For the past decade, as Castro Street has grown into one of the hippest restaurant scenes on the Peninsula, Casa Lupe has been rolling up burritos and stewing Mexican and Mexican-American home cooking behind the big painted wall bearing its name.
A small restaurant with about a dozen tables inside and another half dozen outside, it has a tidy attractiveness, gaily highlighted by perky flowers in pots, colorful piñatas and paint, and festive lighting. Many restaurants attempting this look begin to seem fatigued over the years, but Casa Lupe is holding up well. And despite the big glass windows, it’s not a very noisy place, adding to its cozy ambience.
With its friendly service, you’ll feel taken care of even if the food does sometimes take longer than you expect. You’re brought chips and salsa when you’re first seated, which varied on my two visits there. On the first meal, it was thicker, blander chips with only one salsa, a vinegary, spicy, pureed salsa roja. The next meal, the chips were perfectly crispy and salty, and served with two salsas that included a chunky salsa fresca with more kick to it and better, fuller flavor.
My first visit, I ordered the three-entree combo with rice and your choice of beans (black, refried or pinto), a very filling deal at $14.95. It arrived on a huge platter, blazing to the touch, and included a beef enchilada, chicken entomatada (like an enchilada with a tomato sauce), and a chicken tamale. These dishes weren’t flaming with spices (in fact, the chunky salsa was one of the hotter foods I ate at Casa Lupe). It came with rice — perfect, not soggy or dry — and refried beans that had a nice creamy texture but were a little bland.
As a whole the food was fine — simple. Casa Lupe, it turns out, is not built on culinary adventures.
My brother ordered the carne asada burrito ($8.95), which was the better choice of the evening. Of course, I never told him that, not wanting him to gloat. The beef was very tasty, and fairly tender. It, too, was a goodly amount of food for the money.
For dessert, we passed on ice cream and flan for the bunuelos ($5.25), which look like deep-fried tortilla strips with cinnamon sugar and ice cream on top. A simple dish, it really hit the spot.
The range of drinks makes this a good drinks-after-work place, with fine-tasting daiquiris ($5.95), a few wines-by-the-glass from Chateau Souverain and Kenwood ($7.75), and of course, margaritas aplenty.
For lunch, we sat at one of the handful of outdoor tables. These are set back a little from the main drag on Castro, and great for people-watching. Lunch, however, is not set back from Castro Street prices, because you’ll pay more here than for the equivalent in a less trafficked area.
On this return visit, we were brought the two varieties of salsa, and ordered a side of guacamole ($2), which was creamy and not mussed by overly inventive additions. Our lunch came with a choice of wheat or corn tortillas, and soup or a salad of iceberg lettuce with some colorful additions like tomato slices. Soup was the thing to order, however — a rich and savory meatball soup, with meatballs that tasted like little meatloaves (in a good way).
The chicken mole was very good — tender and juicy, in a thick, ruddy mole sauce of chilies and chocolate ($14.95). It held a slight edge over the pork chile verde ($13.95) I ordered. The chile verde was hot in temperature and seasoning, with a mix of tender and not-so-tender chunks of pork in the tomatilla and green chile sauce. It came with beans — I chose pinto, al dente and buttery — rice, and some salad mix with no dressing I could detect.
When a dish with sides like this arrives with tortillas, I’m never sure how much is supposed to go into the tortilla, so I wrapped up some of everything on the plate into the tortilla, and it was a good combo, the beans cutting the spiciness a tad. But the chile was good with just the rice, too.
Casa Lupe is the place to go if you’re craving simple, home-style Mexican cooking in a low-key, colorful setting. It has a good-sized menu with few surprises other than how little seafood is on it (I only saw two shrimp dishes). While splashier restaurants along the strip may claim more attention, I’ve always seen at least a modest number of diners enjoying themselves here, whether I was dining or passing by.
For watching the Castro scene more than being seen, this sister restaurant to Casa Lupe of Los Altos offers a warm, filling meal in comfortable surroundings.
Casa Lupe
459 Castro St., Mountain View
(650) 965-2944
Hours:
Lunch: Monday-Friday, 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Dinner: Daily 5 to 10 p.m.
