Paracel Seafood

Booked paracel for our reception and the quality of customer service has been excellent!!! My family tried our wedding food menu today for the food tasting and the food was delicious! We are very happy that we chose Paracel for our reception. Great family business! Can’t wait to have our wedding here!

I attended a friend’s wedding here. The foods are not good at all. I am very disappointed.

Summary: had my wedding here and we couldn’t be happier with the balance of service, food, price, and flexibility.
The deets: We worked with Matthew, who was extremely helpful from start to end. I just remember he was making fancy drinks at the bar as the bartender, helped DJ for part of it, cleaned up, and was there all night helping in random capacities — not for shortage of staff, but because he wanted to help and participate — and yes he was good at all of those things. All Matthew’s responses were clear and prompt even after signing the contract: note that you don’t get this with some other vendors! He’s really young but he takes tons of ownership here and strives to make Paracel better every event.
Service: Paracel’s staff was extremely attentive and also helped pack our wedding items after the wedding. Service was excellent. We practically had a dedicated server to ourselves and helped to get food, drinks, cake cutting utensils, etc. The whole staff was extremely friendly, even when they were setting up or when we came to visit at other times. It’s important to know they are experienced at this.
The food was delicious and consistent — or at least what I could eat between pictures. Forewarning: the initial tasting was massive so we took all that food to a friend’s party, which they also enjoyed! (But you gotta be into banquet style Chinese food, otherwise you might not like it.)
Flexibility: They let us bring in a taco guy, set up a boba station, full band, photobooth, use confetti cannons, flower petals, distribute bottles of high end alcohol, and LED foam sticks. And they helped clean the mess up in the end.
Expectations: For throwing an event of this size (~250−300 persons) and stature, you almost can’t get a lower price per person at this quality. Their open bar alcohol offerings were comparable to a DIY Costco run, and includes the bartenders. And they weren’t stingy with the drinks either, though there was a reasonable line at peak times. Plenty were drunk that night.
That being said, the venue isn’t perfect, but it came a long way between last year when we booked it to when we had our wedding this year (May 2016). They took out their older red carpet and replaced it with a dark, sparkly floor. The particle board ceiling was replaced with a tiled ceiling (and they’re still finishing it). They built a heated outdoor area with a portable bar for drinks and smoking. I’m not a big fan of curtain walls, but many fancy venues do it — at least theirs is white and they can change the uplighting to any color.
Big ups and thank you to Matthew for making it all happen.
Note they also accept credit cards. And he can also help you plan through Google Docs too (it really helps).

Came here for a friend’s wedding and I must say I was not impressed with the food. The roast duck was dry, lobster noodle was drenched in an odd flavor sauce that left an aftertaste, beef had too much corn starch that made it very slippery but still bland. The only thing that was decent was the fried fish but without the sauce and the honey walnut mayo shrimp. I’ve definitely has similar dishes at cafes in san gabriel valley that tasted much better than this. Also, the food came out really quick for what was a ten course meal, to the point where we were barely half way done with a dish before the next one came out.

TLDR:
Great customer service, easy to work with, delicious food (the couple barely gets to eat on their big day, but this is what our guests told us)
Long version:
We worked primarily with Matthew, and we cannot say enough to praise his fantastic customer service skills. Every correspondence with him left us feeling so lucky and grateful to have him as one our vendors for our big day. He was always prompt with his response, patient and understanding of the various issues that popped up during our planning process.
Long story short we originally planned to have our dinner reception at his restaurant but had a last minute change due to construction at our ceremony site (Wyndham). After much scrambling, we ended up asking Matthew to cater at our NEW ceremony site so it would be more convenient for guests, and he worked with us to change our contract and make sure we would have everything we needed to throw a great party. Matthew made himself available to us via phone, email, and in-​person which really facilitated the planning process.
He was so easy to work with and we even hired him as our DJ for the event. We could tell he was very passionate about music and creating the right mood for our event. We had him mix songs for us and customize music for different parts of the night and he met all our requests with a smile.
As a vendor Paracel Restaurant is very very reasonable, but you get so much more than what you pay for. The level of customer service is top-​notch the food was delicious (or so we heard)! Thank you Matthew for going above and beyond our expectations and helping our big day go so smoothly.

