Pacific Time Resurrected
Yes, I know you should new give restaurants time to work out the kinks before paying them a visit but as soon as I saw the new menu for Pacific Time in the Miami Design District on Menupages I wanted to go right then and there.
It's in the old Piccadilly / The District space and they've cleaned the space up tremendously (the Plexiglass bar from District is gone, shucks). The space is clean and airy with amber lighting and a large, open kitchen visible from almost every seat. There's a long bar with stool tables as well which makes it a perfect happy hour destination.
The wine list is extremely reasonable. Whites are mostly on the lower end of the price scale and there's good values on reds as well. I guess it's going with the revised Pacific Time concept of it being a mid-priced, casual place vs. the higher end, South Beach PT. The menu starts with small plates (around 10 or 12) then on to a few entrees (about 4) and sides. We started off with the grilled cuttlefish salad and the grilled sardines on panzanella. What we got was a grilled cuttlefish salad where the cuttlefish was cut in rings and laid on top of lettuce instead of cellophane noodles indicated on the menu. Turns out they’d changed the preparation but not the menu. The menu is only 2 days old. As for the sardines, they started off good, but then I got this harsh, pungent taste. It was like fresh horseradish mixed with wasabi. It was strong enough that my eyes were watering and the top of my nasal passage was on fire. I asked the waitress to check if there was some type of horseradish on this dish and she said no after inquiring with the kitchen.
On to mains. My fiancée ordered the bbq rib small plate which came out cold so she returned it for a fresh one. The ribs were good, but I’ll always compare small orders of ribs with those at River Oyster Bar and River’s were way better. My entrée of salt and pepper skate was good. It was the whole skate wing as opposed to half of the wing separated from the cartilage so it was thicken than I was used too. The salt/pepper seasoning reminds you of the classic Chinese salt/pepper preparation but was tempered by a parsnip puree with finely diced green apples. It was missing the capers which the waitress insisted did not come with the dish (though the menu said otherwise).
We ran into some friends who were both disappointed with the menu changes. Both came in to get the dishes they loved at PT in SB. We, on the other hand, liked the new small plates additions but felt they could beef up the entrees (possibly with the missing dishes from the old PT). We’ll definitely be back after the kinks are hopefully worked out because there were tons of small plates we wanted to try that we didn’t have room for (I’ve never passed up sweetbreads on a menu but I was in a fishy mood last night). Glad to see PT back in town (and especially on my side of town).
lax2mia
May 23, 2008 06:38AM
I went recently and there were some hits and misses. The space itself doesn't do much for me anymore (it was wonderful and magical in its former incarnations). It just seems like something is missing now.
We ordered the foie with apples to start and it was sensational. The foie was melt in my mouth good (I try not to have this too often and seriously overindulged).
We also ordered asparagus with prosciutto, parmiggiano, preserved lemon and a fried egg. The presentation was wonderful and the dish was very good. The salty elements combined beautifully with the egg and asparagus.
Our table went a little crazy and we ordered the gnudi in brown butter (like a gnocchi), the duck salad and the grilled sardine panzanella salad. The gnudi was liked by everyone at the table but me. It was very rich. The duck salad, which was on the South Beach menu, tasted like it had spent a lifetime on a shelf in the fridge. The grilled sardine panzanella was decent but not anything I would have to reorder.
For dinner, we ordered the skate, steak, fries and a farro dish that was like a risotto. I thought all items were excellent- particularly the steak.
One of my tablemates ordered a blueberry martini. It really tasted of blueberries and was quite good. However, for the price, it struck me as rather small.
Dessert was a chocolate bomb with that ooey, gooey center. It's a delectable dessert that seems to appear in 9 out of 10 restaurants. It was served with a dulce de leche ice cream and was very good.
It was a good experience all in all but there were some misses. I will return to this place in a month or so and report back.
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"Wonderful and magical"? You mean as The District? Or as Picadilly? Just kidding. I do agree, though, that the room is more functional than anything else, although the outside seating area seems pretty cozy. And someone is finally making good use of the kitchen, as opposed to the District. Or Picadilly. I thought the little necks steamed in sake were amazing, but the sweet & sour popcorn shrimp were just good bar food-you be the judge-at $7(!), you really can't complain when someone puts about ten shrimp on your plate. This wine list, however, is a first of its kind in Miami, I believe. There are 27(!) bottles at $30 or under, some as low as $21. There was even a Chianti at $17, but I was told it would be going up to $21. Snoqualmie Riesling at $24, a Provence Rose at $7/glass, $22/btl. This guy has put his money where his mouth is. I personally spoke to his wine supplier who put together the list, and he assured me that this was not a come-on...that the chef was commited to low prices. Mumm (Napa) sparkling rose at $30! Yikes. It can be done. In Miami. Now there are no excuses for outrageously overpriced wine lists.
