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Tommy O's Pacific Rim Bistro
Rating Details »
- Hours:
Mon-Thu. 8:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Fri-Sat. 8:00 a.m. - 11:00 p.m.
Sun. 8:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Parking:
- Street
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Good for:
- Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
18 reviews for Tommy O's Pacific Rim Bistro
Such an elegant spot in the city center. Cool. I didn't like how he seated me lonesome self in the middle of the room, in the sun, surrounded by full group tables. pfft, oh well declined to myself to move and just eat something good... and something good i did. The Island Fish & Chips hit the spot. And the Asian slaw? I hate slaws! but this one... this one was actually quite good. Not overly tangy which i'm used to, but refreshing... did the pineapple do it?
If I made you guys uncomfortable with my running pants and plain Tee, sorry and tough. I wanted to try your food and it was great. boo ya.
While I do love their breakfast, their dinner leaves something to be desired. I've never eaten there for lunch.
The breakfast food is great & service is great. The dinner food has been cold twice and the service (all 3 times I've been there for dinner) was so slow that at one point a person in our party got up to find someone to help us. When service showed up, they were always gracious...but over half the battle is showing up & being available & timing, you know?
I finally tried their happy hour at the "new" (to me) lounge a few doors up from the restaurant. I ordered the pork spring roll for $3.50 thinking it was a typo (and meant to be "rollS") or was going to be big. Guess what? It was one very small spring roll. We are talking two bites and it's gone. It was very tasty - I loved it...but $3.50 during happy hour for one tiny spring roll? Come on, now. My drink, again during happy hour, was $7. That is not a happy hour price. This isn't downtown Portland, it's downtown Vancouver.
Maybe I will just stick to their breakfasts and call it good.
Rice for breakfast!! Yum. The fried rice is sweet and greasy. The Lava Bed is covered in sweet toasted coconut. The Pahoa Scramble is like an Oyakodon but vegetarian with a hint of curry. What's not to like? Must come back on Fridays for some island music.
Went with a group for dinner. They also had a great live band. The food was wonderful (I had the duck) but our server kept forgetting things that we asked for. Overall I really love this place but the server last night could have been better.
1 Previous Review: Show all »
-
10/7/2009
It's very good. If you live in Camas it's the best place in the area. The drinks are also very good!… Read more »
I feel almost like a broken record... all of the other reviews pretty much have it right... great food, a touch pricey.
What they don't tell you is that they have opened a new restaurant, aptly named tommy os pacific rim grill in Camas... near roots and 360 pizza off 192nd.
the menus are similar, but different... if you get my drift.
tommy's there and tommy's here are pure hawaii!
awesome food and the happy hour rocks!
I hate Vancouver. It's a conservative place, where most people I met while living and working there thought The Olive Garden was a "Quality Restaurant." I did meet some quality people there, one of them being Tommy himself from Tommy O's.
The food is well priced in my opinion, but if you are used to shelling out 5 bucks for chicken strips at the corner market by the old bus mall, or eating the all day breakfast at the Gold Rush, I can see why you might call it spendy.
It's Hawaiian food, which is to say if you eat it frequently enough it will make you look like a future contestant on the Biggest Loser. That said, once in a while and in limited quantities, it's fantastic. There isn't much to get excited about in downtown Vantucky. If you happen to be stuck over in the Couve for a meeting, you'd be hard pressed to find a better place to enjoy a meal.
This place is very pretentious!!!!
None of meals that I ordered were good!!
I ordered a chinese chicken salad....horrible..I could not even eat it!!
I was not sure..what was the taste!!
The prawn was just okay....but the chowder soup was also not good.
And the AHI was horrible!! It was just very salty!!!
His Goatness scores serious points for this one.
While I worked, HG prowled Yelp for date-fodder... then called me as I was leaving, and gave me an address to meet him at. No further information. Piqued my interest!
I was in luck; I had the GPS with me, so I let it do the navigating. Pulled up across the street from Tommy O's, and saw the correct address on the door. Just to verify, I asked the courteous hostess if HG had made a dinner reservation; he had. She went on to explain that we were booked for a booth, and just needed to wait for the patrons in it to vacate -- would I like a cocktail while I waited? (Yes, I would!) I sat at the window bar with a very tasty Mai Tai (hadn't had one in years; they're usually too schlocky), awaiting HG's arrival.
