Critic's Review
I've grown tired of bad, expensive meals, so it was time to re-visit Cafe Seville. Insiders know that you have to get an early start as they lock the doors at 1:45. The cook likes to go home at 2pm sharp.
They had the usual mid-week lunch crowd today; about 1/3 full. There's no servers or hostess here; the place is run by the owners. He tried to seat me right in front of the door, but I opted for a more romantic spot in the back. The group next to me was doing more of a special occasion, with a bottle of wine and the multi coarse meal. More on them later.
You don't get a menu when you sit down; there is no menu at lunch. There's a board that they bring over with the choices for the day; if someone else is still deciding then you have to way. I got a drink while I was waiting.
Not good iced tea; it tasted a bit off. Maybe bad tap water? Drinkable, but I wouldn't be drinking too much of it.
Finally they brought the board over and put it in front of me.
A few good choices. The sauces are interchangeable; they'll make whatever they have any way they can make it. I went for the Trout. You get soup or salad with the entree; I went with the lentil soup, which came out in about a minute.
Mushy, probably canned lentils, but the soup was well seasoned. Potatoes, some vegetables; it's a vegetarian version.
The music here is very low spanish guitar music; not really any songs. They probably don't have to pay ASCAP for this.
The entree came out on a plate so hot that he warned me 3 times about it. The fish was also VERY hot; they must flash cook this on the dish like they do in Mexican restaurants.
Soup, fish and 2 sides for $11.95. Everything was good. Not sure exactly what was on the fish but it was dark enough so that it didn't bother me. The trout was served skin on. It's a smallish portion but with the soup it's enough food for lunch. It looks like they ditched the bread service.
I got the check and they didn't even charge me for the tea. $12 and change for a Trout lunch. Not too shabby.
So the group next to me was having a good time and they ordered another bottle of wine at 1:50, AFTER I noticed that they had locked the doors. The owner/server was happily opening the bottle when they asked about more food. "Oh, the kitchen is closed". So now 1 of the women is questioning whether they should have ordered the wine, given that they were closing in a few minutes. At this point the bottle wasn't opened yet, but the dude just continued to open it. Funny stuff.
Conclusion
Cafe Seville is as close to a sure thing as there is in Fort Lauderdale; there's nothing fancy here and the food is basic, but it's well seasoned and better than you'll get at most of the expensive restaurants in this town. And they always have a few reasonably priced fish dishes. Why pay $24 for lousy Mahi at Boatyard when you can get more interesting choices here for half the price?
This is NOT authentic Spanish Cuisine, and there's nothing about the place that will remind you of your favorite Spanish restaurant, just to be clear.
Review 10/2/12
If you're in the mood for spanish food, there aren't a lot of choices in Fort Lauderdale. There also aren't a lot of places with a good selection of fish. Cafe Seville solves both problems.
Cafe Seville stops seating for lunch at 1:45 sharp, so don't think about coming here after that.
The interior is nice; this is a good place for a business meeting or a romantic date.
This is a whiteboard restaurant with no menu, at least for lunch. The escargot tapas here are fantastic, so I ordered those, and a hog snapper dish that was surprisingly only $12.95. Entrees come with soup or salad, I opted for the Seafood Soup of the Day.
Service here has slipped a bit, my server wasn't familiar with the menu, and my Iced Tea didn't come out and I had to ask what happened to it. The escargot came out first.
This is great way to prepare snails; much better than the standard parsley garlic preparation. They weren't as good as the first time I had them; the mushrooms weren't done quite enough. But this is a great dish and I recommend you try it.
The soup came out well before I was done with the escargot.
The broth was tasty, but the seafood bits in the soup seemed like they might just be scraps. They were overcooked bits of white fish. No shrimp or anything worthwhile in the soup. The hog snapper came out next.
This dish is similar to the Corvina I had the last time I was here; it was a pretty small piece of fish. The beans were woefully overdone; the fish was in a sauce with tomatoes, capers and artichokes; I don't really care for artichokes, but the fish was good. There just wasn't enough of it. I understand that you usually get a half portion for lunch, but I think that this was less than that.
It took a while to get my check; the place was dead with just 1 other table so I'm not sure why it took so long. The service was a lot better the last time. But for $23, this was plenty of good food. Cafe Seville is worth a try.
Review 11/2/2010
Well Ive never been to Spain, but I kinda like the music. I also kinda like Spanish cuisine, and there arent too many places where you can find it here in Fort Lauderdale. When I first moved here, I was looking for a good restaurant with Tapas and Cafe Seville popped up; but I couldnt find much information about it. They keep a pretty low profile. But Ill be letting the cat out of the bag today.
The first time I walked into Cafe Seville it was 1:52pm, and they greeted me by saying that they close at 1:45. Say what, I thought? They actually close at 2pm, but they dont seat anyone after 1:45. It took me a few months to go back. Im always running late for lunch it seems.
Inside, the place has a lot of old world charm; the tinted windows dont let in much light even on the sunniest of days. Theres soft spanish music playing. The tables are elegant with white table clothes. Its a very nice, romantic place.
At lunch time, they dont have a menu; they have a whiteboard with the specials handwritten with marker. After youre seated, theyll bring the board over and set it in front of you. The board has the dish, how its prepared and the price, so I guess its all you need. They have a few tapas and quite a few entrees as well; most of them are seafood. Id heard the escargot were good, so I ordered these as well as corvina costa bravo. The entrees include a choice of soup or salad; I went with the soup.
Everything here is made to order, so your order wont come out super fast. They also wont bring you the next course until youre ready for it. The first to come out where the Caracoles Riojana, which are escargot sauteed with garlic, tomato, basil mushrooms and white wine.
If you're used to the ubiquitous parsley garlic butter escargot, you'll find this to be a real treat. The preparation is perhaps the best I've ever had with escargot. The garlicky sauce is fantastic; dipping the crusty bread they provide in the sauce is equally addictive. I didn't plan on eating the entire plate but there was no stopping me on this.
Next came the soup; a lentil soup that was very good; but it was a pretty good portion and after eating the snails I thought better of taking more than a few tastes. My server gladly put it in a container for me to take home.
My entree was delivered almost immediately after the take out container for the soup. Corvina is a white fish that is sort of a cross between Mahi and Snapper; not quite as firm as Mahi. As one Peruvian chef once told me, Corvina isnt supposed to taste like anything; it tastes like what you cook it with.
This preparation with a garlicky tomato sauce with capers has an explosion of taste with every bite. Its served with green beans, carrot and yellow rice. Its an awfully good lunch for $10.95.
Ive read some reviews that complained about terse service; but I experienced none of that. If professional service is terse to some; perhaps. There are no teenagers working here; this is an adult operation with the owners right there in the kitchen and the dining room. The ambience is comfortable for business or a romantic date. And the food is excellent.
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