My wife and I ate recently at Yokohama and Pacifico, both relatively new restaurants on Harvard St in Brookline Village, and had wildly different experiences. We ate at Yokohama late on a Saturday evening. We wanted sashimi, even though our waitress told us that there would be about a 1/2 hour wait. Well, we appreciated the warning and decided to stay anyway, but evidently we were the first table so warned. We got to listen to two fairly unpleasant arguments about the wait between customers and the owner, who seemed to have customer satisfaction way too low on her list of priorities. We started out with a miso seafood soup, which was ok, but overpriced, and some fresh cooked salted soybeans, which were far from fresh, and had been overcooked to boot. We sent them back and ordered some spinach instead, which was better. Finally the sashimi came, and it was disappointing. Too much money for too little fish, which was not very fresh. We won't be back. Pacifico was a completely different story. Once again, we came quite late, this time in the middle of the week. Eating late is often dangerous, since both the cooking staff and the waitstaff are likely to be getting tired. So it is always a pleasant surprise to find both excellent food and excellent service late in the evening. Pacifico has been transformed from Davio's, and both its decor and menu reflect its Italianate origins joined with new Asian influences. The menu, in fact, is half Italian and half Asian, mostly Japanese. There are a few dishes that attempt a sort of fusion, but most dishes fall unambiguously in one or the other camp. We thought about starting with sashimi and then segueing into an Italian entree, but ultimately the notion proved to be too gastronomically disconcerting, and we decided to stick with the Asian side of the menu. We started out with the very best yellowtail sashimi we've ever had. Three thick slices, perfectly fresh with just the barest hint of frost, just the way we like it best. Along with this we had a spring roll special, filled with crab and lobster, and served with a terrific tangy flavorful dipping sauce. For an entree, we split a large serving of noodles with chicken and seafood, served in a reduction sauce. It wasn't particularly exceptional, but it was good and filling, and perfectly hit the spot. Now the nice thing about multicultural restaurants is that they aren't strongly compelled to follow any particular theme for their desserts. While one of the desserts did have an Asian theme to it, the emphasis just seemed to be on serving good stuff. We split a chocolate torte served in a heavy crumb crust, plated with chocolate drizzle. I often find chocolate desserts to be too rich, dense or sweet, and while this dessert was certainly not light, it avoided these sins. We didn't want coffee, and wished they had a better selection of teas, but this didn't prevent us from enjoying one of the best desserts we've had in quite a while. It was a substantial serving too -- we even brought some home for the kids (though somehow it disappeared before they had a chance to eat it). Oh yes, we had an excellent waitress as well. Pleasant, helpful. communicative; there when we needed her, not there when we didn't. $45 for two with tax and tip, though we split an entree and dessert, and didn't have coffee. We'll be back, and next time we'll bring enough people so that we can split a sushi boat, which looked extremely good. -- Ellis
Boston, MA