. We took an elevator up to the shops then used maps to find our way to the restaurant.

I loved the glow of the bar inside Pacifica Del Mar. The place was packed with diners on this chill Friday night.

We ordered drinks at our table. Dennis picked the Bendistillery Crater Lake Vodka old fashioned while I sipped on a yummy Chocolate Martini.

I think it was tech fancy that they gave us these ipads for ordering your drinks. Scroll through by category to find your drink!

Our waitress Anne brought out the appetizer bread with a side of butter. The bread was thin crusted and fluffy inside, with bits of olive cooked in! Dennis was a big fan of that.

Charred Octopus ($14) - kumquat | celery leaves | harissa aioli | fingerling potato | miso-balsamic vinaigrette

I've gained interest in eating octopus ever since the St. Regis Jazz Festival so this item was one of the first things that caught my eye. The plating was beautiful. There was perhaps a bit more char on the octopus for some of the smaller octopus pieces but the meat itself had a nice suppleness to it and enough seasoning, especially tasty when dipped in the miso-balsamic vinaigrette. The sweet kumquat played nicely against the saltier potato chip styled fingerling potatoes.

King Salmon ($34) - trumpet mushrooms | suzie’s shishito peppers | yellow wax beans | white corn puree

This salmon was cooked on the rarer side so I was very happy to eat it. The top crust of the skin was marvelous with a pleasant crunch and packed with flavor. I also found the sweeter corn puree a delight to the rest of the meal. The greenbeans were cooked tender crisp and buttered, a pleasant side to the dish.

Roasted Chicken Breast ($26) - organic kale | ham | fingerling potatoes | truffle honey

I saw a table nearby order this and I couldn't resist ordering it too! The chicken was plenty juicy and there was additional au juice to dip it in! I enjoyed the roasted potatoes kale and tomatoes bathing in the broth. Everything worked well together.

Chocolate Bon Bon ($8) - vanilla ice cream | amaretto cookie  | walnuts

For dessert, we thought this would taste the best. It had ice cream inside and we loved biting into that thick chocolate shell. And drizzle of raspberry or another sweet red sauce. The only thing I didn't care for was the crumbliness of the amaretto cookie in the middle. I think it may have worked better mixed with the ice cream or perhaps a little stickier. Still an excellent and worthwhile item to pick.

The restaurant was still bustling when we arrived around 8pm but quieted down later into the night. Service was nice and we enjoyed our little night out. Our bill was around $100 at the end of the night but a restaurant giftcard and a surprise 20% back from MOGL loyalty program cut the costs down. I would be really interested in trying out their sunset dinner special, only $23.75 (must order before 6pm) which includes an appetizer and main entree, plus a view of the sunset if you sit out in the patio!