Pacific Seafood BBQ House

210 Toorak Rd 
South Yarra, VIC 3141

I’m back! Though my posting schedule might make it seem otherwise, I’ve taken a week and a half worth of blogging hiatus for Christmas, choosing instead to rely on my backlog of past eats. But now I’m back in business, and with it still being the holiday season, there wasn’t much choice in terms of food. We ended up at Pacific Seafood BBQ House, a Cantonese stalwart that has long tempted us with its delicious smells.

Pacific Seafood BBQ House is exactly what you’d expect from a mid-range restaurant specialising in home-styled cooking. The interior is nice enough, with every inch of space carefully utilised to maximise capacity, in order to fit in as many large, boisterous Asian families as possible. Strips of colourful paper lining the walls proclaim the specials of the day. 

House Soup

Like all good Asian restaurants, we were treated to a bowl of House Soup as we scanned the menu. The broth was delicately porky, sweetened with chunks of wintermelon and carrot. 

Crispy Roast Pork ($10.5, entree)

Crispy Roast Pork ($10.5, entree)

It’d be incredibly remiss to visit a BBQ house and not try any of the BBQ, and I for one prefer Crispy Roast Pork ($10.5, entrée) much more than duck or chicken. After all, how could I say no to juicy meat and incredibly crunchy skin, ribboned with fat?  Whilst the fat to meat ratio may be a little too much for some, as a diehard Asian, I adore the way it melted in the mouth. 

Seafood with Silky Beancurd ($26)

The Seafood with Silky Beancurd ($26) combined all my favourite things on a bed of crunchy broccoli, doused in a slippery egg sauce. Whilst simple, this was a delicious tumble of fresh seafood, from plump scallops to chewy pieces of calamari, and everything else in between. The deep fried globes of wobbly tofu soaked up all the delicate umami flavours of the seafood.  

Special Fried Rice ($7, small)

And instead of boring steamed rice, we opted for the Special Fried Rice ($7, small) instead as our filler. If only all fried rice was like this! Interspersed with BBQ pork, golden shreds of egg, and large bouncy prawns, the rice was fried to a fragrant smokiness, with shreds of lettuce added in for a bit of crunch.

We finished up our meal with a quick dessert of complimentary orange segments (sweet and juicy), and left feeling completely satisfied. That feeling was compounded when we walked past the mob of people waiting outside on the sidewalk for their chance at delicious Cantonese home cooking. Like all good cheap and cheerful Chinese restaurants, the service and decor at Pacific Seafood BBQ House may be minimal, but you’re sure to get a fabulous feed with hardly any damage to the wallet.

Rating: 14.5/20 – moooooooother knows best.

This rating reflects my personal experience at the time of visit.