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Excellent detective work. I was perplexed by the wine list and it's reasonableness. I guess he's set the bar high, or should I say low?
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MD - I'm always happy to see a focus on lower-priced wines, but that Snoqualmie Riesling is a bottle that retails for as low as $7, so while it may be cheap, I'm still not sure it's any bargain at $24. indeed that's a potential 3x+ markup over retail.
http://www.wine-searcher.com/find/Sno...
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As I've said very often, markup alone is not the sole factor in determing value on a list. Snoqualmie's 'Naked' Riesling is a great food wine, and a bargain at $10-which is what I paid for it a couple of weeks ago. That's still 2 1/2 times retail at $24. If a wine is no good, I don't care how cheap it is.
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I actually had lunch at the district a couple of times for lunch and found the food pretty solid. Nothing fancy or creative, but solid and a heck of a bargain with the Herald card (40%)
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Second trip back and it was better than the first go-round. Saw that they have a Florida-centric microbrew list featuring Monk in the Trunk Organic Amber Ale. Who'dve thunk something like and organic amber ale with a quirky name would come from S. FLA?
This time around we had the grilled asparagus with egg milanese (winner), sweetbread (singular) which was well prepared, but the accompanying sauce was very bracing with acid (sherry vinegar I believe), clams with sake (clams were fairly large and chewy, would rather have had smaller, more tender clams), and a pompano dish that was a little odd. It was pompano on a bed of what I'd describe as a rough olive tapenade with tomato. What was odd was that the "tapenade" had pieces of squid rings in it (cut to resemble small straws). It was a weird and, to me, uncessary addition. The pompano and the tapenade were good together. The squid and tapenade were good together. Even the side of yukon puree and the tapenade went good together. But the pompano, squid and tapenade were kinda odd together. Basically I think of it as two dishes (a pompano and a squid) for the price of one. As for the tapenade itself, like the sweetbread dish, it was a little bracing (again, I think someone may have a heavy hand with vinegar). When eating it with a piece of protein it was good, but on its own it was a little harsh. But then again it made me drink more Monk in the Trunk! Kudos to Chef Eismans for bringing local FLA products and ingredients to the forefront of his offerings.
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was there last night, great meal! No need to rehash, but Asparagus was my favorite and the Peach Parfit with hint of lavender was divine!
Only open a week, so service needs to work out kinks. Acoustics are so horrible, the waitress didn't hear our order twice, so we missed out on the Skate and a dessert. Said they are adding carpet to help with the sound levels. Hope it helps. Didnt see the winelist. Shocking it was only $275 without wine (brought our own as a table) for 6 people! Incredible!
Hitting Brosia tonight.
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I'm curious: what part of the Pacific region favors sardine panzanella, sweetbreads, tapenade and skate? San Francisco maybe? ; >
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LOL. I think at this point the 'Pacific' part is less important than the 'Time' part.
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I was going to say the California, Oregon, Washington part of it but you got the drift. Now if chutneys start popping up I'll be a little worried.
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If I remember correctly, the Lincoln location was "Pan-Asian" and that he used to travel Asia every year for inspiration to shoot into the menu. I agree, I think the name doesn't relate as much to the menu as it does to the man behind the name. But it is cool they have a huge clock at the host stand showing pacific time, did he have that same clock on the wall overlooking the dining room?
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I knew there are (or used to be) some microbreweries in Tampa, did not know about this one in Orlando. I'll confess I get nervous when anyone says their beer is brewed "in accordance with the German Purity Law of 1516." I wonder if they adhere to the requirement that a litre be sold for no more than one pfenning.
http://www3.sympatico.ca/n.rieck/docs...
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We made our way to PT 2.0 this evening for the first time. It was somewhat hit or miss but there were enough hits, and they were good enough, to definitely get us back soon.
We got there around 7ish and had no trouble getting a table inside, though the place quickly filled up by around 8pm. "Serviceable" is indeed a good description of the space, though it's really just fine - simple wood tables, some banquettes along the back, semi-open kitchen on one side and a long bar on the other. It does get pretty noisy once the space fills up. Pretty nice outdoor space, but not for me in June.
