Willamette Week’s Restaurant Guide 2001: Our Top 100 Favorite Restaurants

by Harriet Fasenfest

“A trip to Pambiche can mine the depths of one’s sensory fields. Cross the threshold and you are instantly steeped in Latin rhythms, vibrant hues, piqued aromas. But it is after you are seated, nestled with familial coziness, that the final sweep occurs, as plates of earthy orchestrations stir one’s yearning for “BIG”. If Paula Wolfert, the high priestess of Mediterranean cooking, coined the phrase “big taste”, it this noble Cuban-Creole café that honors it. Discover it for yourself in the form of maiz, a Caribbean corn fritter that is both sweet and savory, hearty and light. Or better yet try the rabo encendido (“Oxtail on Fire”): Slated as the Cuban equivalent to barbecue, these knobby parcels arrive in a long simmering wine sauce that would coax the mildest palate out of hiding. But it is in the finale that “big” moves to the superlative, as Pambiche’s desserts chart a steady course to the divine.”