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La Casa del Mojito has mo' to offer than just drinks
With a name like La Casa del Mojito, you might expect the food at this small Roosevelt neighborhood cafe to be mere ballast for the booze...
Seattle Times staff reporter
La Casa del Mojito
Venezuelan and Cuban7545 Lake City Way N.E., Seattle, 206-525-3162
There's a second location at 5253 University Way N.E., Seattle; 206-524-4615.
Hours: Lunch from about 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays; dinner starts at 5:30 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays at both locations. Dinner on Sundays at the Lake City Way location only.
Etc: All major cards except Discover; reservations recommended for Friday and Saturday nights; catering and private parties available; on-street parking.
Prices: $$
With a name like La Casa del Mojito, you might expect the food at this small Roosevelt neighborhood cafe to be mere ballast for the booze. There are stacks of drink glasses — ice already loaded, mint already mulled — next to the door, a pyramid of limes in the kitchen and a pair of bongo drums on the way out to the patio that invite well-lubricated diners to pound away.
But there's also an intriguing menu of Venezuelan and Cuban dishes, making it clear La Casa del Mojito is more than a cocktail factory. This is a neighborhood joint looking to fill bellies as it has fun.
The menu: A selection of meat and fish — slow-cooked or seared — offers a quick trip through Latin cuisine at the Roosevelt cafe and its newly opened sister restaurant in the University District. The appetizer of fried sweet plantains ($3.95) had a dollop of tangy garlic sauce. We tried the Pescado de Tito ($13.95), tilapia rubbed with lots of cinnamon and paprika. The white fish rested on a delicious bed of sweet onions cooked in wine and garlic. The house specialty, Parrilla de Luigi ($15.95), a marinated flank steak, was tender but lacked the zest of the fish. It came with a tasty yuca frita. The Pabellon ($12.95) — a traditional Venezuelan dish with shredded beef, red peppers and onions — gets raves from loyal diners.
What to write home about: The owners of this seven-year-old cafe use authentic ingredients, which are refreshingly stripped of any pan-culture fusion or pretension. The mojito sauce — a garlic aoli — was yummy.
The setting: The canary-yellow cafe, tucked off Lake City Way at the junction to I-5, began filling after 8 p.m. for drinks-on-the-patio diners. And it's kid-friendly, judging from the bangers on the bongo drums. There's salsa and merengue dancing at the U District location on Friday evenings.
Summing up: The plantain appetizer, two good-sized entrees and a flan for dessert came to $41.39. The namesake mojitos ($7) are strong. Any neighborhood should be so lucky.
Jonathan Martin: 206-464-2605
Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company
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