I attended an event hosted here.
–FOOD–
For our menu, we had
— cold platter
— crab & asparagus soup (recommend)
— walnut shrimp
— steamed chicken
— beef bok choy mix
— fried rice
— fried fish fillet (recommend)
The food here was okay, nothing to rave about. I think the menu we had served a wide array of taste preferences. If I’m comparing it to catering services at hotels, I much rather eat this food. There is a wider variety and it’s a lot more affordable. Also, it got me really stuffed!
–SERVICE–
The server we had was really attentive and food came out quick but not too quick where you feel rushed to eat everything. They were quick to clean up any spills. The guy in charge, probably the owner’s son, was really friendly and accommodating.
–ENVIRONMENT–
The whole venue was well decorated. I would recommend this place because of the big space. However, I felt like too many people were squished in our small people that fit 10 people. I think each tables should be limited to about 8 people. 10 was too squishy. I also felt like I was too close to the next table which I didn’t like because I felt like I couldn’t get in and out of my chair easily.
I really enjoyed the event held here. I would recommend holding an event here!

A few descriptive words or thoughts that ran through my mind while looking around was: outdated, Tacky, unsanitary, crowded, unimaginative, budget driven, and stuffy. Like the ceiling is caving in and the chairs all around you are closing in.
My family and I were here for a hosted event last June and the food was not good. I wouldn’t even say subpar, it was way below subpar. The dishes came out cold (no. Not just the cold platter), bland, 1 dimensional, boring and cheap. With a 6+ course meal at a seafood restaurant you expect comfort, wow, decadence, fresh everything. Ive had my share of lobster and walnut shrimp dishes at many many weddings… this place is like the walmart of them all. The greens came out brown, the seafood was questionable and the only reason why they got 2 stars instead of one was because I didn’t get food poisoning.

We had our wedding on 4÷24÷16 and from the beginning to end Matt was wonderful! He made us feel comfortable and not to worry about anything! We live in San Diego and SD doesn’t have great Asian wedding venues so we looked in Orange County and glad we found Parcel! I had a ton a questions and emailed Matt and he would respond back the same day! He was always professional and friendly! Everyone raved about the food! Matt was also our DJ so everyone was on the dance floor the whole time! Only thing I would suggest is have one set plate for the bride and groom! I had 3 bites of the first 3 courses! My husband didn’t eat all day and if u know Asians wedding shots shots shots so he was really drunk! LOL thank you Matt for making it a memorable night!

I was at Paracel on 5÷12÷16 for a cultural event for work. I must say I am impressed with the owner’s caring attitude. He would go to every single table to make sure our needs met. He chatted with people and I could see everyone’s face was beaming while talking to him. Seeing that, I told him to run for the City Council and I will surely vote for him.
The food was good; decorations were cool to the eyes; the surrounding sound was great; servers were nice and helpful. What else would you ask for? Thanks so much for hosting our event. I will definitely recommend this restaurant to my friends and family.

Went for a work event and the food was quite subpar, of course I’m sure the host group had chosen budget friendly items but you could have had better at Panda Express. Seriously, the food should have been better especially being located in the Little Saigon area. The beef in this stir fried dish was more like mystery meat, one would be tempted to consider being vegan for a moment. Fried rice was average and for some reason really yellow. They had some kind of fried fish, which wasn’t bad but I would think they could have a better dipping sauce than sweet and sour sauce. At least one of the dishes they served must have had MSG since I was feeling the side effects I usually get when I ingest too much MSG, not fun. And how cheap can you be and not serve hot tea. The AV equipment is quite bad unless the staff didn’t know how to use it, so hard to hear folks. If you’re hosting a big event during mealtime the parking lot is madness.

My husband and I had our wedding at Paracel in December of last year. Chú Thong helped us since the beginning of the process. We booked the venue over a year and a half early because we were tight on budget and didn’t have that many guests.
[Background:I went to other venues to get quotes prior to going to Paracel. They were either too expensive or too small. One suggested that they would split the restaurant in half to accommodate for my small wedding. At the time, I planned for a wedding of 100 people and 120 max. My mom and I didn’t like the idea because the other party might be too loud, which could have overpowered our speeches.]
Initially, I was helped by Van, but she left and everything got transferred to Matthew (Chú Thong’s son). The transition didn’t affect us. Matthew was nice and responsive. I emailed him multiple times with my questions, adjustments and concerns. He was able to accommodate to my requests. The deposit dates were very easy and simple. There was no hard dates except for the two weeks prior. I didn’t feel like Chú Thong or his son rushed me in any way. Chú Thong even joked by saying if I needed anyone to sing on the wedding day. He’s actually a pretty good singer. I witnessed once on the day of the food trial, which brings us to the next part of the review.
There were six of us on the evening of the food trial day, and we got to try all of the courses from the menu that we picked. I was already surprised that they allowed that many people, let alone getting to try all of the courses, including the lobster. Matthew told us that portions for the trial courses are smaller in comparison to the actual day. To be honest, the six of us were stuffed and had to pack the leftovers. The trial was good, but we requested some adjustments to the style/​tastes. Both Matthew and Chú Thong were open with my requests.
Two weeks before the wedding, the DJ, my mom, my husband, and I came to Paracel for our appointment for the final deposit and adjustments. Matthew tried helping us to get the lights for the dance floor corrected to our liking. He didn’t mind changing the different combinations, so we can view the results.
Then onto the day of the wedding. We were surprised how nice everything came together. Of course, we didn’t take note of all the details since it was very hectic the whole evening. However, the pictures show how beautiful the restaurant looked that night. I was afraid that the restaurant was going to look dim and be terrible on pictures, but I was wrong. Not only did the pictures turn out nicely, we got lots of compliments on how good the food was.
Thank you Chú Thong and Matthew for everything. I didn’t have to share the restaurant with anyone (mind you I did increase my guests list, but it was the initial agreement that made the deal), and everyone was happy by the end of the night.

