Delivery from Pacific Catch

Update Review, January 2025

Sigh.  This is the story of a sad delivery experience.

I ordered online, on Pacific Catch's own website, in the early afternoon, and set a delivery time of 5pm.  I immediately got the confirmation email.  Excellent.  It said expected delivery time of 5pm, as I requested.  Great.

At 4:46pm I got a message showing the tracking.  It had a delivery person (through DoorDash) nearly there, set to pick it up.  It gave a 5:07pm delivery time.  Ok, a bit late, but not that bad.  And then it showed the Dasher there waiting.  The delivery estimate kept increasing.  By 5:20pm, I no longer had a delivery driver.  My order status just went back to being received.  Sigh.

Um, what?  I had a 5pm delivery set, and now it was much past that.  By 5:30pm I had a new delivery driver.  They were on the other side of the city from the restaurant.  New delivery estimate?  5:57pm.  Sigh.  I ordered in advance, with a set delivery time, for a reason.  Also, there was raw seafood, and hot fried food, in the order, neither of which would take well to being just totally abandoned for an hour.  Sigh.  The delivery estimate then just kept increasing, as the Dasher slowly made their way towards the restaurant.  6:07pm it now said.

As expected, when it arrived (closer to 6:30pm), the hot food was stone cold (it likely had been ready before 5pm) and the sashimi was lukewarm, both of which definitely detracted from my experience.  But overall, it was still a decent overall experience, particularly because my order was inspired because I had a free birthday bowl on my account to redeem (and then I had to add more to the order to meet the delivery minimum), so this was minimal cost to me.

Bowls & Grains

For my free bowl, I could have picked from any of the standard bowls, which include the Japanese wasabi bowl I had last time and thought was ok, or the less appealing (to me) West Coast Style (roast veggies, pesto, drizzles), Hawaiian teriyaki (stir fry), Latin Chimichurri (potatoes, chimichurri, etc), or Mexican Grill (elote, black beans, guac, cotija, chips, etc), all of which could have my choice of salmon, kanpachi, shrimp, tofu, chicken, or steak (for an additional charge). Or the newer sushi bowls, which sound much like the Japanese wasabi bowl, just with sashimi instead of poke on top.  It was these bowls that drew me in.

Double Rainbow. $31.50.
(No avocado, crab salad on the side, sub all mixed greens).

"Sashimi (2 ea) of kanpachi yellowtail, salmon and sesame-seared ahi, crab salad, yuzu tobiko, avocado,

wakame, marinated cucumber, pickled ginger, daikon, soy-wasabi vinaigrette, 1/2 mixed organic greens, 1/2 sushi rice."

The regular "sashimi trio" bowl comes with 3 slices each of kanpachi, salmon, and ahi, but I opted for the double rainbow version, with only 2 of each sashimi, but also a scoop of crab salad, as that was the highlight of my bowl last time (and strangely is no longer an option to add on or sub in any other bowls).  I asked for no avocado as I'm allergic, and suggested adding extra of any of the other toppings, as I had last time as well.  I also asked for the dressing and crab on the side, so I could use them separately and so they wouldn't get soggy.

I was immediately let down to see the avocado perched right in the middle.  The dressing was indeed on the side as I had asked (and maybe is standard for delivery anyway?), and the crab salad was on the side, so they did honor some of my requests.  The crab salad was a much bigger portion than my previous order.

For a base I opted for all mixed greens (rather than half rice) which is one of their standard offered customizations.  The greens were fresh, crisp, assorted.  Pretty standard mixed greens base.

One side of the bowl was made up of the other vegetable toppings: pickled ginger, marinated cucumber, seaweed salad.  It was a decent sized mound of seaweed salad, pretty standard generic seaweed salad with sesame seeds and kinda sweet dressing.  The kind of seaweed salad that gets stuck in your teeth easily.  It did taste kinda ... fishy though, and I think I'd opt to have it left out in the future.  There was also a fairly generous mound of pickled ginger that had a nice bite to it, and a rather small portion of the marinated cucumber that wasn't particularly flavorful and was kinda soft.  All made it very poke bowl-eque, and went well with the other ingredients. *** toppings.

Moving on to the middle, the avocado looked freshly sliced, ripe, no browning, but I had to discard it.  The diakon sprouts were nice for fresh touch besides just the mixed greens base.  Lemon to drizzle on top added a nice pop of acidity.  Again, all good compliments to the overall bowl.

