Cascal Restaurant Review

Downtown Mountain View has a ton of restaurants, but really not that much variety. Most of them are either Indian, Chinese, Thai, Mexican, or Sushi. There's a few exceptions, but for the most part that's what you've got. I'm a lover of savory food so I was pretty bummed to learn that there weren't a lot of more European influenced places (and the two I've been to weren't that impressive). However, when I learned there was a Tapas restaurant I nearly fell off my chair and practically ran out the door to go there for dinner. (For those of you who don't know, tapas means small plates. So think teeny tiny appetizer sized dishes that you can get a ton of and share and taste. Most places are Spanish, but there's also some other cuisines that do it too.) A few weeks later I had my first reservation at Cascal.

Since that first dinner there I've been back another four times and it has never disappointed. I've probably tried three quarters of the tapas menu and half the dessert menu (everything is great), but my personal favorites are the mushroom empanadas and stuffed dates (wrapped in bacon like most good Spanish food and stuffed with cheese). I also really like the goat cheese arepa (a corn cake with tomato chutney on top). Everything is rich and a great mix of flavors. I used to go a little crazy there because everything was so good, but usually my eyes were too big for my stomach so now I just eat two tapas and when it's dinner pray I've got enough space for dessert. I'm not always successful at that because their bread is also amazing and as a bread fiend I go a little overboard when I find bread that I like. I think the bottom line here is everything is delicious, so no matter what you order you will not be disappointed.

Whether you're there for lunch, a romantic dinner, or with a group of friends it's a great spot. It can get a little loud, which is sometimes annoying when you want to have a more serious conversation. But as an all purpose restaurant with great food, it's definitely high up there on my favorite places to go. Just make sure you get a reservation if you want to try it out. Any day of the week, once dinner time hits, there's a wait. Obviously everyone else knows it's really good too!

And now just a couple of pictures of the food from their website: