The Pacific Way

Best spot in Gearhart. Seasonal and regular offerings. Indoor spaces with covered back patio. Rich, comfort food with a continental lean. Wine list getting better. Nice owner. Parking: Lots of on street parking out front, along side, or across street.
Apr 8th, 2024

We dined at Pacific Way Cafe last weekend and were excited to try this restaurant. We were very disappointed. We have been in the restaurant business for 30 years and this is not intended to ruin a restaurant but hopefully they can improve. There is one thing a good chef should be good at and that is seasoning with salt. A good chef knows that salt enhances the flavor of the ingredients. We started with the salmon collar and foccacia bread and that was good so we were looking forward to the rest of our dinner. I ordered the Vegetable Tagliatelle and the Kabocha squash was not cooked at all and there were large raw crunchy chunks of it that were inedible. The sauce was not seasoned at all and was very bland. I could not and did not want to finish it. A pasta should have some different textures but not raw chunks of squash. My husband had the Crab Cakes with some kind of curry sauce and again no seasoning and he said the flavors were strange and not cohesive at all. So disappointing. We dine out on the weekends and enjoy good well prepared food but that is not what we received. If you are going to charge these prices, make sure your food is spot on. We dont mind spending money on good food. If you do tastings for the staff before service you should allow for honest comments from them and get it right. We will not be back, for now. Try a bit harder and talk to the chef about the purpose and necessity for salt in his dishes. It makes a world of difference.
Mar 30th, 2024

I had no idea! Living on the coast, our choices are limited. There's plenty of good food out here, but - until now - nothing really special. We came for a special dinner, but didn't realize how special it would be. One of our favorite chefs in Astoria worked with the in-house team at The Pacific Way to make a truly special evening. Dishes highlighted local specialties; oysters, mushrooms, salmon, and seasonal berries. Everything was beautifully prepared and delicious. Plating and serving were exceptional as well. My only regret is that we didn't take advantage of the excellent wine pairings. Won't make that mistake again!
Mar 21st, 2024

There were four entre items on the menu, which would not be bad if they were all stellar dishes. I chose seafood with fetuccini type noodles. The sauce, which was the only thing flavoring this dish, was flovorless except for the slight tinge of burnt butter. The scallops were cooked perfectly, but the prawns were overcooked. My freind was also unimpressed with her entre especially the beet "salad" that came with no flavor (again) and a weird green sauce that had odd flavors that did not work on any level. This seemingly high-end restaurant offered food that was worse than Mcdonalds; we wont be back.
Mar 12th, 2024

At the recommendation of friends, my wife and I had dinner at the Pacific Way while visiting Gearhart. Despite the positive experiences we heard about, we left very underwhelmed by both the food and service. Neither the miso glazed salmon and seafood pasta had much flavor. I would have expected the focaccia bread starter to come out warm, which it did not. The highlight of the food was the oysters which had a very pleasant mignonette. Service was slow and we waited more than 20 minutes after finishing our meal before flagging down a server to bring us the check. The restaurant itself is a very nice space and the staff are pleasant, but the rest of the experience left room for improvement. I hope that we just caught them on an off night, but would not recommend based on the experience.
Mar 7th, 2024