And then, the closest half of the bowl, the sashimi.  This was ... a mixed bag.  The pieces were quite thin, but mostly very wide, and sorta just looked odd.  Definitely not standard sashimi cuts.  All were warm, which was a bit disconcerting, due to the long delivery and likely having sat there for quite a while before pickup.  The salmon didn't have much of a fresh raw salmon flavor, if that makes any sense.  It was raw salmon, but it tasted more like smoked salmon (just minus the smokiness), sorta like lox, which was accented by the fact that it was sliced so thin.  I actually ended up putting it on my grill to quickly lightly sear it, and really enjoyed it mid-rare like that.  I think the quality was more suited to being cooked.  *+ as raw sashimi, but *** as cooked thin salmon.  The kanpachi was very chewy, and both pieces had a large blood line running through them.  Not particularly good.  **.   I ended up grilling this too, and thought it was much better that way.  *** grilled.  The "sesame-seared ahi" had the tiniest bit of sesame and the slightest sear of the edge, but both of those aspects were easy to miss as they were so minimal. The piece right on top right was reasonably cut (although, like the other varieties, thin and wide), but the other piece, that you can't see well, was totally mangled.  It was so thin I think that it just tore apart, and was about 1/3 the size of all the other pieces.  Consistent knife cuts really do not seem to be their strong point.  The ahi was as lackluster as the others taste wise. **. So the sashami really was not what I'd consider sushi quality.  Poor knife cuts, not flavorful, and I question how fresh it was.  I think this place does a better job with their cooked seafood and poke, which, granted, are the majority of their menu.

I moved on to the crab salad, which I intended to throw on top of a salad the next day, but of course I wanted to try it right then.  It was all real crab, a mix of shredded and a few large pieces of lump crab.  It seemed fresh, no fishiness to it.  Very lightly mixed with mayo, and sprinkled with furikake.  Good enough crab salad, and a generous portion, far more than I had last time.  ***+.

And finally, the soy-wasabi vinaigrette, which I enjoyed on my previous bowl quite a bit too. I love the hit of wasabi.

Overall, such a mixed bag, the base salad and veggie elements were good, the crab and lobster salad were great, and I did like the salmon once I seared it, but it is pretty hard to overlook the lower quality sashimi and odd slices of fish.

Kid's Meals

Pacific Catch has a remarkably good kid's menu.  Not only are the choices interesting, they are very reasonably priced.  Just $10, and all (besides the sushi rolls) include a side of choice (including sweet potato fries as an option with no up-charge, or side salad, regular fries, chile-lime fries, chips & salsa), plus some token broccoli and fruit.  The entree choices range from more standard kid favorite chicken strips to mini versions of the Mexican or teriyaki bowls (with choice of salmon, chicken, shrimp, steak), to several small sushi rolls, to even a 2 piece fish & chips or coconut shrimp.  Coconut shrimp is also available as a standard appetizer for $13.95 with 7 pieces (but no sides), and a 2 piece adult fish & chips is $15.95, so this really does seem like a great value (I think the fish pieces included in both is the same, just the portion of fries is less, and kid's version has the broccoli/fruit, the adults has slaw).

I was torn between the coconut shrimp (which gets great reviews as an adult appetizer but I wasn't entirely in the mood for) and the fish & chips (fried Alaskan cod, which gets ... mixed reviews as adult version as fish & chips or when used in fish tacos, but was more of what I wanted).  Really, I wanted the other fried seafood item that is served either as an appetizer, or as part of the "mixed catch" trio with those other two, the fried calamari, just not in full size appetizer form.  However that wasn't an option on the kid's menu.  I took a gamble, and tried to order it anyway, with a note in the comments.

Custom Kid's Meal. $10.
(Calamari, Sweet Potato Fries, Sauces).

I did technically order the kid's fish & chips, with sweet potato fries as my side choice.  But I asked them to sub fried calamari for the fish, and to include sauces for it (they don't normally include dipping sauce for the kid's meals fish & chips nor the coconut shrimp for some reason).  I truly had no idea what I'd get.  I thought the chances were high that I'd still get the fish & chips, which would be fine, but I did really prefer the calamari instead.

And ... I did mostly get what I wanted!  It was calamari instead of fried fish, and there *were* sauces, just, uh, not the ones that normally come with either of the items I had (plus lots of ketchup packets, because, kids).  I was still quite pleased with what I got, besides the fact that it was literally stone cold (not even lukewarm, like, actual cold, likely due to the exceptionally long delivery time).

Fried Calamari

"Crispy calamari, fried lemon slices, Fresno chile, chipotle aioli." 