Lots of stuff to choose from, seemed like there had to have been 15-20 small plates, 5-6 salads, close to 10 entrees, another 5-6 vegetable sides, maybe 5 different snacks (sound like anyplace else you've been to in the DD?). One interesting option if you have a decent-sized group - you can get "The Whole Shebang" - presumably all the different small plates - for $230. That sounds like fun.
We got snacks to start of hot and sour popcorn shrimp and warmed marcona almonds, then followed w/ cuttlefish, salmon yaki, sweetbread, quail, and pork ribs, a duck salad, and veggie sides of fries and napa cabbage.
Shrimp were done in the style of tempura shrimp (think Nobu creamy spicy rock shrimp) and coated in a similar sauce, served over a bed of puffed cellophane noodles. Shrimp were quite good, the noodles I thought were superfluous (particularly b/c it's tough to get those suckers to carry much flavor after frying unless you douse them in a sticky sauce like mee grob). The marcona almonds were roasted until quite brown and dry, which I thought was a mistake as you lose their oily goodness (though the smoked fleur de sel is a nice simple adddition).
The salmon yaki was done with wild west coast salmon, rubbed with a tamarind bbq sauce and served over a pool of a sake vinaigrette. Nice fish, but a somewhat small portion (even for a "small plate") and the double acid between the tamarind and the vinaigrette was a bit overwhelming.
The cuttlefish was very much a tapas-style dish, skinny strips of broiled cuttlefish are tossed with mango, mint, shredded romaine and other greens, but again I thought it had a bit of an acid overload as the citrus in the dressing was coming on a bit too strong.
The quail was pretty nice, the weensy little bird is roasted, served w/ grilled peaches and a flavorful pan sauce. Not near as good as the quail I've had a couple times at Red Light though. The duck salad also was quite good, done "peking duck style". I didn't get a chance to try the pork ribs.
The standout for me were the sweetbeads, done "buffalo" style. Not many points for originality, as neighbor Michael across the street has already been doing "buffalo frog legs" with homemade hot sauce and a little blue cheese dip, but the flavor and texture were fantastic. Two lobes of sweetbread are panko crusted and then crisped, so they have this fantastic crispy texture on the outside and then are light as air inside. They looked for all the world like a couple of Mrs. Paul's fish filets, but the execution was really just fantastic. Served on top of a pool of orange hot sauce, with a little dipping bowl of blue cheese dressing and a few celery sticks. Somehow it all worked. A great dish.
The fries were very good, hit with an unadvertised bit of truffle oil - Mrs. F said these were better than the duck fat fries at Michael Mina, though I'm not yet committing myself to that claim until I can have another try of each. The napa cabbage was also really good, julienned and served up with little strips of grilled pork belly.
We closed out with a chocolate "bomb" and a dessert w/ peaches, lavender, sour cream and cinnamon crisp. The chocolate bomb was more like a firecracker at best - almost absurdly small. We're talking mini-muffin size. Some sort of oozy chocolate thing with vanilla ice cream. It was so tiny I couldn't bring myself to take a bite and deprive Frod Jr. of 1/4 of his dessert. The peaches were more generous, softened slightly, with a lavender-infused sauce, a dollop of sour cream, a couple of flaky crumbly cinnamon pastries on top.
The wine list was interesting but I found it difficult to read for some reason. For each bottle, on the far left is the varietal (or for Bordeauxs, the region), in the middle the producer, to the right the year and then on the far right the price. It was spread so far across the page I found it difficult to figure out which was supposed to line up with which. I nonetheless managed to get a wonderful very small-production CA pinot that I've never seen locally before and have been itching to try.
Small dishes ranged in price from $9-14, snacks $5-7,veg $5-7, desserts $7-8. Service was efficient and attentive, including doing a great job of quickly getting a dish out that we ordered mid-stream after some already started to arrive. My only petty complaint would be about being asked "How's everything tasting?" multiple times. Just don't like that nonsense question, and I'm not the only one ->
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/491874
One other miscellaneous note - I was somewhat flabbergasted by the number of people working there. I've sat at the kitchen bar at places like Talula or MGF&D and there are usually no more than 4-5 cooks working the kitchen (and these are comparable sized restaurants, if anything bigger than PT2) - there were possibly 9-10 people working the PT kitchen. Seemed like a ton of people FOH too - 3 people at the maitre'd station, lots of waitstaff and busboys. Not that there's anything wrong with that, obviously, just a bit unusual.
