Cafe Pacific

Japanese gem in Ithaca located in Collegetown, right by Cornell campus. The owner, Hoshino, is very nice. I mainly wrote this review to let people know that Fumi is not the owner! Not sure why everyone likes her so much. she was not nice to me because I worked there and was not Japanese. She no longer works there but employees are usually Asians (girls) who go to Cornell University or Ithaca College.
Since I worked here, I tried everything on their menu. Love Café Pacific for their desserts (mochi, cheesecakes, molten lava cake), Purity ice cream (green tea, black raspberry) and affordable Japanese food. My go-to’s for entrees are the Sansai soba, yakisoba, sukiyaki when it’s cold out, and tofu salad when I want something light. If you go to Cornell, Café Pacific is in the middle of all the restaurants/​apartments/​houses so take your time trying everything on the menu and make sure to get a punch card.

About once a week I come here to get bubble tea (my after-​work reward lol) and their bubble tea is great! They have a lot of different flavors you can choose from (my faves are the green tea or the red bean ones). Also, the lady behind the counter (I think she’s one of the owners) is the nicest person ever!!! She genuinely cares for her customers and one time she gave me 2 extra punches on my bubble tea punch card just for waiting a few more minutes than usual! I haven’t tried any of their food yet (although I plan to), but I always have an amazing experience there!

If I had to choose 1 corner store for the rest of my life, this would be it. This place is so cute, and has all the delicious Japanese treats from my childhood. They also have a pretty substantial food selection for lunch or dinner, cooked fresh to order. The dining space is a little ragged and stuffy (temperature-​wise), but it adds to the overall personality. The owner and chef is super friendly, chatty, and customizes orders to your liking. Authentic eats (to the best of my knowledge and experience) hot off the grill, and great price points. You can easily walk away with two meals, a few sides, and mochi dessert for under $ 25. A definite must-​return again and again if I’m back in Ithaca.

Their chicken and spinach soba was pretty much tasteless and the chicken was too tough. I got their vanilla malt shake too which was so-​so, BUT the owner is SUCH. A. NICE. LADY. We talked for quite some time and she was really friendly and genuinely interested in her customers. I was debating between the vanilla malt or green tea shake and decided on the vanilla malt, but after I was done eating she brought me a scoop of green tea ice cream which I thought was really sweet of her. I had never tipped any restaurant more than 20% before, but I gave about 40% this time just because she really made me feel like home. Would’ve given this 2 stars if it was just for the food but the service bumped it to 3.

Great place for a casual dinner. Very sweet lady brought our food to us after we ordered at the counter. Very yummy curry and udon. I loved going to this place with friends.

So, set the scene. It was about 4 degrees outside, 4 or 5 inches of snow on the ground and continuing to snow. A friend of mine and I take a break from a project and walk down for soup. I’m not lying when I say their udon and soba got me through some of the worst winter days up here, and I’ve enjoyed their food for years.
We order and sit down to wait for the food to come. The woman manning the counter (I think she might be one of the owners) comes over and offers us hot tea and seaweed snacks, both of which we didn’t ask for. The food came out and it was as delicious as ever (especially after the snow and cold outside). As we get up to leave, counter woman stops us, offers us dessert, and thanks us for coming by in spite of the snow.
That’s just the sort of place Café Pacific is. It may not look like much, but it is delicious authentic Japanese comfort food, staffed by people who really care about the restaurant and their customers. I wouldn’t expect the treatment I received (this was certainly an aberration, and a pleasant surprise), but certainly expect to be pleasantly surprised.

The desserts here are delicious. I love the molten chocolate cake with green tea ice cream. Lots of Asian snacks and drinks too. Service is always excellent and very personal.

Great food, and great service. A great place to go in college town.

Very subpar boba compared to Kung Fu and the Old Teahouse. Odd space, feels like the ceiling is on the verge of collapsing.

There’s really a dearth of Japanese food in Ithaca, but thankfully Café Pacific holds its own.
Café Pacific is a sort of random little Japanese café in Collegetown that doesn’t appear to get much foot traffic. It’s definitely on the older side — the computer in there looks ancient — but the place is clean and generally neat. It’s packed to the gills with authentic Japanese candy and food, which is awesome.
The bubble tea here isn’t the best in Ithaca, but it’s pretty darn good.

This tiny Japanese café is great for a great tasty bite of Japanese food. The service is great and the owner and cook is very friendly and personable.

I’ve only been here for their a amazing bubble tea, but the customer service is impeccable. The owner is extremely nice, and the atmosphere is cute. I had a great experience overall.