My off-menu kid's portion of the fried calamari was fairly substantial, there is a lot under the sweet potato fries too.  My portion most mostly rings (likely the most kid friendly pieces?), but a few tentacles, and two little tips.  It also included two of the fried lemon slices, but no Fresnos that come in the appetizer version, and, rather than providing me the chipotle aioli that normally comes with the calamari, they gave me two other sauces (presumably believing a child wouldn't want the spicy aioli?)

The calamari was good (once reheated).  Light batter, not chewy pieces.  It was very oily and didn't seem like it had been drained very well (sooo much oil in the base of the box, and then in my air fryer as I heated it up), but that was easily to remedy.  The batter wasn't particularly flavorful, and it needed a hit of salt, but, the seafood itself was well cooked, and I enjoyed it.  I'd get this again.  ***+.  

The regular menu item for this, as an appetizer, is $15.95.

Sweet Potato Fries

I opted for the sweet potato fries as my side a bit skeptically, as I really love a certain style of sweet potato fries (Oren's Hummus has my favorites in SF, thick, double battered, super crispy), and Pacific Catch's look like boring thin ones, but reviewers all love them, say they are the best they've ever had, etc.  

They tasted as underwhelming as they looked.  Just, very generic, very average, thin sweet potato fries.  Cold they were really not good, but I did quickly warm them in my toaster oven, which improved them slightly, but, there just was nothing remarkable about the taste nor style.  Not sure why people love these.  Would not get again.  **.

Thai sweet chili sauce (normally with coconut shrimp): 

This was pretty standard sweet chili sauce.  Mostly sweet, a tiny bit of heat.  No better nor worse than any supermarket brand.  ***.

Jalapeño tartar sauce (normally with fried fish): 

This was great!  It did have bits of jalapeño in it, which gave it a slight kick.  Great level of creaminess.  Didn't just taste like mayo, balanced by some acid too.  Far better than average.  ****.

Broccoli, orange

All kid's meals come with broccoli and fruit, which, um, turned out to be a single piece of broccoli and a orange wedge.  I think this is what it always is.  Both were fine?  Fresh enough citrus, lightly cooked broccoli.  ***.

Update Review, 2024

Wow, many, many years (10!) had passed since I last had Pacific Catch.  The last time I had it, um, DoorDash didn't exist, and I ordered via Caviar, which has long since shut down.  Wild.  And the menu seems to have changed pretty dramatically too.

I still haven't visited in person, as this was also a delivery order.

Bowls | Grains & Greens

Pacific Catch has a bunch of curated bowls on the menu, all of which can have a base of mixed greens or rice, or, as they come by default, 1/2 and 1/2.  Each bowl is a different style, with toppings and proteins to match (although you can easily customize to swap out the main protein or double it up).  

Each bowl style is fairly unique, such as the Korean Bibimip inspired bowl with spicy cumber banchan, kimchi, etc and gochujang soy-chile sauce, or a Mexican Grill with elote corn, black beans, gaucamole, etc, etc and guajillo shrimp, or a healthy "West Coast Style" grilled salmon with roasted cauliflower, avocado, etc and pesto, yadda yadda yadda.  Don't worry carnivores, the Korean BBQ option with ribs and fried egg on top is there, as is the Hawaiian Teriyaki for those who don't want such bold flavors, etc, etc, etc.  10 different bowls total, and really, one for any flavor profile you seek.  They are mostly all available in two sizes, "Small" or "Regular". 

Japanese Wasabi Ahi Poke Bowl. Regular Size. $19 + $6.
(Sub Crab Salad, No Avocado, Add Shrimp).

"Avocado, wakame seaweed salad, marinated cucumber, pickled ginger, daikon sprouts, furikake, soy-wasabi vinaigrette, mixed organic greens."

I went for the Japanese bowl, which normally comes with ahi poke, but I subbed in crab salad, because, <3 crab.  I also added on additional shrimp, which I planned to use with my dinner.  I asked for the seafood on the side, as the shrimp I intended to use later anyway, and the crab I didn't want to make the lettuce soggy.

Because of my avocado allergy, I had to ask to have the avocado left off (I hoped they would add more of something else instead, but I don't think they did).  I opted for a base of all mixed greens rather than the standard 1/2 rice, 1/2 greens.

This bowl had strengths and weaknesses.  The base was kinda boring, just mixed greens, but fresh and crisp enough.  I liked the diakon sprouts as something a bit different. The marinated cucumber was kinda soggy/soft and didn't have much flavor.  The pickled ginger and seaweed salad were both average, about the same as you'd get at any poke shop or sushi place.  Nothing great about them, but nothing bad either.  I'm not sure where the furikake was, just a tiny sprinkle on top the crab? I didn't find any elsewhere.  So ... kinda all fine, but underwhelming, and lacking any crunchy component.  Getting a bowl this style at a poke place is a better bet for having more interesting ingredients and more textures.  So base?  ***.