Very interesting menu, overall the execution was very good, and I'm looking forward to a return visit.
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We've been back to PT 2.0 one or two more times since last report and had some good meals. Was back again this evening, thinking we might explore a little Miami Spice action but PT apparently is not offering their Spice menu on weekends.
Even though it's been more than a month since our first visit, the menu was pretty much identical. Given that there are probably 35+ items on the menu, this was a bit surprising (and disappointing), particulary since I thought the place was on board the whole local, sustainable, in-season bandwagon (they do make a point of telling you how "green" they are when they charge you $1.50 for a pitcher of tap water that's been purified {and carbonated, if you wish} in-house). I certainly can't claim to have worked my way through every menu option at this point, but I hope this is not a sign of what's to come. I've said it many times here and will say it again - it's my firm belief that the way to keep the locals coming through the slow season (and sustain your business) is to keep it interesting and update the menu often.
As for new (for us) items that we tried -
- sweet corn & leek soup w/ peeky toe crab dumplings - actually much more a dumpling dish than a soup dish, with four shumai sized dumplings soaking in a small bowl of broth. The soup was not thick like I anticipated, but more brothy, more corn-y than leek-y and with a distinct hint of coconut (coconut water in the broth?). The dumpling skins were pleasantly silky but the crab filling was too dense and firm. Topped w/ some crispy fried shallots and little dabs of mustard oil. Interesting but didn't love it.
- mussels, steamed w/ sake, tarragon, tomato - nice tight plump little mediterranean mussels, good not great.
- fluke crisp w/ remoulade and slaw - virutally identical presentation to the sweetbread dish (which, not quite thinking clearly, I also ordered, doubling up on the crispy-fried), a crisp panko-breaded filet o'fish, a little bed of slaw, a little pitcher of remoulade sauce. This one did absolutely nothing for me, there was just nothing about the dish to elevate it beyond any other fried filet o'fish I've ever had.
- eggplant and string beans w/ green curry and ketap manis - the kecap manis (a sweetened soy sauce) was much more prevalent than the curry, which provided a back-note of spice, very tasty.
- swiss chard w/ pine nuts and dried cherries - didn't like this at all, and we are HUGE fans of swiss chard. Chard was undercooked and way too bitter and iron-y. We cook w/ chard almost every week and will stick w/ our home versions.
- baked alaska, key lime style - a meringue blanket over an almost-frozen key lime tart, the hit here was the meringue, which was barely crisped up on the outside and had an oozy, marhsmallow-y consistency within. Good stuff.
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mm went last night..have pretty much only good things to say...yes they offered us there filtered water the waitress said " its green of them". We drank it. was delic...she brought us two bottles only charged us for one...we started with the gnudi w. sheeps milk ricotta, parmigiano grand cru, baby spinach, brown butter..we are kosher so minused out the speck that usually comes with it..other then a little lack of salt..the dish was great the gnudi was fluffy and with the sprinkling of salt..the dish was perfect combo and execution..next we got Grilled Salmon Yaki Wild Salmon tamarind bbq sauce, sake vinaigrette..my sister loved thiss...the fish postion was small but the taste was amazing..the fish was perfectly coooked and the bbq sauce was subtly sweet and paired perfectly with the fish..it sat on top of " the sake vinaigrette" which was vegis cut up tho I dont rememeber which...next came the Sauteed Local Grouper red curry, bananas, coconut water..the coconut curry was subtle i finished it off with a spoon...the curry wasnt to spicy..none of the fish was fishy and probably some of the freshest fish Ive had in Miami(fresher then Talula which I ate at night before last) and the banana was a great combo with the fish(not to smushy not to hard, perfect in my opinion) I also ordered the Farro caramelized cipollini onions, stracchino, oregano..it also needed a little salt..but once it had it, it was great as well. Our server described it as the oldest grain known to man and recomended it..the onions were perfctly pan fried on top and the stachino melts and the farro sits in the melted cheese which in the end made a little poool of cheesy broth that it sat in..loved it..again great combo..didnt have room for dessert...next time..i rated pacific time a solid 8.5 ...also had a glass of White wine from Sardinia..went great with the meal and served at perfect temp...pretty good service...Stephanie was her name..she was knowledgable about the menu and very pleasant
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Sounds good. I've been looking for a place where the fish isn't fishy.