While I waited, I looked around: paintings and photos framed on the walls of surfers riding the impossible blue giants of Hawaii's shores, tropical lushness and sunlight. Wooden bead curtain screening off the restrooms. Surfboards mounted hither and yon just to add to the ambience. Certainly made me nostalgic for the islands -- especially given how chilly it was inside (the second-coldest I've ever been in a tropical setting).
The man of the hour showed up, and joined me at the waiting bar. Tommy O himself served HG his cocktail, which was as tasty and well-made as my own rapidly-disappearing drink. We waited for about 20 minutes after the dinner reservation time of 7:30. Were the previous patrons malingerers, or does the reservation staff need to work on scheduling abilities? Unknown.
Having inhaled my Mai Tai entirely too quickly, I ordered a Pom-tini as we were seated (pomegranate martini -- yum). The place was beginning to fill up, so we waited about 10 minutes before our harried-looking server got menus to us. No eye-contact, no acknowledgement, no hastily sung-out "be right with you!" He seemed very young to me, and not especially good at multi-tasking, like the old hands are. (Seriously, head to Screen Door any day of the week to see real pros in action. They could handle a packed house, a wait list a quarter mile long, and a kitchen fire without breaking a sweat or missing a single coffee or water refill.) He also wasn't especially observant. I tried, without success, to gain his attention a couple of times during the course of our meal -- instead, getting the attention of 1) the bartender (I think; kudos for her service as well as her terrific drinks), and 2) the cute, chatty, friendly hostess (more kudos).
Regardless of probable inexperience, our server was very friendly and courteous, and he brought out our appetizer and meals promptly.
The lamb appetizer was succulent and delectable. Once again, there were three of them. Split between two people. Sigh.
HG ordered the scallops in a Thai coconut-lime sauce, over noodles. They were tender and very tasty, but a shade salty IMHO.
I went with Tommy O's Kalua pork, which I've been fiending for since the last time I got to visit Hawaii, years ago. It was perfect -- tender, smoky, rich and salty. Just as I remembered it. The sides were pretty palatable, too, although I was so fixated on the delicious pork I don't remember them well.
Our plates cleaned, we finished our cocktails (cute hostess talked me into a lilikoi margarita, which was fantastic), then waited for our madly-scrambling server to bring the check. When he finally came by to see how everything was, our plates had already been cleared away, and our movie was scheduled to start in 7 minutes. Poor guy. He rushed off to get our bill. Good thing the movie was a 5-minute walk away.
So they're perhaps not as organized as some of the restaurants I've been to -- I'll still happily go back for the food and drinks, next time I need a little island action. Just not at the height of the dinner hour, maybe.
I watched as a peculiar character skateboarded up to a group of children playing on the sidewalk.
"Hey kids" he jeered "How 'bout a Hawaiian punch?"
Looking at each other excitedly they smiled and I gasped, helplessly blocked from intervening by a television screen: "Noooooo!"
But it was too late. With stars circling around their forearms they rubbed their wounds to maniacal laughing and a terribly catchy jingle.
A comparable run of events takes place when I go to Tommy O's. Every time they go to tempt me with some sort of pacific deliciousness, regardless how full I am I always say "Yeah!" And yet, somewhere in the back of my mind a voice is going "Noooooo!"
The little restaurant is a staple in the area. If you're looking for good Hawaiian food without the cliché atmosphere this is where you go. The Chicken stir fry is my favorite. Fresh vegetables and rice with just enough chicken and teriyaki for a bit of flavor without smothering the dish. The island fish cakes are amazing too. There's also a full bar adjacent to the dining room. It's more recent, expanding when the original design firm tenant moved out (though one might argue the difference in the quantity of booze around designers vs. bars is negligible.) Check out their Aloha Hour from 4-6. Perfect for after work.
Both restaurant and bar are always packed, but service is prompt and friendly, even apologetic when slow to get back to you. Though busy, it's possible to have an audible conversation with you group, which is always nice.
And I'm sure they have something on the menu with 7 kinds of fruit too.
Breakfast with a Hawaiian twist!
My dad had the "local boy" which is eggs on a bed of white rice with a hamburger patty on top. He loved it! I'm more of an old-fashioned gal and love eggs with potatoes which they also serve!
I cannot recall the prices but I don't remember thinking they were too high or too low so I will say moderate.
What we like to do is walk the Hwy 5 bridge from Portland, OR into Vancouver, visit the Vancouver farmer's market, and then head over to Tommy O's for breakfast!
My suggestion would be to get there early. We made the mistake of coming by a little before lunch and they had stopped serving breakfast. I was a bit disappointed but they do have a good lunch selection as well. Needless to say, everything worked out and I have recommended this restaurant to friends!
