Con Vista Al Mar

Part I of 2What we call Mexican seafood places in Austin are TEX-MEX Mexican seafood places.Whether they are brick and mortar or merely food trucks, I love them.I can eat Tex-Mex Mexican seafood all day and all night.* * *Con Vista Al Mar is NOT a Tex-Mex Mexican seafood place.It is a Mexico City Seafood place.It is a chain with four other restaurants in Mexico City.This is their first opening over the border.* * *Con Vista Al Mar serves good stuff.Their move into Austin has been successful.But they took some giant risks in doing this.If all of your restaurants are concentrated in one city, you have your supply chain nicely set up where you want it to be.You lose all that when you change cities and you really really lose that when you cross an international border.On perishables like fish, this can be a huge issue.Even if your restaurant is "going north", your food could "go south".I am pleased to say that Con Vista Al Mar made the hard transition and that everything is working nicely in Austin, Texas.What they have is very different than what you are used to seeing.Prepare to have your horizons expanded.* * *There are at least six distinctive features about Con Vista Al Mar that should attract your interest.1) You start your meal with free soup.They bring you a tiny cup of the stuff, about the size of four thimbles, along with a slice of lime.This is NOT salsa.To be repetitively redundant, this is not Tex-Mex here.You squirt the lime into your cup and drink the cup straight up as if it were a shot.Thumbs up.2) You want a whole grilled octopus?They can do that.It will cost you.3) Not counting odd items, half of the menu is extremely elaborate seafood tacos.This is not the fried tilapia in a tortilla with lettuce tomato and hot sauce that you are used to.The tacos are extremely complicated.You get a lot of fish (or shellfish) in your taco.But even though the seafood is there, most of the taco is the other flavoring ingredients.(For a related phenomenon, think about what we as Americans do to fajitas.By the time you have added the beans, cheese, lettuce, tomato, guacamole, jalapenos and sour cream ... The actual fajita meat has about as much impact as a clarinet in a symphony orchestra.Yeah, if you listen carefully, you can hear the clarinet, but most of what you hear is all of those violins.)Here, the seafood is the clarinet, and the flavorings are all the other instruments in the orchestra.Still, orchestras sound good ... and Con Vista al Mar tacos taste pretty good too.I had three different ones and liked them all.The taco with pork rinds was the best.Pork rinds are the best seafood ever.4) On the other side of the menu, they have ceviches and aguachiles and coctels.They serve lots of uncooked marinated seafood here.I would have been just as happy to order those ...Particularly since I kill for aguachile.If one was going to be really really fussy about fish quality,Your ceviches and aguachiles are where the quality of the fish will stand out.As it happened, it was a taco day.But I am now definitely ceviche curious.5) They have a small bar ... but it is a bar that is very much exploring.Everything in that bar comes from Mexico with a lot of bottled spirits that are not so easy to find elsewhere in town.I wouldn't let the small size of the collection bother you.On a given night X, you are mostly going to be drinking one thing.Maybe two things.Does it really matter if there are 12 other items on the bar you didn't tryor 112 other items on the bar you didn't try?As long as what is in your glass is good,Life is good.6) They have marshmallow flan here.Don't ask questions.Just order it.It may not be a close-your-eyes-and-go-to-heaven-and-see-God dessertBut neither is a Hostess Twinkie or a Toll House Chocolate Chip cookie.I love me a Hostess Twinkie and I love me a Toll House Chocolate Chip cookie.I never turn down either when I get the chance.I would never turn down a marshmallow flan either.* * *Part 2 of 2Went back to check out the marinated fish dishes and the bar.OMG.The marinated fish is actually the star of the show.The tacos are there just to fill out the menu.I had a burnt habanero aguachile.A totally primo de primo dish - worth a trip just for this alone.Eat the dish the way the waitress tells you to.Fish and vegetable on the tortilla chip with the sauce on top.Amazing.The bar of hard to find Mexican specialties features 2 kinds of Don Fulano Tequila.An absolutely outstanding beverage.I brought a Yelper with me who grew up in Mexico and is very demanding about her Mexican food.She picked hard to pull off dishes: Carnitas and a regional ceviche.She hates these in most Austin restaurants.She says both dishes were absolutely positively perfect.* * *BOTTOM LINE: THIS PLACE IS FIVE STARS ALL THE WAY.JUST GO.

This is one of my new go-to places!The guac with calamari here is my absolute fave - so yummy and lots of seafood! The ceviche is also great too - one of the best ceviches I've had in Austin.I came again for a second time on Sunday for dinner and they were completely out of almost all seafood (except fish and crab), which meant almost all the menu items were gone since almost everything has squid/shrimp/etc. It seems like Sunday is the only day they are open for lunch so this may have been why. I'd definitely try to come earlier!

