Just went to Casbah (the new creation of Mad Mex owners). The food was terrific, extremely tasty. The decor of the main part of the restaurant is amazing. They have beautiful tile work and put big bucks into it. We had butternut squash soup which was excellent and goat cheese and peppers as an appetizer. Their wine list is extensive and you can order a "flight" which is a sample of 3 wines if you don't know what to order. I had carrot gnocci for dinner and my husband had lamb and pears. The dinner was excellent. Entrees range from $8.50 to $18.00. I recommend making reservations and requesting a seat upstairs if possible.
Pittsburgh, PA
Casbah
Casbah is in Shadyside on Highland Avenue and yes, the Mad Mex people have a restaurant called Kaya in the Strip (20th & Smallman ????) where they serve their interpretation of carribean food. It is very good and reasonably priced.
I went to The Casbah last night with 8 other people for my birthday. All in all, the food was great. Service was REAL slow. We got there areound 7:15 and did not leave until 10. It was not really that crowded. For appetizers, we had the goat cheese in filo which I strongly suggest, the Portugese sausage soup, and quail. All were reported as being very good. They also gave us fresh break with olive oil for dunking. Very good bread. Most of us had beer but I had a flight of white wine (3 2 ounce servings of different whites.) I enjoyed this. They had a choice of a white or red flight with the wines already preselected. Beers start at $3 and go to $12. Wines are somewhat expensive. For dinner we had grilled game hen (this is what I had and I thought it was excellent), the crepes, a pasta dish where the pasta looks kind of like a straw before you cook it, a barbecues potatoe stuffed pasta dish, and stuffed pork chops. I only tried my game hen, but the guy who had the pork chops said that they were the best he has every had. The entrees are $9 to $19 with the average around $15. All in all I like the place very much. The service was slow however. I hope to go back soon. BOYD SAFRIT
I am not sure of the exact location. But if you go down Walnut St. towards S. Highland Ave, then turn left onto S. Highland, go about 2 blocks, Casbah is on your right. The building is kind of pink-adobe looking. Sorry, that is the best I can do. BOYD SAFRIT
We stopped by Casbah the other night. I can't say our experience was all that great, although it certainly wasn't as bad as our first experience with Kaya, and Kaya got much better over time. First, if you plan on going to Casbah, by all means, make a reservation! We didn't (from experience with Mad Mex and Kaya, we didn't think they took reservations), and we ended up waiting 40 minutes for a table. This was extremely upsetting given that the hostess estimated 15-20 minutes. After that, things just got slower. The restaurant as a whole is beautiful. Don't let the size of the upstairs fool you, they have plenty of seating downstairs. Also, it should be fun once they open up the patio next spring. As with their other restaurants, the bar is really nice. And the noise level is much lower, as you'd expect from a fancier restaurant. The food started out with whimper. Pasty white bread and "olive oil." Actually, the olive oil was so pale and flavorless, they could've been serving us Canola Oil, for all we knew. If they are doing Mediterranean, borrow from the Italians, and put some rosemary or just about anything in the olive oil, folks. And beef up the bread. We also had the butternut squash soup. It was very good, as was the goat's cheese with filo. We felt, however, that the entree menu was a bit sparse. I remember Kaya's beginnings, though, and it was the same story there. The owners eventually heard people grumbling about Kaya, and remedied the situation. I agree that the vegetarian menu was drab. I don't usually go to restaurants expecting a huge selection of vegetarian entrees, but the ones at Casbah were not all that interesting, given the reputation of Mad Mex and Kaya. Those restaurants have a large vegetarian following, and it would seem that the owners would want to tap into that for Casbah. Also, a name like Casbah suggests to me something exotic, interesting, and new. In our experience, that wasn't delivered. Hope this is helpful. Andy PS: The deserts were delicious.