we went here for a fundraising event. the place is certainly large enough for weddings and other events but the LED lit chandeliers and other lighting is kind of cheesy.
we were served a 9-​course meal but with 10 people per table, I don’t think there was enough food on each platter that was brought to the table. the food was just so-​so. I’ve had far better at other Chinese banquet places. I hardly think that sliced oranges constitute «dessert» either. the only thing I liked was the crab soup and honey shrimp. unfortunately we didn’t get enough of it to fully savor it. the salad, duck, crispy chicken, fried rice and fried fish were all very average and I probably would never order them if they were at a regular restaurant. for banquet food, it was all very average/​less than average.

I love love love… the way this restaurant work and their services. I had this restaurant for my wedding last night (02÷13÷16) OMG my feet still sore from dancing. The restaurant owner are very nice and easy to communicate with. They followed also everything that we ask for. Good food, good service, nice deco and with the DJ Matthew, oh my god I love him (shhhhhhh dont tell my husband) hahaha JK. I wanna say he is the best DJ ever. He got a good taste with selecting music and also good with MC too.

I must say… I am so lucky to have chosen this restaurant as my wedding reception. I’ve been to quite a few weddings in OC (just moved here 2 years ago from Hawaii), even to Mon Cheri and despite what ppl praise about Mon Cheri, it sucks. Setting n food sucks. Service was horrible too. But anyways, back to Paracel… So I was in need of finding a venue and everywhere was booked. Paracel was booked but they offered me the next Saturday they had available which was Nov 21, 2015. My friend had her wedding catered by them n she highly recommended the food here. So I went ahead and changed my wedding date to Paracel’s availability.
Throughout my whole wedding planning, I spoke with Mr. Thông (owner) and his son, Matthew (wedding coordinator, manager). They were VERY understanding and flexible. After my first deposit, we had our tasting dinner, which was for a table of 10; I brought my family n friends along. Mr. Thong was so nice, making sure every single dish was made to perfection of our tastes. We said the soup was a bit bland, next 5 min he brought another big bowl out asked us to test it out again. Perfection. The lobsters were so juicy, tastier compare to other restaurants. Not to mention the eggs in every single lobsters were bomb! That’s just tasting. Moving on to as my big day approached… As I was going crazy, hectic, furious of everything planning for the wedding, Matthew were always only an email away, and willing to accommodate my requests. They comped me a free wedding cake from Van’s Bakery, no corkage fee for my beer n cognacs, champagne tower… They really made me feel like it’s MY restaurant that day and n I can do whatever I please to. I had 280 guests for my wedding, and none of my guests ever complained about service. Yes, their service was on point on the wedding day. One of my guest’s bday happened to be on my wedding day, so I told Matt I will be having a cake for that guest, and Matt made sure my bday gift for that guest happened.
The restaurant has draping n led lights (you can always add more, like I did), so it saves you ALOT of decoration money. The atmosphere was nice n warm, not too tight or too big, perfect to accommodating up to 40 tables I’d say. But most importantly, I am very satisfied of the food and service here. I wish I can relive my wedding night again. Thank you Mr. Thong and Matthew, and your staffs for accommodating our wedding and made it the best!!! We love you guys!

