Castilla Restaurant and Tapas Bar

Popped in for an early dinner one Saturday night. Not a lot of experience with Spanish food and paella, so we were eager to try. The good:-Great ambiance and extensive menu. -Empanadas are fantastic. -Vegetarian/vegan paella was "pretty good", but I don't know if it justifies the price since it's the same as the rabbit, squid ink, etc. paella. The bad: -Service was friendly but not super attentive. The ugly:-What grinds my gears is when you make reservations, but are seated 15min+ after your reserved time. This time, it was 30min for a 5pm res nonetheless.

Too busy, too long of wait for everything, even with a reservations.Service was friendly but sparse. Clearly way too busy.Food, okay. Good vegan options. Empanadas were great. Paella was okay. It had all the vegetables I love but needed a kick of spice or depth.? Ambiance is good but again too busy.Overall, disappointing.

In my opinion, there is no better dining experience than ordering a number of plates and sharing among the table to get a taste of everything. Castilla is perfect for this! Two of us arrived at 3:00P with the thought that we could order from the Happy Hour menu, however, we learned it is only available in the bar area. While the regular menu is quite large, we decided to select a few items from the "Hot Tapas" section, which turned out to be just the right amount of food. + BEEF MEDALLIONS w/ TEMPRANILLO WINE ($14): The beef was cooked to a perfect medium and was very tender albeit also being a leaner cut. The flavor of the wine was fairly subtle, so it didn't overpower the true taste of the beef. + CALAMARI TENDERS ($13): Unfortunately, we didn't love these. The calamari itself was somewhat spongey and I found the fried exterior to be quite salty. The serrano aioli livened them up, adding a bright peppery flavor and slight acidity. + MUSSELS ($17): Despite being served in a smoky salsa brava with creamy garlic aioli drizzled on top, the mussels still retained their natural flavor and were cooked pretty well. Plus, all the shells were open! Two pieces of bread came with the dish to mop up any leftover sauce.+ SMOKED SALMON STUFFED ARTICHOKES ($14): I rarely eat artichokes, so I enjoyed trying something outside of my norm. They were lightly marinated and filled with a cream cheese salmon filling. I actually didn't see nor taste much salmon per se (so I'm not sure they're worth the value), but it was a cohesive dish overall. A cup of crisps, reminiscent of cornmeal thins, came served on the side.+ BACON-WRAPPED SHRIMP ($16): Our favorite plate of the night, although we may be biased since we love shrimp. The mojo verde drizzled on the plate added some freshness, complementing the smoky bacon. However, for four skewered shrimp, this is pricey for what you receive. The waitstaff was friendly and our food was actually delivered much quicker than expected. On this Saturday, the restaurant was pretty quiet at 3:00P, but started to fill up when we left around 5:15P. Overall, Castilla is a solid pick if you're seeking tapas, especially since there aren't many other comparable restaurants in the area.

Each time I come here, I always get a paella and the bacon wrapped dates! All the tapas I've tried are great (particularly the lamb shank). I'm only giving it 4/5 because I don't think the food is worth the price.The service here is a little slow at times and there are only two independent stalls for the entire restaurant. The restaurant is beautiful in the summer, especially if you sit along the street when the windows are open. At night, it's a dim romantic date spot!

Fun and lively restaurant with a wood oven. The restaurant was extremely full so it was uncomfortably warm and service was quite slow. The food, however, was a delicious! Highly recommend the chorizo empanadas, lamb chops and artichoke. Be sure to order the paella early as it takes a while to cook. Sazerac cocktail is a nice show being smoked table side but was on the sweet side.