Casbah is in the vicinity of Shadyside Plaza (little shopping center with Tasty Chinese and Pizza Hut delivery) across the street from the Basic Concepts store that is going out of business and just before you go across the little bridge into East Liberty. Color Tile and Willi's Ski Warehouse are next door, but don't park there as you'll get towed. Parking on the street is spotty. They advise parking in a tiny unpaved lot that is the next right after Shadyside Plaza. This lot only holds about 20 cars and is often full or near full, even at odd times in the middle of the day. This is across from the Christian Science Reading Room. If you park in this lot, *beware* there are huge pieces of uneven concrete at the top of this lot that could rip the oil pan, etc. right off your car if you don't approach it gently. I guess there used to be an old house there and this was the front walk. The food? I really enjoyed the lamb with cinaminnon cous cous this past Monday lunch, but the service was slow and the place not that busy. I got the feeling my waiter was on his first job ever. The wine flights are interesting and fun. Unfortunately, if you go into the bar for a wine flight in the middle of the day (between lunch and dinner) there is NO food available at all--not even bread and olive oil or "goldfish" snacks in a bowl to cleanse your palette during your wine flight tasting. Hope they change this. I enjoy the decor and found the staff friendly and knowledgeable. Pam in Oakland
Andrew P. wrote about Casbah: >The food started out with whimper. Pasty white bread and "olive oil." >Actually, the olive oil was so pale and flavorless, they could've been >serving us Canola Oil, for all we knew. If they are doing >Mediterranean, borrow from the Italians, and put some rosemary or just >about anything in the olive oil, folks. And beef up the bread. I think you're being unfair. The oil was olive oil, as announced, and the bread was ok. It's white bread, but many perfectly good breads are white. If your motto is, "borrow from the Italians," what Casbah does fits that squarely. It's not as if Italians turn their noses up at unflavoured olive oil. It has a taste of its own, one that does differ from that of canola oil. And there are many white Italian breads. Mark McCullagh
In article , Jane Aronson Manning Someone wrote: @There are many white Italian breads, but they typically have a quite @different taste and texture from the mushy white stuff that Casbah servs. @ @I thought the food there was on the whole pretty good, but, as is the @case w/ many Pittsburgh restaurants that have otherwise good food, the @bread was just awful. @ @It seems like it would be easy enough for restaurants to serve decent @bread in Pittsburgh, like restaurants in many other cities do. Someone @just needs to explain to them how bad their bread is. @ @And there's even a place that can sell good breads to restaurants in @Pittsburgh: Bread Works. The restaurants just need to get a clue. Actually, all the bread we serve is top of the line Breadworks bread. The "pasty white bread" is Breadwork's Ciabatta, a classical Italian bread. I agree. Breadworks does make excelent bread. As a chef, I wouldn't buy bread from any other bakery in town. Bill Fuller Executive Chef, Casbah
In article , Mark McCullagh Someone wrote: Someone wrote: @>> The ciabatta [at Casbah] is much different in texture and taste @>> than the Rustic Italian bread also made by the Breadworks and probably @>> is what the previous "reviewers" are used to calling italian bread. @ @>Maybe Casbah has changed their bread. @ @Maybe there's no such thing as "their" bread, maybe they just choose from @several different kinds of bread that they have on hand. In fact, @believe it or not, this is what they do, for when I went there I had @bread of two different kinds. One was focaccia, I think, but then I'm @not a breadworks fanatic so I probably am not qualified to say anything. Perhaps I can clear this up. Our house bread is Breadworks' ciabatta. However, in our first week or so of business (we've been open two weeks this Friday) we had to work out the kinks in the ordering, including the bread. Some nights we ran out of Ciabatta and had to use the focaccia and any other bread we had on hand. However, things are calming down and we have ciabatta every day possible. @ @>Here's how Ciabatta usually looks: @(Lecture deleted.) @ @>Here's how the bread at Casbah when I went there looked: @(Description of non-Ciabatta bread deleted.) @ @>Which way did the bread that you saw there last night look? If it's the @>first way, then it's different bread than they had last week. If it's @>the second way, then it amazes me that 'burghers call that ciabatta. @ @So far, no "'burghers" *have* called it ciabatta, so you can conserve @your amazement energy for some other occasion on which to feel superior @to Pittsburghers, e.g. the next occasion on which you go to a restaurant @serving bread of a sort you are not familiar with. Actually the owners of Breadworks are 'Burghers from way back. And they call it ciabatta. Bill Fuller
ate there Fri. night. The appearance and taste of soft shell crabs (the special) were destroyed because they were scorched. Even I -- a non-cook -- know that if butter is heated too long or at too high heat, it scorches and has to be pitched and the pan cleaned. I did answer the server's inquiry about "how is everything?" by suggesting that the crabs were just too dark, and she replaced them by 2 that were only slightly better. The sauce was tangy enough to cover the scorched taste though. At an entree price of $25, I'd expect better. The lemon tart's crust was soggy, even the top part that didn't touch the lemon part. Again, for $2.50, I wouldn't be offended, but at $4-something, I expect close to perfection. Butternut squash soup was good. I'd heard good things about Casbah and expected better. Service was good, and pleasant.