Noticed this restaurant when driving down E. 7th street one day. This is the 4th? Restaurant that's been in this space in the past 5-10 years. Though I'm not surprised the vegan burger place that used to be here closed down.Time will tell if this place will survive. Came here at 6:45p on a Wednesday. Only a couple tables inside, never got much busier than that. There were people sitting out on the patio though.As the name implies, Con Vista Al Mar is primarily seafood. For the ceviches, it was like 90% shrimp.Came here with one other person. We shared the calamari on guac which was pretty tasty, though the calamari could've used some more salt and or lime. No salt on the table, though this is pretty typical in restaurants these days. We ordered our entrees too soon, as the ceviche we ordered as our entrees came out a minute after we got the calamari and guac. But the ceviche is likely already made, since it needs to be marinating for a good while.I got the Mazatlan ceviche, and my dining companion got the Aguachilies. Both were good, the ceviche I got what not what I was expecting presentation-wise. The fish was finely chopped up. It was good, just very different than what I'm used to. And it was spicy! As was the Aguachiles. I think overall the spice level was good. I like spicy food, and I'm glad the food doesn't tone down the spiciness to carer to the gringos. It didn't help that I got a Michelada to drink, which was tasty, but also spicy. So the only relief I got from the spiciness were the tortilla chips served with the ceviche. My one complaint about the chips is that they got stale halfway into the meal. Portion-wise, for both ceviches, it was a lot more food that what I was expecting. I could barely finish my ceviche.Price-wise, it's what you have to expect from Austin restaurants these days that aren't super high-end. All the ceviche dishes were around the $25 range. Items like the tostadas and tacos were cheaper, though I wonder if you'd want to get two tacos to get enough food to eat. Because there weren't any other tables close to us, we couldn't see what the food that other diners were getting looked like. Everything else was moderately priced.We wanted to try the flan for dessert, but they didn't have any of it ready to be served yet. :( All in all the food was pretty good,. It's nice to have a Mexican seafood-forward restaurant like this, that isn't outrageously expensive, such as restaurants like Este. hopefully it will get more popular soon or it won't survive. Would come back again.

Recently went to Con Vista Al Mar for dinner because my boyfriend really wanted to try the Tostilocos - which he said was great and they were very generous with the amount of ceviche provided. I got 2 fried fish tacos, but definitely could have ordered one because they packed the tacos - almost wish I had a bigger tortilla. The classic margarita was so strong that I couldn't finish it. Boyfriend ordered the frozen guava margarita which was BOMB.

First time at this restaurant today. Parking is kind of tight and not many spaces. Good music playing on the patio that reminded me of Mexico as well as the tables and chairs. Lots of seating outside. Food is waaaaay overpriced for such small portions. $10 per taco. Shrimp cocktail $24. Michelada mix was delicious! But No baby changing table ! What are they thinking?! My son had a dirty diaper and my husband had to change him in the car and it's freezing cold outside right now. Service was slow even though there were only 3 tables including us. I must say the Bar area is aesthetically very nice but TBH was disappointed overall. Baby changing table needs to be installed in the women's restroom!

Amazing! Love the food and ambience. Had a friendly waitress with great recos. Thank you Manu!!!

This is officially my new fave spot in town. The food was so delicious here. My favorites were the octopus with the guacamole and tortillas plus the soft shell crab taco. Both were so good I couldn't stop eating. We also got the fish tacos - both grilled and fried - and those were good too. The seafood ceviche was very good too. For dessert we tried the strawberries with cream and that was unique and satisfying.

I enjoy the aesthetics, but the food and drinks are mid. The fried seafood has a very thick batter with very little seafood inside. The avocado sauce didn't taste very fresh and the tortilla chips were bland. The tuna tostada had too much going on flavor wise and the tortilla on the fish taco isn't homemade. The best food item we ordered was the tostilocos.

Stumbled upon this place while we were visiting for ACL Festival. So glad we did , they did not have a lot of the menu items since they just opened 20 days ago but what we tried would definitely bring us back ! We normally can handle xxxSpicy but the Burnt Habanero Agua Chile was super spicy but we loved it! Everything had a perfect combination of citrus and freshness. Would definitely be coming back. Would recommend as a great hangover remedy. The staff was super nice ! Plenty of parking spaces. Ambience is nice homey feel with great tunes.

I recently dined at Con Vista al Mar in Austin, and it was a delightful experience. The seafood was incredibly fresh and flavorful. I particularly enjoyed the Acapulco taco --it was delicious and perfectly balanced. I paired it with a Pacifico, and the pistachio salt on the rim was yum. The ambiance is cozy and inviting. The staff was attentive and friendly. I highly recommend Con Vista al Mar for anyone seeking authentic and delicious Mexican seafood in Austin! I will definitely be back