The crab salad however was quite good.  Real crab, not krab stick, shredded, and mixed with mayo.  Perhaps a bit more mayo than I really prefer, as you couldn't taste the crab all that much, but, I liked it all the same. ***+.

The shrimp really let me down.  I was expecting larger, grilled shrimp, as I'd seen in other photos online.  I was hoping for 5-6 big juicy shrimp with lovely grill marks and smoky flavor.  These were small, and just sautéed I guess?  15 of them.  The shrimp were fine, well cleaned, not too rubbery, not too fishy, but really not very good either.  Eh.  **+.

And finally, the dressing, a soy-wasabi vinaigrette that was absolutely fabulous.  It had a legit kick from the wasabi, and the soy complimented the bowl ingredients well.  It was slightly creamy too, I think it may have had mayo in it too?  I also think I tasted some miso?  Anyway, it was really addicting dressing, and once I added it to my bowl, my flavors really popped.  ****.

So overall, I did quite enjoy my bowl, but I found it lacking a bit texturally, and really wanted some more exciting toppings.  *** overall.

This was the "Regular" size, so, $19 + $6 for the shrimp, making it a $25 salad, pretty pricy for what it was.

Side of Wonton Chips. $7.

When I ordered from Pacific Catch many years ago, I remembered really liking their house made wonton chips, served with all of the different pokes.  I didn't want poke this time, but I still wanted those excellent chips, so I reached out to the restaurant to find out if this was an option.  Although not on the menu, they said ordering a side of the chips (either these wontons or tortilla chips that go with the ceviche) was no problem.

My order included 3 little bags of chips, for $7, the cost of a side of fries normally.

The chips were good - crispy, light, fresh, not too greasy.  I enjoyed them with crab salad stacked on top of them, and I think they'd go great with sweet chile sauce too.  I wouldn't go out of my way to order these again unless I was really craving something like that, but, I appreciated that they let me do this.

***+.

Original Review, April 2016

One night, we were really craving sushi for dinner, but didn't want to go out to get it.  I looked through all the possible sushi locations on the popular delivery sites in San Francisco: Seamless.com, GrubHub, Eat24, Foodler, delivery.com.  Sure, they had sushi, but every place that I cross referenced on Yelp scared me away.  They all seemed to be the bottom of the barrel.  I was at a loss.  We considered using Postmates to deliver Whole Foods sushi.  It isn't amazing, but seemed less scary than the other choices before us.

And then ... I remembered Caviar.  A much smaller delivery service than the others, they partner with restaurants that do not normally offer delivery, but offer takeout.  They charge a flat rate delivery fee of $9.99 anywhere in the city, and automatically add on 18% gratuity.  It isn't the cheapest option, but their web site is beautiful, with quality photos of every dish so you know what you are getting, and they provide real time monitoring of your delivery.  But the best part: they partner with places you actually want to get food from.  I've only used Caviar once before, when we wanted pizza, and were able to get Little Star Pizza, my favorite pizza in the city.  So I eagerly pulled up their site, hoping that their curated options would include sushi.  And indeed they did.  I had two choices even.

I picked Pacific Catch, mostly because I've walked by their Marina location in the past, and it always looks busy, which seems like a good sign.  They actually have 2 locations in SF (6 total in the Bay Area), and I think my order came from the further location.

Ordering on the Caviar site was easy and flawless, and I received a call from the driver when he was a few blocks away.  I appreciated being able to GPS stalk him via the website as he approached with our sushi.  No problems with Caviar, at all.

The food was fine, which is saying something for delivery sushi, but it certainly wasn't remarkable, and seemed pricey for what it was.  I'd still consider going to Pacific Catch in person sometime to get some of their other food (the menu is very extensive, featuring fried seafood, seafood tacos, etc, but those items didn't seem particularly suited for delivery), but I wouldn't go for the sushi again.  So far, no takeout sushi has even come close to the takeout sushi we had from Roka Akor.

White Tuna Poke.  $12.

I know I said we were ordering sushi, but Pacific Catch has an entire section of the menu devoted to Hawaiian Poke, in more styles than I even knew existed - 7 total, including a vegetarian tofu option.  Since they featured poke so prominently, I had to try it.  And, it was raw fish I was craving, I didn't entirely care what form it was served in, poke worked for me.  Most of the pokes are ahi based, and since we were getting an ahi roll, I decided to go for the white tuna version.

