Restaurants in Pace

In business for 13 years, O’Brien’s Bistro serves an upscale menu of seafood and grilled meats, all prepared to order by chef and owner Jim O’Brien. The chef endeavors to please all tastes with a variety of seafood dishes—including crowd favorites such as lobster-stuffed grouper and coconut fried shrimp—as well as grilled chicken, steaks and house-made soups. He’ll even modify any dish to accommodate customer requests, such as allergy restrictions or a preference for rhyming ingredients. Though the bistro is located in a strip mall, the interior offers an unexpected retreat with latticed dividers, cascading ivy, and a fluorescent fish tank.

Chefs roll fresh salmon, scallops, and barbecued eel into sushi behind Fuji’s open-air bar and send elegant platters to diners watching every slice or parties gathered in private rooms. Teriyaki-chicken or shrimp-tempura bento boxes arrive filled with neat portions of dumplings and crab rangoons to ensure that meals remain perfectly organized on the trip to the stomach. Pork or chicken cutlets are breaded and fried in the tonkatsu style, and udon or soba noodles tangle with stir-fried vegetables and fish cakes. Hibachi chefs sear filet mignon, chicken, or lobster tails to perfection to complement glasses of Japanese beer, sake, or jasmine tea from the beverage list.

Each of Wing Zone’s 15 sauces comes accompanied with a number. The digit doesn't signify the amount of ingredients, nor is it a tool for easier ordering. Rather, the sauce’s number, much like the scores given to candidates during presidential debates, denotes a spectrum of spiciness, with 1 being mild and 4 being too hot for its own good. Original wings, boneless nuggets, and crispy fried shrimp come dressed in up to four of the zesty flavors, such as garlic parm, Ragin’ Cajun, and, the hottest of the hot, Nuclear habanero. Aside from dressing up chicken and fish, the Wing Zone kitchen also churns out plainly dressed chicken tenders, stacks of burgers with bacon and cheese, and extinguishes burning taste buds with banana cheesecake or chocolate brownie bites.