After three 10-hr days of politicking a conference -- big smile, shake hand, business card, promise to look into it and get back to you, diplomatically shrug off personal questions about the narcissist in the north woods, rinse repeat ad infinitum -- by Friday, I was what my dad describes as rode hard and put to bed wet.
Enter stage left three true friends and a mad dash to Tommy O's Lounge for happy hour. Beat the rush, get the best seat in the house, and begin imbibing magical elixirs of white peach and guava and some seriously strong red stuff.
Eat a lot of yummy meaty food for pretty much no money. Observe the silver foxes, the cougars, and the hotty hot hot bartender. Laugh and laugh and laugh with your friends. Completely forget your woes.
The happy hour (4-6pm) offers many options and the service is stellar. Tommy himself joined us for a bit. It does get crazy busy on a Friday afternoon (especially with a conference ending nearby), and they handle the drink rush much better than the food rush, so strategize.
Came here late with a group after drinks at a friend's house. We were pretty much the last people to be seated, having arrived a 9pm, but were promptly served. The sashimi-like tuna I had was incredible, and the soy-vinegar sauce was very good.
Service was prompt and friendly, and the Cadillac Margarita was also quite tasty. Nice place for a date or friends, I imagine, in the relatively quiet downtown Vancouver area.
The best breakfast in Downtown Vancouver. (Yes, I know that doesn't say much, but it's still true.) The owner is always around and gives off a good vibe.
Impressive bar as well. Great happy hour. Good selection of beers on tap. Upscale in a Hawaiian/surfer kinda way.
I love Tommy O's for breakfast. It doesn't get crowded until a bit later than other spots, the folks are really friendly (except for one surly waitress who nonetheless provides good service), and a dude who looks EXACTLY like Crabman works there. Sweet!
They have a breakfast sandwich almost every weekend. It doesn't show up on the menu but will be on the chalkboard--be sure to check on your way in. That sandwich will KILL YOU DEAD from deliciousness.
All their island-ey scrambles and omelets are great too, but my staple is: two scrambled eggs, a side of bacon (have to specify crispy if you want it), and a side of sunflower sourdough. Add a French press of 100% Kona and you're on your way to a full tummy and some seriously animated conversation (well, I am, I don't drink much caffiene). My only complaint is that they have an odd toast phenomenon going on there--no matter what you order or when or how many other people are around, your toast will NEVER (well, 98% of the time) come out with your meal. It is always a minute or two later, with profuse apologies. I am thinking of buying them a large industrial toaster to increase their toasting capacity.
Oh, and their lunch sandwiches (Da Kine, oof) are to die for as well.
I love to get breakfast when I don't have to wait around to get a table. On a Sunday morning, Tommy O's was just the place for that. We were greeted the second we came in and showed to a table. Titled a 'Pacific Rim Bistro', there is Hawaiian decor all around. We're talking huge surf boards, floral table cloths, and staff wearing brightly colored Hawaiian shirts. It is done tastefully so you're not choking on the cheese factor.
The breakfast menu is traditional with Hawaiian flare (steamed rice instead of potatoes if you want). There is a pretty decent list of omelets and scrambles to fit your fancy. My experience with it though was mostly mediocre. It was a very well done omelet, but it was lacking any real flavor. The pulled pork was moist and lean, but just had no taste other than "Hi, you're eating pork, could you tell?" The potatoes are prefab cubes, so I was kind of disappointed. My sister's had seasoning, mine didn't seem to. So if you're into authentic roasted potatoes, this isn't going to be it.
Service was perfect, checking back a few times without ignoring or smothering.
I'd love to give them another shot and try other meals. It's nice to see a restaurant that isn't a chain serving breakfast. My only dilemma is, if I'm going to drive all the way down to downtown Vancouver, why not just take the extra miles to go to Portland to places I know and love? Shame on me.
FYI - They do have a "Aloha Hour" from 4-6pm!
Three and a half stars.
We took my visiting mother-in-law for dinner the other night and were pleasantly surprised by Tommy Os. The fish and chips were some of the best I've tasted and sharing the delicious Lapu Lapu (a 60 oz. beverage with multiple umbrellas) was a silly and perfect way to celebrate the visit.
I love their coconut shrimp... it is perfect with a great dipping sauce. In the evening they bring out edamame to nibble on while you peruse the dinner and drinks menu. They have a great happy hour!
Not bad. Good food. Good service. Comfy cushions on a wicker chair.