+ Awesome staff
+ Great tasting food
I came here for my childhood friend’s wedding not too long ago, and had a great time! The food is similar, if not the same as what others have listed in their reviews. The food was pretty good to me, IMO. It’s your typical Vietnamese servings, which like I said. pretty good.
The staff was awesome. Sometimes you attend a wedding at other venues and the staff are usually on their high horse. This place though, nope, they’re fine with having fun and enjoying the night as well.
I can’t say much, but if you’re having a wedding here, it’d probably be solid. :)

My first Vietnamese wedding involved some amazing food that was catered by Paracel Seafood. I love Asian food and especially this Chinese/​Vietnamese 10 course meal. I was so spoiled this weekend, the night before I had a whole other Chinese experience.
The feast:
Course #1 — Giant Appetizer Sampler Plate. Awesome.
Course #2 — Shark fin crab soup. Awesome.
Course #3 — Lobster in house sauce. My favorite. It was soooo good I was eating the shell…
Course #4 — Sea cucumber and mushrooms. Interesting, but not my favorite.
Course #5 — Mixed Seafood in Birds Nest — Awesome freaking dish. I love the crunchy noodles.
Course #6 — Baked Sea bass. Awesome.
Course #7 — Peking Duck with buns. Tied with the lobster in house sauce. Damn it, so good!
Course #8 — Fried Rice — WTF??? I’m already full! I guess they serve it see if people actually eat it in order to gauge if the restaurant did their job or not. Weird? Kind of a waste…
Course #9 — Orange and Logan — I was too wasted by then to remember this flavor.
Anyways, if you haven’t been to a Chinese or Vietnamese wedding, do it! I drank more than I have in a long time and ate like a fatty. Now I’m plump…
Great job Parcel Seafood! I’ll be sure to hit up your actual restaurant!

My sister had her wedding catered from Paracel. She had her wedding at a country club… The food was excellent! We had a 10 course family style.
Sampler appetizer
Crab soup with shark fin
Lobster in special house sauce
Sea cucumber and mushrooms
Mixed seafood in birds nest
Baked seabass
Peking duck
Fried rice
Orange and Logan
Missing one dish… Can’t remember but everything was delicious. Maybe I’ve been deprived of good food in SD but this 10 course Chinese style dinner was amazing. The best dishes are he lobster and Peking duck! I was sad that we weren’t served by the restaurant employees… I guess the country club had their own employees… It was funny because my sister had the menu in Vietnamese and people would ask the servers what it was and they had no clue…
I will be looking to come here if I want some good Asian food.

My family recently had a wedding here. First off, this place definitely had a facelift recently. If you haven’t seen it, you should not count it out for a wedding/​party. Curtains and LED lighting is included. Thank you photo area was predecorated. The owners were very accomodating; helping us with how we wanted the place to look and working with our budget. He found us the MC, DJ and did our centerpieces. They also threw in a cake with options to upgrade as needed. The place looked beautiful on the wedding day. We came at 4:30pm to set up things. We asked for an extra table for a dessert table and it was there, ready for us. I don’t think anything went wrong on their part. The contract was fulfilled and we couldn’t have asked for anything better.
Oh and on Thursday they have karaōke night for the older crowd who wants to cha cha and do the twist =P

I’ve been to two weddings where Paracel had catered the food. My bf and I are impressed by not only the menu, but also the quality and taste. It’s nice to dine in family style at wedding receptions and the food is absolutely delicious! Some of the memorable dishes were the lobster and noodles, the crabmeat soup, and the special house cold platter.
I’m definitely putting this on my list for my top contenders of catering for my future wedding!

I just had my wedding reception here on 4÷24÷2015. Travelled from Arizona to have a beach wedding, and my husband suggested we have a Chinese banquet style dinner since that’s what our families are used to. I didn’t really care for that since my past experiences at these types of restaurants never impressed me. But I gave in and started researching. Saw their website and other reviews on Unilocal and thought the restaurant looked nice in photos. Unlike the Chinese banquet restaurants here in Phoenix!
Anyways, after visiting the venue and talking to Victoria the first time, we liked that she wasn’t trying to «sell» us on the venue and just tell us what what we wanted to hear. Plus, the fact that I could actually communicate with her in English was a plus (other venues spoke mainly Vietnamese. I’m Cambodian, my husband is Vietnamese and everything had to be translated to me, lol). She was really helpful with answering all our questions from the very beginning. We used a couple of the vendors she suggested for flowers and cake, and we are glad we did because we were so happy with the end result!
She, as well as the owner, and Matt (our DJ/​MC) were so accommodating and were constantly there to help us with whatever we needed that night. They went beyond my expectations. My guests enjoyed the food, there was so much, everyone was stuffed and satisfied. So were my husband and I. Service was fast, but that may be because we only had 6 tables. Either way, all I have to say is that my guests and I had a blast! I’m so happy how everything turned out!