| Swanky tapas bar restaurant in downtown Mountain View |
Reviewer: Jason
Total Reviews: 1005
Reviewed: 11/17/2004
Rating: 8.5
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Made a lunch visit to Cascal after hearing so much about this place from coworkers. Located in downtown Mountain View on Castro, one of the nicest restaurants Ive visited for lunch - high ceilings, lots of glass for natural lighting, stylish paint schemes, fancy lamps, giant mirror by the bar, and so on. Cascal is a latin restaurant offering dishes from Spain, Cuba, and South America. Specializing in Tapas, we ordered the Sea Scallop Gratin and Spicy Moorish Pork Kebabs.
Sea Scallop Gratin (See picture #6) - small scallops mixed in noodles, cheese, and saffron sauce. Very creamy, very tasty, and probably very bad for the arteries. I would order it again.
Spicy Moorish Pork Kebabs (See picture #7)- small pork tenderloin cubes with exotic spices. Although full of flavor, I would say just a tad overcooked by a minute or so...no pink in site. Pretty good stuff.
Presentation of the Tapas dishes were pleasing to the eyes and stomach. Prices are a bit high at $6.50-9 a plate. I would suggest 3-4 tapas dishes and a large entree to share between 2 people.
For my main course, I got the Cuban Medianoche (See picture #3). Sounds pretty gourmet huh? Its a sandwich with exotic ingrediants - manchego cheese, ciabatta, pork, and ham. Ive never had manchego or ciabatta before. The manchego cheese has mellow flavor and I would have trouble comparing it to other cheeses Ive had. The ciabatta bread was dense..it was like a brick, good thing they put plenty of meat. The sandwich was served with a couple of thick cut fries and a awesome dipping sauce.
Cascal isnt a lunch spot an average person can eat weekly. This place is expensive with our lunch running at $48 for 2 people. Thats not to say their food isnt good because it is, it just comes at a price. I would reserve Cascal for a special lunch or maybe a dinner date with friends. Either way, dont miss out on Cascal for an alluring atmosphere and tantalizing courses.
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Reviewer: Terry
Total Reviews: 735
Reviewed: 11/17/2004
Rating: 8.5
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Cascal is a very fancy restaurant. Not fancy that you have to dress up and go there only on special occasions, just the interior is very nicely laid out and conducive to relaxing and people watching, in addition to enjoying fine meals.
For todays review, I decided to order the pizza (I had to try it) and the Sea Scallop Gratin tapas. Tapas, for those unfamiliar, are like small appetizers. So its best to order a few items and share among friends. Or if you are by yourself, order 2 tapas (at Cascal) and I think you will be full. The prices were high, but this is somewhat justified by the ritzy establishment and the location. Jason also informed me that tapas are almost considered a spanish sushi so are usually higher priced fine dining anyway.
The tapas arrived quickly. My Sea Scallop Gratin seemed exceedingly small for the price and I was a little disappointed by that at first. I then tasted it. VERY tasty, a bit too much sodium however. The noodles in the dish were a bit offputting. Otherwise it would make a perfect dip for chips. I ate this quickly and eagerly awaited by pizza. While waiting for my pizza I found myself getting full. Unbelievable. They must have put some kind of expanding solution in those tapas. Then it hit me, all this time I had been munching on their delicious fresh baked bread. It was filling me up. The bread here is top-notch. Its a flatbread so once it hit your stomach it started expanding like mad. Clever way to get yourself full though - just ask for a few servings of their free bread.
The pizza arrived and it seemed to be made of the same bread which was good. The cheese on top was high quality stuff and was an ungreasy runny texture. Different, but obviously classy cheese. I ordered my pizza with a variety of veggies on top. All of the veggies (green beans, squash, etc) were completely fresh and satisfying. I would order this again. Next time, however, I will try to take it easy on the bread and enjoy their dishes more.
My one complaint with Cascal was the high prices. They seemed to be out of whack with the food you were getting. For this reason, I would return less frequently than my stomach would want to.
