Carmel Cafe & Wine Bar

3rd visit

Another '2 for $25' (Sunday and Monday evenings - shared app, salad or soup, entree, plus shared dessert for 2) night! Plus, cheap fancy drinks off their 'After 5' menu (5-7 app and drink specials). Great deal!

We've decided your overall experience at Carmel Cafe depends on your server and the items you chose. We had a server with an attitude problem last time and chose bad items, this time was like our first visit - great server and great choices.

App - warm spinach and artichoke dip with pita chips - typical warm spinach dip, very good.

Salad dressings were different this visit - Caesar dressing was outstanding, garden salad dressing tasted like pickling juice (way too much vinegar and fresh dill) - yuck.

Entrees: Steak Frites - solid and fries are straight up awesome. Salmon was great - large portion with Quinoa. The Steak Frite and Salmon are the best choices in my mind.

Dessert - can't pass up the Chocolate lava cake - amazing!

After hearing how great Carmel Cafe was, I went in with high expectations and was not disappointed!  It was a busy Wednesday night around 6pm and we were seated promptly by a very welcoming gentleman who asked if it was our first time there and gave a thorough explanation of the restaurant concept and ipad menus.  We wanted to get there early enough to try the 5 at 5 specials which is a great happy hour concept of certain small plates, drinks and wine for $5 from 5pm-7pm.  We immediately began toying with the ipad.  I love that you can look at pictures of every item on the menu and even order from the ipad.  That did not in any way hinder the service.  Our waitress was friendly and attentive.  Several food runners came out with the food and asked if we needed anything.  The manager even stopped by to make sure everything was good.  

We ordered several small plated beginning with the shrimp and mango flatbread, followed by the Rustic Grilled Chicken Skewers, Steak Frites and Ravioli Verde (which is available on their seasonal menu).  Everything from start to finish was absolutely divine with the ravioli being at the top of my list.  I also ordered two of the cocktails:  Italian Old Fashioned and Watermelon Granita.  The watermelon granita was at the suggestion of the waitress.  It was light and refreshing but just not my type of the drink.  The Italian Old Fashioned was amazing.  The perfect blend of Buffalo Trace Kentucky bourbon and peach jam finished with amarena cherries.  YUM.

I would highly recommend Carmel Cafe to anyone.  A fun, hip, trendy place that could easily become "the" place to gather after work with friends.

The 5 at 5 concept is great, we had the Shrimp & Mango Flatbread, it was freaking awesome! This can become the regular spot for us after work.