Castile Restaurant, St. Pete Beach - Excellent

The Castile Restaurant (http://www.castilerestaurant.com/) at the Hotel Zamora in St. Pete Beach offers very nice dining experiences. My wife and I enjoyed one dinner, two breakfasts, and two desserts there during our stay at the Hotel Zamora.

For the dinner and the first dessert, we were joined by wonderful friends from Tampa, who endured heavy rains and drawbridge delays to join us and make our evening.

We started the evening with a cocktail at the Castile's Rooftop 360 bar, which offers views of both the Gulf of Mexico and the Intracoastal Waterway. We sat facing the Gulf, and had hoped to enjoy the sunset. However, it was fairly cloudy, so we only saw a partial sunset.

(The bar is closed when it rains.)

We then went to the restaurant itself, which is two floors below.

We found a nice Groupon deal for dinner. It included an appetizer and an entree. The restaurant calls its appetizers "tapas." However, the servings are much larger than traditional tapas.

My wife's delicious appetizer was Heirloom Tomatoes and Burrata with fig balsamic redux, candied orange zest, and grilled sourdough baguette. (Burrata is a semisoft Italian cheese made with mozzarella and cream.)

My fantastic appetizer was Mussels Zamora with sambuca, fennel, blood orange, heirloom tomatoes, fresh herbs, and grilled baguette.

My wife and I both had the same wonderful entrée - Seared Diver Scallops with creamed corn casserole, candied pancetta, smoked tomatoes, and jalapeño prosecco cream.

We also had dessert, wine, and coffee, which were not included with the Groupon deal.

My wife's tasty dessert was Flan Cheesecake - cheesecake in the shape of flan, with candied orange caramel, guava gastrique, and mint oil. She enjoyed it so much, we had to return for a repeat the next evening after dinner at another restaurant.

My incredible dessert was Guava Empanadas filled with Fuji apples and grapples, accompanied by a banana mole pistacchio gelato. 

I also had a Jamaican coffee with Tia Maria, rum, and whipped cream.

For her first breakfast, my wife had fried eggs, Chicharron bacon, and boniato sofrito hash browns. (Boniato is a type of sweet potato whose color is white. Sofrito in Spanish cuisine is a mixture of garlic, onion, paprika, peppers, and tomatoes.)

For breakfast the next day, she had steel cut oat meal.

My first breakfast was the Castile Omelette, with smoked chicharrons, Mahon cheddar, guanciale pepper, heirloom tomatoes, caramelized onions, avocado, and boniato sofrito hash browns. It was wonderful, but too large for me to finish.

The second day, I had scrambled eggs with chorizo mixed in, and the boniato sofrito hash.

The Castile morning coffee was nice and strong.

The service at the restaurant was excellent.

The restaurant has both indoor and outdoor dining, with tables facing the Intracoastal Waterway.

Coincidentally, the Sarasota Herald Tribune published an interview with the restaurant's executive chef, Alex Rodriguez, shortly before we chose to stay at the hotel and dine at the restaurant. The interview is at http://www.ticketsarasota.com/2015/08/31/chef-talk-alex-rodriguez-castile-restaurant/.