Casa Vasca
“both dishes came with soup (caldo gallego), potatoes, & either salad or veggies.”
“Overall, I think this is a great seafood spot for the Ironbound section of Newark and a perfect pre-game or pre-concert restaurant if you are looking for quality food.”
“We also ordered a dish with scallops and crabmeat, the paella marinera, and a chicken dish.The seafood dishes were great!”
Casa Vasca
Takes Reservations: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Accepts Apple Pay: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Has TV: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
8 reviews
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Fun fact: Casa Vasca is the one and only restaurant I have eaten at in the state of New Jersey. I had no idea that New Jersey had such a big Portuguese population. But I'm very glad that I was able to try some Portuguese food and experience some Portuguese/New Jersey culture.
Coming from hawaii, the only Portuguese I've experienced has been at McDonald's for breakfast (Portuguese sausage, eggs and rice, please!). I guess the ukulele also may have had some Portuguese influence. Either way, I had no idea what authentic Portuguese food was like.
Casa Vasca serves delicious Portuguese food. We ordered the chorizo (much better than McDonald's, but more burnt), the garlic shrimp (wow, simple, but maybe one of my favorites of the night), paella (yum!) and the seafood stew with green sauce. Oh and how can I forget the sangria? Both red and white sangria is offered at Casa Vasca, but we had the classic red. Delicious. Dinner here comes with the soup of the day and a basket of bread, rice and potatoes. The soup we had was chickpea and I honestly am not a fan of chick peas at all. I don't even really like hummus. This soup was amazing! I t was flavorful and I ate all the chickpeas! The seafood dishes were also very delicious and I particularly liked the green sauce.
The service was kind of weird. The waiters are all very interestingly dressed in fancy suits, but they aren't friendly….maybe it's a New Jersey thing.
There is a parking lot a few lots before the restaurant, which is nice because finding street parking looked rather impossible.
I wasn't sure what to really expect when I was coming to dinner at Casa Vasca but I'm so glad I did. My first thought was I hope I find parking, which I did since they have a small parking lot on the same block where the restaurant is located but about two houses down. Complimentary parking is always a plus, especially in Ironbound.
When you first walk in, you're immediately in a small bar, but then they direct you the dinning area which is small and cozy. The servers where all courteous and very helpful making sure everyone was satisfied with their meal and drinks at all times. The food was very good, from the freshly warm bread made & delicious soup down to their dessert and last but not least their cappuccinos!
Delicious Spanish style food. A starter of soup, and then Bread and rice is served with every dish. I loved my seafood dish in the green sauce – it is cooked with clam juice, so while I enjoyed this, my dining partner felt like it was too "sea" tasting. The shrimp was a little overcooked, but the scallops, clams, mussels, and lobster were cooked to perfection. Really amazing seafood for a great price. I wasn't a fan of their veal and sausage in a wine sauce personally, but I think their seafood dishes shine. Definitely more than enough for leftovers. Their sangria is tasty as well! Service was a little hit or miss – we weren't given menus for 5 minutes after we were seated & it took a while to get water and drinks. Once our meal was ordered, the service was very attentive,
I grew up in Newark. Matter of fact 1 block from this place!
Most amazing meal we had last night.
Starter – soup which is served to all diners. Tonite it was potato leek with nice large chunks of salty pork.
Appetizer we order clams in a green sauce. I've had this at Portuguese restaraunts and it tends to be mostly liquid. This sauce was nice and thick and the amount of garlic spot on. You could smell it hitting the table. Now if you don't like garlic take a pass. I on the other hand am a lover of garlic!
Bread basket on the table was delish and helped to sop it all up.
I had the octopus special. And hubby had the lamb shank. I am not sure which was better. I've never had such delicious lamb. Truly never. Falling off the bone. I can't wait for lunch to enjoy the leftovers!
The octopus perfectly tender and spiced with salt, paprika and a few other delicious making this a true delicacy.
Without question Somewhere I will return to!!
Update – have been twice more and yum!!!!
I heard of this place thru a coworker who highly recommended it. She is Portuguese, knows the Ironbound area very well. First I tested her – I asked if Rio Rodizio on route 22 was authentic or any good. She almost snarled at me. Good response.
So it was I arrived here with high expectations and wanted to fall in love with the place from the get-go. I love Portuguese – great food, good bang for the buck, portions are awesome. It's kinda like Chinese in that way, except they have delicious sangria and no fish tanks.
