Setauket’s Eastern Pavilion is revamped and ready for dining

Serving customers for almost three decades, Eastern Pavilion is making a comeback as a fine-dining Asian Fusion restaurant.

The family run restaurant has become a place of refuge, relaxation and dining for residents. As soon as customers walk in, they will see the newly renovated restaurant that co-owner David Lin describes as elegant with a “Manhattan vibe.”

Before the pandemic started, founder Bao Lin had thought about retiring. However, he decided not to when his three sons, David, Raymond and Jason, decided to take on the responsibility of running the business with the goal of making it bigger and better than ever before.

“We grew up in the restaurant industry and wanted to keep the family business alive,” David Lin said. “We realized how happy the restaurant made us and we loved interacting with the customers.”

Having a loyal clientele base that has continued to designate Eastern Pavilion as its favorite restaurant, David said he can pick up the phone and know customers without even asking for a name.

“A lot of the clients that we have, we honestly consider a part of our family,” David Lin said. “We have customers that started with us 30 years ago, so that makes us want to push through and have this restaurant here for the next generation.”

It isn’t only the family hospitality that customers love about this restaurant, but the quality of the food, too. According to David Lin, the restaurant has a new master sushi chef who trained in Tokyo and introduced a Szechuan chef as well, so there is plenty of variety for anyone looking to grab a bite.

An additional bar has also been added to the restaurant, where Jason Lin highly recommends Eastern Pavilion’s signature drink, which combines cold sake, premium Japanese yuzu, vodka, peach syrup, seltzer and their secret ingredient, a special tea from overseas.

Comparing the cocktail to a Starbucks refresher, Jason Lin said this is the perfect summer pick-me-up.

“At the end of the day, it’s all about making my customers and the community happy,” Jason Lin said. “Especially after the COVID-era, we wanted to take advantage of the opportunity and spend our time revamping this place.”

Another must-have dish both Jason and David Lin recommend for first-time customers is their General Tso’s chicken, which they describe as the “bread and butter” of Eastern Pavilion.

The dish includes deep-fried, battered white-meat chicken cubes sautéed with spicy red peppers. To top it off is their in-house special tangy sauce. According to Jason Lin, this sauce has been perfected through trial and error for many decades and is very unique.

For more information on Eastern Pavilion, go to www.eprestaurant.com or visit the restaurant at 750 Route 25A, Setauket.