Wow! What a gem! The hubs and I had a date night and we normally go ham on some sushi, but we decided to try Castilla for their well known tapas. We planned on trying a few of their light bites/ hot tapas and man, are we sure excited to go back. We started with some sangria, he had the Red and I had the sparkling- both delicious, but my preference was the sparkling because it was sweeter. We then ordered the octopus, which was charred and on a bed of creamed potatoes. We have had octopus before and we weren't sure if it was supposed to be slimy/gummy (given the description was that it was charred) so the staff took it off our bill. They recommended the salmon & artichoke dip (hot), the mussels with chorizo and the bacon wrapped pork tenderloin. The salmon artichoke dip was good, I probably wouldn't get it again and would want to try something more unique. The mussels and CB Lexi were fantastic, the bread (wish it was toasted though) and broth was to die for. We also had the Chorizo and Caramelized onion empanadas which were fine- probably would try another style, but would really go back for the paella next time. The gem of the night was the bacon wrapped pork tenderloin, which was sitting in a blue cheese/sweet sauce. It was SO GOOD. We ended the night with the warm bread pudding and the flourless chocolate cake which were both delicious. Next time we will try the flan!Ambiance was great and romantic, the only drawback is there's only 2 single bathrooms and there was always a line. Other than that, it was a perfect evening and we would 100% go back.

We had a phenomenal meal! Andy our server & also the bartender took absolutely amazing care of us! He was definitely slammed from the time we arrived (7pm on a Friday till about 10:30p) and still managed incredibly phenomenal service. Food was all very very yummy. Definitely took us back to our Spanish Style Meals in Spain. Place was alive and filled with all sorts of people which was amazing to see. Definitely Madrid vibes. My wife and I adore Spain so much so this place made us very happy. We don't get to Bellevue often, as we live in the South Sound but would definitely come back if we are out in the area. Great wine, really great food, great atmosphere, incredibly service. What more could you want from a meal?!!?Definitely come here with friends and share everything. There were 4 in our party and all the tapas were big enough for us to all munch on. Place is super affordable IMO. For 4 people bill was under $250 (without tip) and that included 4 glasses of wine, 3 cocktails, & like 6-7 different shareable tapas. Also Andy if you read this, you are a bartender extraordinaire ... yes take the compliment. Thanks for making our double date night spectacular!

We went for happy hours. It was slow and got seat right away. Order bread and garlic aioli, the garlic aioli was good, garlic and creme. Spicy chorizo with potato was best dish. It was not that spicy. Beef dish with wine sauce was ok. Beef was tender not too tough. Small dishes, you have ordered main dishes or many small dish if you hungry. Service was good. He came to check on us often.

The space is nice, but it doesn't live up to its potential. This was about my 5th time here, I expect the food to get better as a place 'gets it legs' but sadly some have changed for the worse over time (TORTILLA ESPANOLA I'm looking at you...). Overall, menu items are hit or miss and vary from visit to visit. Maybe the JV team was in the kitchen that night? Wines by the glass are disappointing, tried to find something passable with a Vivino menu scan, but the top choice for me tasted like it had been opened for too long.IF I return, I won't be ordering wine by the glass. But all is not lost, I'm told their cocktails are good if you get the right bartender...But the biggest issue (which would be VERY easy to fix, is that they don't pace out the items ordered. 2 of us ordered 6+ items and they brought them over almost all at the same time! There was obviously not any room on the table for more plates but they just kept piling them on.They need to train the staff to pace out the items, so the hot items can be enjoyed hot and plates aren't stacked on top of each other.

In the City of Bellevue, if you're looking for something simple, classy and accessible look no further than the Bellevue Square and Castilla. On street level Castilla is friendly and accessible. Once you walk in, it's hip and the decor definitely transports you away from what can be considered the very mono-cultural world of Bellevue into that 21st century modern eclectic-European Spanish place you were absolutely looking for. You could call for a reservation, but if you get there early enough you can find yourself with a space for two and enjoy the tapas menu and a few adult cocktails on their menu. While not wholly Spanish themed at their bar they do have some on-tap brews that pair well with your appetizers. Be advised, the menu can change, where one of their specialties for dinner does include paella made in their open kitchen ovens.Forgive the review as I don't have the Spanish names, but a spice-marinated roasted steak with mashed potatoes is a great way to start. Also tender, medium rare sliced steak along with roasted brussel sprouts with prosciutto. Magnificent. Go here with friends and make a reservation to get deeper into their menu with tasty salmon, lamb, and other plant based options to be explored.With parking in the mall, you'll come back.And do come back to Castilla.