First thing I noticed was that they have their own parking lot with a parking attendant watching your car. This is important in Newark! Also, it is not valet – you don't gotta give up your keys. Awesome. More about the parking guy later.
On to the food:
The lobster in spicy sauce wasn't that spicy. It had a little bit of spice to it and the flavor was all right, not as awesome as it looks in the pictures on yelp. The portion looked large but actually it's only one lobster and hence not that much meat you are getting for $24. It was cooked well though. 3/5
The paella valencia we ordered had several human hairs stuck to the chicken. They offered to make us another after we plucked em out and carefully inspected the dish but I said don't bother. I didn't want to waste the whole thing. The portion size was pretty big, the taste was ok – not quite as flavorful as I would have wanted (especially the chicken). I appreciated it wasn't very greasy and not too salty though. The mussels were tiny and not great in flavor but there was a good amount of scallops and shrimp. 3/5
The sirloin steak with fries and veggies was a great deal – 14 bucks. I wanted it medium rare but it came out well done. Flavor was not bad, not great. I definitely make better steak at home. Good price though – 4/5.
Sangria was not bad – tasty and home made but not very strong. 4/5
Service by the waitstaff was very good. The parking guy was a bit annoying when we left though.
I know he has a thankless job and he was stationed in a lil cubby hole in the cold but that still doesn't mean he gets to keep pounding hard on the side of my car when he didn't like the direction I was slowly backing out my car. Relax dude I have a backup cam and I wasn't close to hitting anything. He just wanted to make sure I come out a certain way and make a u-turn rather than try to make a left. Just say something next time instead of banging, geez. He was older, walked with a limp, emerged from his cubby like he was swamp thing or something. Otherwise I woulda said something to him.
Maybe it was an off night but I've had better meals at Al Garve in Elizabeth.
I love the abundance of Iberian peninsula restaurants in the Ironbound district and Casa Vasca did not disappoint me
On the corner in a brick non descriptive building, you walk through a tiny bar and into a white table cloth narrow dining room
The first thing you notice is the smell of the garlic and green sauces that remind you of a Spanish sea
The menu is extensive in clams, shrimp, lobster, fish, chicken and meats which is why we came here
The wine list is loaded with Spanish and Portuguese wines and is very reasonably priced with the highest priced wine at only 45 dollars
We started with their black bean soup that was very good. Some people next to us said they come just for the black bean soup all the time
I had a simple house salad that was good and not over dressed
The clams in garlic sauce were very tasty. The clams were large and the sauce we so good I needed to dip my bread in it until the bowl was completely dry
We then had the shrimp in green sauce and the filet of sole ala Romana style which was a simple lemony sauce
The shrimp were so delicious with that green sauce that I could not stop eating from the huge pot it came in and ladling the shrimp and sauce on top of the yellow Spanish rice. I used the papas fritas as a spoon to scoop up as much as I could and shoveled it in my mouth. So good!
The filet of sole was ok
All in all, we had all that, a bottle of wine and a huge basket of bread for 89 dollars! Such a deal
I would definitely come back
Came here for a retirement party so this review is for food that we didn't get to pick out. The restaurant is pretty small but they had us separated in the back room from the rest of the restaurant.
We got there early and they immediately let us sit and filled our water glasses.
The bread basket was filled with delicious warmed bread. Seriously…the rolls were really good.
The octopus appetizer was awesome. It was cooked perfectly and very tender. Definitely would recommend it!!
We also had a bean soup which was really creamy and we'll seasoned.
For dinner there was a choice of 3 items. I chose the seafood paella. The portion was very large. I enjoyed the shrimp in it. They were a nice size and also cooked perfectly. There were scallops too. They were the small bay ones. I didn't eat them but my husband said they had a funny taste.
For dessert, the owner got an ice cream cake from Nastos. That was the best part of the whole evening!!!!
I have mixed feelings about this place. The atmosphere and the service is outstanding but the flavor falls a little flat.
We came here on Mother's Day for a bit of a mystery date. Not knowing what to expect we walked into the bar area and felt a little lost. You have to walk through the door to the right of the bar to find the restaurant (which I love). It had a real local feel!
The sangria is great and they keep it flowing and the bean soup was a really nice touch before dinner. From there the food went downhill. We had two different paellas and for the amount of seafood in them and different meats we assumed that they would be bursting with flavor but, you really couldn't taste anything. Totally needed some hot sauce, which I feel guilty about saying.
Overall although I loved the service and the atmosphere I don't think I would come here again because of the blandness of the food.