When I was living in London, one of the things that I probably most annoyed my friends about was my obsession with Mexican food. I was always looking for something spectacular, but everything would inevitably fall short. It’s not their fault, the United Kingdom is very far from Mexico, and honestly, it’s insanely difficult to get the ingredients at a reasonable price. So one of the things I was most looking forward to in my move was being able to hunt down some new and interesting Mexican places. I’m not one to scoff at burritos and tacos from a taqueria as a few of them do make some absolutely fantastic food, but the food is also not as interesting as I know Mexican food can be. I had heard about Cala from a few people, so I knew it was definitely a place I wanted to try, so when my parents were in town, I booked us all in for a night to see if their modern Mexican really was as good as people say.
One thing to be aware of if you do decide to go is that the seating is a bit bizarre. It’s not quite communal dining, but the tables are all angled in such a way that it’s quite easy to be backed up against someone. In fact, they converted the table behind two of us into a larger, circular table for a booking later that night, and it seemed like it was going to be impossible for us to be sitting there while they were as well. Luckily, we convinced them to move the table a bit, but it’s definitely a tight squeeze which does make for a bit of an unpleasant dining experience.
The menu is very seafood heavy which is definitely something I’m a fan of in Mexican food as a lot of the coastal areas in Mexico are seafood rich. It is also split up into cold small plates, hot small plates and large plates. We decided to order quite a bit to share with a few cold small plates, a few small hot plates and two of the larger plates. There is also quite a tequila/mezcal heavy cocktail menu, but we just decided on wine as they all did sound like they might be on the sweet side. They also started us out with some nice homemade pickled vegetables and onions. The onions were really hot (if you like that sort of thing), and I found them both quite delicious.
First to arrive was the giant clam ceviche with buddha’s hand. (In case you don’t know what a buddha’s hand is, it’s a citrus fruit that gets long fingers, almost like a Cthulhu fruit.) The dish itself was nice but not a wow for me. It was overwhelmingly citrus without much heat, and with the addition of the buddha’s hand it just added even more citrus with nothing to balance it out. Up next was the trout tostadas with avocado and fried leeks. These were really fantastic looking, piled high with trout. They were full of flavor and the crunchiness of the tostada and the sharpness of the leeks really helped balance it out well.
The abalone tostadas were the next to arrive and compared to the trout tostadas, they seemed a bit anaemic. There wasn’t a whole lot of abalone, and the abalone that was there was really rubbery and not very nice. While they looked pretty, they just really paled in comparison and everyone at the table was quite disappointed which was sad because I really do love abalone when it is done correctly. We were then brought a salad of nopales and quelites with pepitas and cheese. I kind of forced this on the table because I love cactus, and I felt some vegetables might be important for our meal. I liked the salad, but I was disappointed that it was mostly leaves with very little cactus (considering the cactus was the first thing listed). It was a fine salad, but I guess I just wanted more from it than what we got.
Next up was the mussels tamal that was on the large plate section of the menu (even though we still hadn’t received all our small plates, so the food pacing was definitely a bit odd). This dish was actually incredibly tasty as the mussels were perfectly cooked and embedded in a really tasty masa casing. Everyone was really happy with the dish and it really felt like the first wow dish of the night. We were then presented with sopes with ling cod and pickled onions. It was another nice dish with a good flavor profile.
Next was camaronillas with shrimp and carnitas. These ended up being small pastry parcels (much like an empanada). Again, the food was good, but it felt like there was a little something missing. We then had the frito mixto with calamari, ling cod and bay shrimp. The dipping sauce was pretty fantastic, but overall the fried fish wasn’t that amazing and some of it was slightly overcooked.
Finally for our last dish, we had the sweet potato with bone marrow salsa negra. I suppose this may be one of their signature dishes as it’s pretty much always on the menu, no matter the season. It’s a fire roasted sweet potato served with a black sauce. You are supposed to scoop it onto housemade tortillas and eat like a taco. This was a pretty fantastic dish actually. The potato was cooked really well and the sauce really added a richness to the carby potato and tortilla. If you’re like me and you like a bit of smoke and char in your food, give the skin a try. I personally enjoyed the black exterior of the potato (even though I’m not sure you really are supposed to eat it.)
Afterwards, I decided that we needed to try a couple of the desserts, so I decided to get the bunuelos with figs and the sweet corn tamale. The tamale was nice and sweet, and the fruit served with it provided some needed acid. The bunuelos were fried disc doughs layered cream and figs. Again, it was a nice desert, but neither desert was one that we were really excited about. They do have a great selection of mezcal flights though, which I thought would be a great way to end the meal as well.
I think Cala makes some nice food, but it’s far from perfect. The cold dishes were definitely not as good as the hot dishes, and the two stand out dishes of the night were definitely the large plates of the mussel tamal and the sweet potato. I really wanted a bit more spice and balance to some of the dishes. I guess I was hoping for more from elevated Mexican, similar to things I’ve had in other places. I think I might go back if someone I knew wanted to go, but I would definitely feel like I need to request a table next to the wall instead of in the middle of the room, as it looked like those might not be quite as crowded. I get that it’s about maximizing space with high rent costs, but it really does put a damper on the dining experience when you’re getting bumped or worried about the people at the table behind you.
Score: 3/5
Recommendation: The sweet potato and tamal were winning dishes for everyone at the table.
Cala
149 Fell Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