Described as "yuzu citrus, fresno chilies, white soy sauce, red onions".  Served on the side were crispy wonton chips.

This was good.  Nice sized chunks of tuna that tasted fresh.  Very thinly sliced onions and peppers.  Flavorful from the soy and burst of citrus, well seasoned.  Everything was well balanced, both in the flavors, and in the ratios of different ingredients.

I really liked the crispy wontons.  It sounds silly, but they just got these right, super crispy, not too oily, great for scooping up the poke.  But, the poke itself was so tasty, I preferred to just eat it plain, and enjoyed the leftover crispy wontons dipped into sweet chili sauce later.

Definitely my favorite dish of the night, clearly fresh, and well thought out.  I'd gladly try another variety of their poke, or order this one again.

$12 price seemed a little high for the small quantity, but this was clearly fresh, quality seafood, so it wasn't too bad.

Spicy Tuna Roll. $9.

Next, an actual sushi roll, since, sushi is what we wanted.  Pacific Catch doesn't actually serve any nigiri or sashimi, so rolls were the best we could do.  Plenty of the rolls included deep fried components, which wouldn't work for delivery.  And all but one use avocado, which I'm allergic to.  I could easily ask to have the avocado left out, but I was worried my note would get missed in the delivery order, and I'd be unable to eat the sushi.  So, I had one choice: spicy tuna.

Described as "ahi tuna, sriracha aioli, chili oil, cucumber, daikon sprouts & green onion".

The role was very mediocre.  All components were a bit mushy, particularly the rice.  I couldn't taste the tuna, as there was way too much of the sriracha aioli, which didn't actually taste like sriracha, just like mayo, but it was orange colored.  The cucumber was fresh and crispy at least.

So, somehow flavorless, just mushy rice with a crunch of cucumber.  I didn't really care for this, and it turned me off from ordering any of their other rolls too.  Price was fine.

California Roll Salad. $19.50.

And finally, we went for the only other cold choice, a salad.  They offer salads topped with seared ahi, grilled salmon, chicken, or crab salad.  The ahi looked good in photos, but since I love crab, and Ojan was craving California rolls, we went for the California Roll Salad.

Described as "meal sized" and "made with organic spring greens & hearts of romaine, real crab salad, avocado, cucumber, ginger, tomatoes, carrots & shredded nori with soy-wasabi vinaigrette".

Ah yes, avocado, again, clearly, since it was a salad version of the California roll.  I asked to have the avocado on the side, and knew that if they failed to read my instructions, it hopefully would just be touching part of the salad, and I could work around it, unlike inside a roll.

My request was honored, and the avocado came in a separate container on the side.  I didn't get a photo, but it was a generous amount.

I'm not really sure what I was expecting, since I'd seen photos, and read the description, but somehow, I wanted this to be more than just the sum of its parts.  It wasn't.  It really was just a salad.

The lettuce was a mix of spring greens and hearts of romaine, fresh, crispy enough.  Same with the shredded carrot, the grape tomatoes, the sprouts.  There wasn't any cucumber, as was listed in the description.  Nothing exciting here.

I found the addition of a big clump of ginger a bit fascinating, as it was really strange inside a salad, but given that Ojan is a ginger-o-holic and stole all the ginger from the sushi roll, this meant I actually got some.  The nori sounded great, but because it was thinly shredded was just totally lost in here.  Perhaps some kind of bigger chunks would work better.  Both of these components reflected the sushi roll aspect of the salad well.

The salad normally comes with one scoop of the crab salad, but I had them add on a second scoop (extra $4.50), since that is what we really cared about.  I knew it was supposed to be "crab salad", but I wasn't quite sure what that meant.  It turned out to basically be the filling from a California roll, which, I guess is expected.  Cooked, shredded crab.  It didn't contain any pieces recognizable as crab, which was disappointing.  While filler-style crab like this works fine inside a sushi roll, it was a bit sad on the salad.  Sorta like eating canned tuna, as opposed to the real thing?  I think I was hoping for something more like the style of crab salad you get inside a sandwich crab roll, not a sushi crab roll.  It wasn't seasoned either, so it was pretty flavorless and mushy.

The soy-wasabi vinaigrette was good, it had a bit of zing from wasabi, and the soy flavor went well with the crab.

Overall, this was disappointing, but really was what it advertised to be, it just turned out to not be what I really wanted.  $19.50 is pretty pricy for a salad, even if it has two scoops of crab salad on it, since the crab salad wasn't remarkable.  I wouldn't get this again.

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