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Reviewer: Miriam
Total Reviews: 5
Reviewed: 9/25/2005
Rating: 8.5
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Great atmosphere, pretty good food, pretty good service, unwarranted prices.
The point of tapas is that you can order a lot of them, not suffer financially, and still be very satisfied because you got your money's worth. Here, you can order a lot of them, suffer financially, and be kinda satisfied and grumble on the way out.
That said, yes, it's pretty. It's a wee bit full of itself, but it is in Silicon Valley catering to dotcom clientele they're hoping will dish out to support their glassware interests. I'd recommend this for a group drink/snack before you head somewhere else for dinner, or come here for drinks/snacks after you're finished with dinner. They do, by the way, have a great bar with some great drinks. But, it's small.
On to food! Yes, the bread brought to the table is very good. However, I shouldn't have to stuff myself on that to be happy.
- Sangria: Man. Every time I go I have this. I'm a wine wimp and generally avoid it. THEIR sangria is so subtly, mellowly blended I get drunk before I know it and don't mind at all.
- Ceasar salad: So-so. Not awful, just not worth ordering again. This is my favorite type of salad so I generally try it at least once at a restaurant.
- Fried Calamari – With chipotle chile aioli, very good.
- Lamb Chops – Marinated and grilled fresh lamb chops with fried potatoes, chimichurri sauce. Not worth the price, but good.
- Wild Mushroom Empanadas – With manchego cheese and truffle oil. I am a mushroom freak. I adore them, and particularly their intense flavor, when well dressed. These empanadas tasted fairly muffled, and were very rich (aka, fattening). That richness didn't necessarily translate to flavor.
- Queso Fundido – Oxacan cheese and smoked mushroom fondue, grilled poblano chiles, warm corn tortillas. Very good.
- Spanish fries - They tout these as great, but I was not moved.
- Sweet potato-plantain mash - very rich, perhaps too rich. After about two spoonfulls I stopped, and also wasn't pleased with the price I was paying for something that equates to a side of rice (standard and cheap) in the Latin cuisine.
- Cuban black beans and white rice - not enough flavor (salt! pepper! come on!) and the same pricing issue as the potato/plaintain mash. |
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Reviewer: wchane
Total Reviews: 146
Reviewed: 6/30/2007
Rating: 8.5
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I didn't expect anything epic in downtown mountain view, most of the restaurants here are decent to superb, but none have blew me away, that is until we tried Cascal.
We were seated outside and ordered the appetizer sampler, paella cascal, banana leaf chicken, the sizzling shrimp and a pitcher of sparkling wine sangria for the three of us. The paella arrived first as we ordered it prior to everything else, and our waiter was worried about the serving temp of the dish. No matter, as we were outside and it was a bit cold last night.
Delicious. Flavors were well developed yet kept separate, the rice was cooked through with bits of 'crust' at the edges of the pan. A small order is enough for 4 or 5 people.
The appetizer sampler arrived next, there were some hits and misses on here, my favorites being the cheese stuffed dates wrapped in prosciutto, calamari, and the byaldi. There was also cocktail shrimp in a green dip, skewers of layered potato, something in grape leaf, and salami wrapped olives. Roasted almonds, deviled eggs, blanched asparagus, and fresh onion topped anchovy on toast rounded off the platter. It was huge.
Next up was the banana leaf chicken, simmered chicken topped with a mound of white fluffed rice. This was tasty on its own, however among the tough crowd it didn't stand out so much.
Sizzing shrimp, I believe this was the group's favorite. Grilled shrimp tossed in an assortment of onions, garlic, etc and topped with a squeeze of lime. The textures with the prefectly cooked shrimp just worked. Fantastic.
I didn't think the sangria was anything special, but I'm happy that they actually give you more liquid then chopped fruits and it wasn't half bad. I also almost forgot about the bread service. It's dense bread with bits of corn, served with a pesto olive oil. I would of been content with just this bread and the sizzling shrimp, it was that good. The olive oil helped, but I wish they had less oil and more pesto.
I'm anxious to go back and see what else they have, and currently wondering why I've never bothered to try Cascal earlier.
8.5
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