Casa Sensei, Fort Lauderdale

Written By: Gail Clifford | Published By: Weekend Notes | September 24, 2022

https://www.weekendnotes.com/casa-sensei-fort-lauderdale/

Welcomed from the outside by umbrellaed tables and a friendly hostess, you’re best served to have reservations if you want to eat at the popular Café Sensei for dinner. When we were last in Fort Lauderdale for a conference this summer, my daughter found Café Sensei and we made the point of driving in and finding parking so we could enjoy this restaurant with a surprise treat at the end of the meal (spoiler alert!). So it’s no surprise that it should be top of mind for the Convention and Visitors Bureau to recommend the same wonderful restaurant. We didn’t find free parking but paid parking within a few blocks of the restaurant. On this visit, we took an Ube,r which was incredibly convenient.

What you won’t know, unless you ask, is that the river flowing by can be part of your experience. Ask about the gondola dining options.

With indoor and outdoor seating, you’ll have the chance to enjoy the Florida weather depending on your tolerabilities. It remained seasonably warm both times I visited, so we elected indoor dining with air conditioning. If you’re a true fan of Sushi, you’ll want to check out the Omakase “free-style” sushi bar or comfort food Pan-Asian style like Pad Thai, Lo Mein, Lobster Guacamole, Bulgogi, Bao Buns, and Kimchi Fried Rice.

This day, our server, Danni, upon hearing the various allergies of the group, recommended I follow the menu’s gluten-free notations with a strong recommendation for Jumbo Shrimp Curry Curl. It is elegant in its simplicity with jumbo shrimp, a red curry sauce, and assorted vegetables. I still haven’t figured out exactly what they do to make the curry sauce have the Latin flavor, but it is distinct from other curries.

For my non-dairy tolerant colleague, she recommended anything besides the Korean BBQ with fried rice. She chose General Tso’s chicken bites, which are very tasty, tangy, crispy chicken chunks with scallions, garlic, Casa spicy sauce, and Chili Peppers. It’s in a deep dish where you may not even be certain the rice is there… Until you dig down into this ginormous bowl.

Our Convention visitors and Bureau representative ordered the ordered the charred octopus. The tentacle arrived fairly intact, grilled, accompanied by a papaya mango salad and a fresh basil vinaigrette. I’m so glad to visit with people that have a more adventurous palate than me. She shared that it was prepared “perfectly,” and enjoyed the diverse layering of flavors in the dish.