We’ve driven by Castelli’s hundreds of times on the way to other restaurants in the area. My husband, Bill, had been there about 15 years ago and recalled the food as very average and not worth a repeat visit. However, upon recently researching restaurants to visit, reviews on Yelp for Castelli’s showed 4-1/2 stars, so off we went.
Many of Yelp’s reviews describe Castelli’s as an old school Italian restaurant that’s still worthy of hosting the Ratpack (Frank, Dino and Sammy) today, and I agree. Casetelli’s has been here for 24 years so it has to have a loyal clientele. But 4-1/2 stars?
The great thing about Castelli’s is the wait staff. Our server, like most of the others servers, have been there for many years, which is a good thing. They were friendly and attentive. But regarding the food, I must disagree with most of the online reviews. Instead of a 4-1/2 star rating I’d give Castelli’s an average rating based on our recent visit.
Ripe Tomatoes Please
Bill enjoys a simple Caprese salad. One mark of any good Italian restaurant is to only serve fresh ripe tomatoes. Castelli’s were hard, which ruined the dish. How difficult is it to serve fresh, ripe tomatoes here in California, with our abundance of year-round produce? If you don’t have fresh ripe tomatoes, take them off the menu please!
I ordered their Barbabietola Beet Salad and it was nothing to write home about either. It was just a very average salad like one you can find at Olive Garden or another mass-market chain.
For his entrée, Bill ordered Osso Bucco Cardinale. The meat was a bit overcooked (medium well) and the dish lacked the advertised quantity of peas, celery, carrots and onions. At $36 the dish fell short.
I ordered the ‘Lazy Man’s’ Seafood Cioppino, the daily fish special. The entrée was good but we were kind of shocked to see $44 on the bill and we weren’t told the price when the server recited the specials (our mistake).
The pasta accompanying both our entrees was hard to enjoy because it was drowning in sauce, which you don’t find in Italy. Our take is that Castelli’s is a very Americanized version of a Tuscan Ristorante. If you lean toward that you’ll likely enjoy it.
The Best Thing Was Desert!
Now to the best part, our desert! We sampled two (purely for research purposes). Castelli’s After Dark features French vanilla ice cream, layers of strawberries, and chocolate mousse topped with Amaretto, whipped cream and Amaretto cookies–yum! The tiramisu was right up there with some of the best in Italy!
If you enjoy the food at, say, an Olive Garden, you may just love Castelli’s. But at Olive Garden you’ll pay a lot less. Enjoy a drink at the bar at Castelli’s, but there are far better choices for genuine Italian food in the desert.
Castelli’s Ristorante is located at 73-098 Hwy 111, Palm Desert (760) 773-3365
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