The Abridged version:
- Pasifika Foods opened Aug. 30 in Sacramento’s Northgate neighborhood.
- Owner Sanjay Mani immigrated from Fiji and serves his home nation’s dishes along with Tongan and Samoan food.
- Coconut plays a central role at Pasifika Foods, from steamed lamb to shortbread.
Fiji’s national dish, Kokoda, sits in a refrigerated display case to the left of Pasifika Foods’ register. The island’s version of ceviche, this bright bowl features yellowfin tuna marinated in lemon juice, then chilled with cucumbers, tomatoes and red onion in coconut cream.
You won’t find Kokoda, or many of Pasifika Foods’ dishes, at any other Sacramento restaurant. Opened Aug. 30 at 3315 Northgate Blvd., Suite 9, it serves Fijian, Tongan and Samoan foods unrepresented elsewhere in the city.
“Nobody makes it,” said owner Sanjay Mani. “If you go to an Indian restaurant, they don’t make Tongan or Fijian foods … we have a lot of Indian restaurants (and) people from India, but not Polynesian foods.”
A graphic designer by trade, Mani immigrated to the U.S. from Fiji in 2004 and settled in Sacramento shortly thereafter. He opened a Fijian restaurant, Mani’s Curry House, in 2010 at the corner of Mack Road and Stockton Boulevard in South Sacramento. But Mani’s closed after about a year, and its owner went on to do customer service work for Southwest Airlines and graphic design jobs.
Mani eventually got the food service itch again, and went hunting for a possible food truck, only to find Pakistani restaurant Chaska House going out of business in the Northgate shopping center. He and his wife Jarmila Wati moved Pasifika Foods into the somewhat dingy space, where they now pre-make curries each morning to sit behind a display case and fire fried items to order.
Tandoori wings and fish pakora will be familiar to many customers, but there are some regional differences at play. Fijian curries are lighter than their Indian American counterparts, typically made without heavy cream. Pasifika Foods relies instead on cinnamon, tamarind, chilis, garam masala, garlic and ginger to anchor its thali specials ($14-$22), curry plates served with rice, daal, naan and salad. Sapasui ($22), a Samoan take on chop suey, deploys lamb, carrots and onion alongside slippery glass noodles.
Similar dishes dot the menu at Summer Palace Cuisine, a Fijian-Indian restaurant opened last year at the corner of Florin Road and Power Inn Road in South Sacramento. In North Natomas, Polynesian fusion restaurant Fresh Off Da Boat by Chef T rolls out traditional items on the third Sunday of each month, and Jack’s Island Market in West Sacramento gives home cooks the tools to create Samoan, Tongan and Fijian dishes in their own homes.
Sacramento County has the most Fijian Americans of any U.S. county, according to the 2020 census, and similarly high Tongan and Samoan populations. But no Sacramento-area restaurant dedicates itself to those cuisines like Pasifika Foods.
Lamb flaps, a low rib cut, are often ground stateside; in New Zealand and its surrounding islands, they’re more commonly served intact. Pasifika Foods steams them with onions and coconut cream inside taro leaves and foil to make a Tongan dish called lu sipi ($19), which is then served with taro cooked in coconut cream.
The same cut is used in falai mamoe ($22), a savory Samoan stir-fry with a simmering kick that Mani makes with mixed vegetables, oyster sauce, dark soy sauce and Korean barbecue sauce. Weekend barbecue plates ($19) include a lamb chop, a lamb sausage, a chicken thigh, a boiled egg and cassava.
The counter-facing fridge often includes mango lassi as well as mango and watermelon otai, a Tongan drink with crushed pineapple and coconut milk in lieu of yogurt. Samoan desserts on hand include suafa’i (banana-tapioca pudding), pani popo (fluffy sweet rolls doused in coconut cream) or Masi Samoa (coconut shortbread made by cottage food operation Poly Bites Bakery), depending on the day.
Business is slowly starting to trickle in, too. David Kam heard about Pasifika Foods from some Pacific Islander coworkers and had hoped to go with them. When they stalled, he took his mom for lunch on a recent Tuesday, cleaning his bowl of lamb mamoe with garlic naan.
“Where in Sacramento can you find anything like that?” Kam said. “Over here, even if you’re looking for Indian food … it’s just the same exact thing everywhere, more Westernized dishes … so it’s really cool when you can find more authentic-style foods, more unique kinds of foods, right? You get to try other cultures.”
Pasifika Foods
Address: 3315 Northgate Blvd., Suite 9, Sacramento
Phone: 916-246-9244
Hours: 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday, closed Monday
Website: None, but Facebook and Instagram pages
Vegetarian/vegan options: Curries with chickpeas, potatoes and paneer as well as veggie fried rice.
Drinks: Canned sodas and a couple fruit-forward blended drinks.
Reservations: No
Benjy Egel is the senior food editor at Abridged. Born and raised in the Sacramento region, he has covered its local restaurants and bars since 2018. He also writes and edits Abridged’s weekly food and drink newsletter, City of Treats.