{"id":222,"date":"2025-07-25T23:59:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T23:59:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rubynymphaea.vacations\/blog\/?p=222"},"modified":"2025-08-22T21:30:43","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T21:30:43","slug":"casi-cielo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rubynymphaea.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/25\/casi-cielo\/","title":{"rendered":"Casi Cielo"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Getting There<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Daniel and I went to Casi Cielo<\/a> recently. I recommend using your choice of GPS to visit, if you don’t put it in navigation or know the area well, you might miss it as you drive past it on Roswell Road. If you are heading North on Roswell Road you will want to turn right before the restaurant into a work\/live complex. There is valet parking, a bit of street parking, and a deck. The deck is mixed for residents, valet, and retail. Valet was $3, I couldn’t find any signs indicating a cost for self parking in the deck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Alternately, there is a MARTA bus stop catty corner from the restaurant at the corner of Roswell Road and Hildebrand Road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

About Casi Cielo<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Casi Cielo roughly translates to “almost heaven.” Their website shares that they want to transport you to the heavens with their service and food. It is one of two Oaxacan restaurants in Atlanta, with this one purported to be authentic. (I personally don’t know the specialties of the various regions of Mexico, so I am taking their word on it.)
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The “heavenly” experience started as you approach the entrance, with the hostess opening the door for you. We were sat immediately, as we arrived on time for our Open Table reservation. I was a bit worried, as when we entered it felt loud and there were live musicians. We were sat in the back, so the musicians were not distracting nor too loud and we adjusted to the moderate level of noise from the normal hustle and bustle of a restaurant and it’s patrons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Menu<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The menu was a bit of a challenge, even for Daniel who is a fluent Spanish speaker. It also did not have any indicators for allergens. Luckily, our server, Carlos, was the best – he not only explained what items were, checked with the kitchen if something had my allergens, and in some instances got us samples to try before ordering. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Drinks & Apps<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We were started with a flat water that was infused with orange and rosemary. If you weren’t looking for it, you would miss these flavors, as they were not overwhelming. Unlike most Mexican restaurants (who are not as high end) the table was not automatically given a basket of chips and salsa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

We started off with drinks and the totopos appetizer. I had the Rosemary Lemon drink which was refreshing and not too tart. Daniel had the smoky old fashioned, and said it was really good. The old fashioned was delivered under a glass cloche which was swirled while lifted to share the smokiness. We had wanted to try the tostada de pork belly, however it had peanuts in the sauce that were not listed on the menu, which is why we opted for the totopos.

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The totopos came with only the number of chips shown, but Carlos brought us more – only regular tortilla chips rather than the blue ones. The staff who brought it to us suggested we dig down to get a little of everything in each bite – when combined it was really a great combination of salty, sweet, umami, zing of pickled onions, and the herbaceousness of fresh cilantro. However, the guacamole itself was fairly bland and once the onions and cilantro were gone, it was just blended beans that weren’t that exciting.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Main Dishes<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Daniel ordered the salmon prehispanico and I the res (aka steak tacos). I tried Daniel’s mashed potatoes before he dug into them, they had the perfect level of creaminess and butteriness while being fluffy and still having multiple consistencies – but even the more dense parts were soft. The staff who brought our meal cut open the packet that the salmon came in – as it was wrapped in plantain leaves which was then wrapped in blue corn tortilla – en papillote style. He really enjoyed the salmon, waxing poetic about how it flavorful and perfectly cooked. He stated that the mole sauce really enhanced the salmon.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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I had suspected that the tacos did not come with anything, so I ordered the bouquet salad to go with it. When placing the order, I was asked how I wanted the steak cooked, however it came more cooked than I asked for. (I asked for medium rare, it came a solid medium and some pieces well done.) The tortilla was very thin and slightly dry, making them prone to tearing as they soaked the steak jus. The steak was tasty, if not obviously marinated. The crema that came with the tacos had a nice mix of creaminess but also an acid bite. I was of two minds of the tacos needed the crema or not. While the tacos were street food sized, there was a significant pile of steak on them. If this were a main meal, rather than a small plate, I would have enjoyed a third taco or a side included.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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I was excited about the bouquet salad, as it was avocado, pickled grape tomatoes halves (of various tomato colors), and caramelized onions. It was a fairly large salad, that was more a double side serving. The caramelized onions were incredibly smoky. I personally am not a big fan of smokiness, so that was actually a turn off for me, which was sad because I love caramelized onions. We asked our server and he confirmed that they were caramelized in a charcoal grill with the lid closed.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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Dessert<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We were quite full, but opted for indulging in dessert. Our server explained to us what soursop <\/a>is (a fruit that is creamy texture that tasted like a mix of pineapple and strawberries) and stated it is the same as guanabana. Carlos even brought us a small sample of the guanabana to try before placing our orders. Daniel ordered the capirotada (bread pudding with a layer of bruleed sugar in the middle and vanilla ice cream) while I ordered the tostada francesa (french toast with the guanabana and fruit.) We both really enjoyed the capirotada (I got a bite before he dug in) but I enjoyed the tostada francesa – mostly because of the chantilly cream with guanabana. The french toast had a tiny bit of cinnamon sprinkled on top – we were led to believe there would be a lot. The bread was a great challah like bread with the crispy outside and creamy inside of a perfect french toast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Impressions<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

My impression is that authentic Oaxacan cuisine uses a lot of grilling and smoke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

In a review elsewhere, I compared the service to the level of a one star michelin restaurant. If it wasn’t so expensive, I would want to go back more. We probably will go back, but it will be sparingly. Before tip, our meal came to $134. No one asked me to do this review, nor did I receive anything for it. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Daniel and I went to Casi Cielo recently. I recommend using your choice of GPS to visit, if you don’t put it in navigation or know the area well, you might miss it as you drive past it on Roswell Road. If you are heading North on Roswell Road you will want to turn right […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[31,33,38],"class_list":["post-222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food","tag-atlanta","tag-mexican","tag-restaurant-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rubynymphaea.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rubynymphaea.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rubynymphaea.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rubynymphaea.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rubynymphaea.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/rubynymphaea.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":373,"href":"https:\/\/rubynymphaea.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222\/revisions\/373"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rubynymphaea.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rubynymphaea.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rubynymphaea.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rubynymphaea.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}