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We recently had a wonderful dinner there too. My favorite was the Curry Grouper- perfect blend of flavors- delicious suace. We could of finished it off with a straw!! I also thought the asparagus was a very thoughtful dish with the breaded and fried egg- very delicate and worked with the asparagus. I also second the recommendation of the Baked Alaska Key Lime. Great texture- not too tart and not too sweet. We enjoyed dinner at Michaels Genuine and Timo last week as well- but Pacific Time came up as my favorite. Service was also top notch.
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Since Zagat apparently just discovered that this place has reopened ->
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/554460
it seems like an opportune time to revisit this thread with our visit this past weekend. Frod Jr. in particular had been really pushing to go back, I think he's addicted to the hot and sour popcorn shrimp.
Nice to see the menu is indeed evolving here and there, with a couple new dishes and some existing dishes getting tweaked. I was also very interested to hear that they are going to be doing a couple different "kids' tasting menus" soon, an idea I've really been lobbying for.
The standout dishes on this visit were a soft shell crab, fried in a light and delicate tempura batter and served with a Chinese black bean vinaigrette and a little toss of some baby greens; the quail, a densely flavored, moist little bird served with a soy-inflected pan sauce and roasted peaches; and a salmon (off the bar menu, different from the salmon yaki in the small plates), just a simply grilled west coast salmon served with their awesome french fries. Mrs. F also liked the tuna tartare, done in a style and presentation somewhat similar to Nobu, with a pool of soy-based sauce underneath, the tuna given a bright, clean burst of flavor with the addition of some crushed cucumber; perfectly crisp, greaseless potato gaufrettes on the side for scooping. And I can't get her to stop ordering the duck salad. The farro (from the "sides" portion of the menu), done w/ caramelized onions and creamy stracchino cheese was also really good.
The only things that underwhelmed were a carpaccio, which was OK but not that exciting, the only thing livening up the beef being tiny dabs of a wasabi/mustard/chili sauce and more of the same baby greens that came w/ the crab; Frod Jr.'s "fish and chips," a reinvention of the fluke crisp I'd had on an earlier visit with the addition of some beet chips (I was so proud of him when he raided his sister's french fries, his excuse being he wanted "real fish and chips", since he showed he knew what the English mean by chips!); and a cheese plate for dessert where I would have liked to have seen more variety in texture and style than the selection they had on offer (a fontina, cheddar, a smoked cheese - gouda?, and a blue), all pretty firm except the blue, though it was a nice fontina.
Had a nice wine, a Braccesca Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, pretty reasonably priced at about a 2x retail markup. Place had a good crowd, the bar was packed at 7pm and the tables were packed by 8pm. Good to see the locals know enough to come, even if Zagat is just getting around to finding the place.
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Glad to hear that there was a good crowd. I ate at PT a few weeks ago and we were one of about 4 or 5 occupied tables there and that worried me a bit. Service was very attentive.
I ate with a group of about 10 with some people ordering spice menu and others off of the normal menu. Being that PT has so many tasty small plates, I ordered off the menu. I had the hot and sour crispy shrimp over cellophane noodles, the asparagus with the egg milanese, whole grilled quail w/ peaches, and the ricotta gnudi, which is just fun to say. All were prepared very well, with the asparagus standing out (i think its the egg) as well as the gnudi (which i haven't seen before). The quail was delicious, i'm just not sure if serving it w/ peaches is my favorite preparation. I also ended with the Baked Alaska Key Lime pie which has gotten pretty good reviews here. I thought it was nice but not great. Truthfully, at that point I couldn't really eat anymore.
Overall, it was a really nice meal. Everyone at the table enjoyed their meal and I have been waiting for another opportunity to go back.
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PT 2.0 reviewed today (positively) in Miami New Times ->
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2008-09-25/dining/pacific-time-resurfaces-in-the-design-district/2
Just as a side note, on the dangers of claiming "first" - while the review says the original PT was the first to serve a molten chocolate cake in Miami in 1993, I was dubious. Indeed, here's a review from a year earlier - in New Times, no less - of long-departed Brasserie Le Coze which mentions their flourless chocolate cake (same deal, and a good one too as I recall).
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2008-09-...
Speaking of which, I had previously griped about the size of the PT "chocolate bomb," we ordered it again more recently and it had grown from mini-muffin to normal muffin size. Still not a gigantic dessert which is perfectly fine with me, and quite good, served with a little blueberry sauce that I think was spiked with cardamom.
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Sorry for bad links ->
Brasserie Le Coze review in Miami New Times 6/3/92
http://tinyurl.com/49fo3z
PT 2.0 Miami New Times review (starting at the first page) ->
http://tinyurl.com/4btkoh
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