I’m not sure whether some of these other reviewers have experienced authentic Japanese comfort food, but this is by far the best Japanese restaurant in a college town otherwise starved of decent Japanese food. Hoshino-​san, the owner, is a friendly and great guy. He knew me by name, and would even often come to my group’s concerts. If I came back late from campus, I could rely on this place being open until midnight — sometimes they would even keep the kitchen open for me. My club also often did team dinners here, and they were very accommodating, even offering us free desserts on occasion.
My favorite item here by far is the yakinikudon (similar to gyuudon but with sukiyaki-​style meat), especially when you ask for it extra spicy. The curry is more on the watery side, so I’m not a huge fan (I like it nice and thick), but has a great flavor. The tonkatsu and unagidon are other great items to try. The zaru soba is also standout here — refreshing for a hot day if you stay in Ithaca over summer. I found the ramen options to be so-​so; great if you’re craving ramen since you have no other option in Collegetown, but definitely not comparable to the better places in New York, let alone Japan.
Desserts and drinks here are also good; their molten chocolate cake and coffee shake were staples of my diet (to my detriment) while I was in college. I wouldn’t recommend the bubble tea; go down the street to the Old Teahouse for that.
Again, if you’re looking for the typical American Japanese sushi-​teriyaki experience, don’t come here; you have Plum Tree or Miyake for that. If you want authentic home-​style Japanese comfort foods, this is the place to go. All in all, my favorite restaurant in Ctown, and I always make sure to stop by every time I visit!

The sukiyaki and nabeyaki udon are pretty good, and so are the molten chocolate and lava chocolate cakes.
The best part about Café Pacific is the people who work there! Fumi-​san is always very cheerful and nice to the customers, and brings hot tea to the tables!
Don’t forget to get a punchcard for free food!

not a fancy ambience
but a good place to enjoy the katsudon and seafood nabe (esp broth is flavorable)

The prices are different from the website, but still pretty affordable.
Got the Oyako-​don (chicken & egg with savory sauce & vegetables over rice). I was so disappointed when I got my meal. It said «vegetables», but it was just a few pieces of some kind of asian pickled cucumbers (i think). I had better ones in cans as a kid. Yuck! I discarded those. If you are expecting some vegetables with your meal (like i was), this is not a good option.
It was too salty. The savory sauce that was on the rice was so salty. I had to exchange some of my rice with my friend (who had a bowl of plain rice with her order). Then by mixing some plain rice was it decent. To describe the Oyako-​don, it was some stir fry chicken chunks, then covered with egg. So it was like an omelet. The savory sauce tasted like sweet soy sauce. Aside from being too salty, I thought it tasted decent.
I thought the portion was pretty big and I was not able to finish it. However, my friend told me that she didn’t think it was a big portion.
My friend got the specialty entrée: Sukiyaki (Sliced rib eye steak, tofu, vegetables and noodles in savory broth). It was like a hotpot in a clay bowl/​dish. Tofu was some firm tofu. tasted bland. Noodles were vermicelli. The savory broth was the similar to the one in my Oyako-​don. I don’t know if it was meant to me drunk or just a base for the entrée. My friend did not drink the broth though. It was on the salty side, but the order did come with a bowl of white rice.
Overall though, it was a satisfying meal.
(if you buy 10 meals, you get the 11^th free! Great if you go with a bunch of people or with a friend. can get 10 stamps in no time!)
Side note: said free wi-​fi, but I could not connect to it. I opened my computer the whole duration I was there and no internet.

My rating is kind of a net total of a rating for the different things offered. Here’s the breakdown…
The food (2): I have some friends who are really into it, but I just never found the food all that great. Maybe it’s because I’m a vegetarian, but there aren’t many options and it tends to be a bit overpriced for small portions of very simple food.
The desserts (5): I LOVE the deserts here! Such a great selection and always really great. The lava cake is particularly good!
The bubble tea (3): Not bad, but not all that good. Why get it here if Tea House is right around the corner?
Also the service is always great — the owners are super nice and so are their employees!

Four stars for service and food, but taking off a star because of the milk tea quality.
The milk tea is basically the same as what you can get at The Old Teahouse. It’s marginally more expensive here. They’ll make your drink a bit faster here though. But diluted, $ 4.00, slowly made drinks don’t do too well in my book.
As for the food, I got sukiyaki for lunch today. Flavorful broth, plenty of meat, and a good amount of vegetables and tofu, but it definitely needed more noodles. The guy working here brought my order out pretty quickly, and seemed to do so for the other tables as well. He also was pretty nice and patient with me when I was trying to figure out what to order. The place has lots of options for simpler Japanese foods, the kind of stuff I usually see on «starving student» menus back home.
It’s worth coming back to, but I think I’ll go for a cheaper entrée next time.

Good Japanese food doesn’t exist in Ithaca, so perhaps this one is the best by default. I like the Japanese noodle soup items. The broth is always flavorful, and while the noodles don’t seem homemade, they’re good enough. I also have enjoyed their eel rice bowl. Basically the flavors are just as good as the other underwhelming Japanese places but at least you won’t pay an arm and a leg for it here.
As for the deserts, avoid the boba drinks at all costs; go down the block to the old teahouse because this place has awful tapioca.

Their bubble tea (contrary to popular belief) is actually not that bad! I liked the white chocolate, taro, and black milk tea flavors. I ordered them hot since it’s winter and they were great. I think they’re also a bit cheaper than the Old Teahouse, but of course the Old Teahouse is more authentic.
In terms of desserts, I’ve heard nothing but good things, especially about the lava cake that comes with a scoop of ice cream! I’ve had the green tea mochi which is also good. Nice place to pick up authentic (but overpriced) asian snacks.
Last time I went I also ordered the miso ramen which unfortunately was more salty than miso-​flavored. Also, there weren’t many things (fish cakes/​vegetables) added to it, so although it was a large bowl it was disappointing.
Definitely come here for snacks/​desserts though :)