Mas — Restaurant in Charlottesville

Tl;dr: A good spot for a special dinner, but the prices don’t represent the dishes served.

I went here the other night with family to celebrate a birthday, and walked in not knowing what to expect. The seating and decor was pleasing and interesting, albeit a bit uninspired. They provided a satisfactory experience that left me feeling full and happy, but I don’t think I’ll probably go back.

The good: Friendly, experienced (for the most part) waitstaff, fair portions, overall good food. A good location for a celebration or date. Decent ambiance and lots of art on the walls.

The bad: Many of the dishes felt a bit underwhelming in their flavor profiles. Interesting combinations and ingredients didn’t make for very interesting flavors. The hostess also couldn’t find our reservation, which, while totally not a big deal, was a little bit of a blow as the first experience walking inside.

Orders:

Bread and cheese- exactly how it sounds. Fantastic bread (a recurring theme) and good cheese. The cheese was maybe too bold and funky for the delicate bread for my taste.

Salad- tasty but nothing special. Unusual dressing which I liked. Not really a standout but everyone in my party enjoyed it.

Broccolini- went between fantastic and blegh bite to bite. Not sure what the seasoning was (perhaps smoked salt and black pepper?). It was delicious in some parts but unevenly applied so that some bites were hugely overpowering in salinity or peppery flavor.

Halibut- this would have been amazing if the curry was just slightly different. Crispy, well cooked, flaky fish, good rice, and a refreshing slaw set this dish up to be a home run. The curry was a great texture but flavor wise, it was just too savory and salty on the upper rear area of the palette. I’ll talk more about this later.

Artichoke heart cheese dip- another instance of a delicious dish with fantastic bread being taken down a notch by overpowering cheese. Perfect texture and very well done, just too cheesy (and I don’t say that lightly!). Between bites of other dishes it was at its best.

Cauliflower- my favorite dish of the evening. Seriously spectacular. Well seasoned, perfectly tender, and steaming hot. I’m usually not much one for cauliflower but this was the best I’ve ever had it.

Tortilla- always fantastic. Hard to make it not delicious. Served piping hot and another group favorite.

Shrimp- a close second to the cauliflower. The sole issue was that the shells were so firmly cooked into the meat that it took each of us minutes to de shell each one. Other than that, these were seriously spectacular. We also appreciated the compound butter, which melted on the crustaceans making them that much more decadent.

Overall tasting notes: many of the dishes had a somewhat garish earthy flavor on the upper back region of the palette. This was especially the case with the curry and broccolini. It’s a flavor profile I usually enjoy, but it was just far too liberally applied in these dishes. Other than that, the food was pretty good. It didn’t hold up with similar restaurants in the area (think little star, which already isn’t my favorite, but has a similar genre of cuisine, pricing, and more interesting flavors), or the ambiance of places like Ten.

All in all, I was satisfied, but not wow’ed. if you’re spending well for an evening out, this is absolutely an option to consider, but would not be one of my top choices. Hope...

I don't usually rate restaurants but I feel it would be a disservice to everyone if I didn't post a warning. Waited an hour and thirty minutes for a table. Two other couples who came after us were given tables before us and when asked, the tall blonde waitress was rude. She told us and I quote 'don't worry about it'. I was so dumbfounded by her response that I just said okay and left to stand by the bar. When another couple were given a table, we went up again, this time to a different person. Explained that we had been waiting for a table and finally we were seated. We ordered total of four margaritas, the pork and cheese platter, the 3 yr age meat, grilled octopus, the sliders, and a special with lobster and rice. Where do I start? I was really hoping that food would make up for the terrible service. By terrible service I am not taking about the wait time. I'm taking about the way the whole situation was handled and the way the waitress responded to us. Going back to the food and drinks, the drinks were awesome. We had blood orange and pomegranate margaritas, two of each. The pork and cheese dish and the aged meat dishes are nothing to rave about. You are not missing anything. The sliders were good. Probably the only thing that was good. The "grilled" octopus came with some boiled then grilled potato steaks. octopus dish was soggy and tested nothing like it ever touched a grill. This was very disappointing as it was the one dish for which I sought out this restaurant. I've had grilled octopus in every restaurant I've visited if it was listed on the menu. The worst of all is the special of the night the lobster with rice. We ordered that dish because it came highly recommended by the waitress. I'm aware that specials are experimental dishes but what we got was overcooked rice with lobster, salt and soy sauce. The taste came close in taste to over salted, over priced chinese fried rice take out. We took one bite each and moved the plate to a corner. Soy sauce should not be anywhere near tapas. The waitress took the dish off our bill which was nice. But, she charged us extra money thinking we ordered more drinks than we had... So I circled the mistake and left a 20% tip which looking back was very generous given the mediocare food and then terrible service. So, to sum it up..

Pros- good drinks

Cons- terrible food and customer service

I would have gone back for drinks that's why I gave it two stars but I'll pass given everything else. "Don't worry about it" you're not missing much. Plus, they don't care about service or food. They only care...

Alrighty, I wanted to give what I feel is a pretty honest review of this place. I’ve heard from several people in Charlottesville that Mas is so good and definitely have to check it out. We’ve been trying to get a reservation for a couple of months (our schedules are crazy) and finally got one. Be prepared to reserve ahead of time for sure.

Ambiance is nice, they tried to seat us initially at the first table by the door and that was a no-go cause it’s freezing and when the door opens it’s even worse. Definitely need a space heater up by the front. The decor is cool and eclectic, rest if the restaurant was warm and tables are spaced nicely so your not on top of others.

Waitress was friendly and attentive, explained how things worked and had suggestions when asked. Nothing over the top to write home about but I wouldn’t complain about anything either.

Food: so here is why in my opinion they didn’t get 5 stars. Overall, the food was underwhelming for the price. There was a lot of bread and it’s possible that’s just the items we chose but still, a lot of the dishes came with bread. Bread was fresh and tasty though. We ordered a apple and cheese/bread starter and it was 3 large slices of cheese about 6 thin apple slices and a chunk of bread. The menu said it was unassuming and it definitely lived up to its name. Presentation could have been better. Add some oil and pepper to go with it. We ordered this artichoke dish which once it came out it was essentially artichoke dip. Tasty, yes but it’s butter and cheese so that’s generally tasty. The spanish aspect to the menu made it a little misleading. We had the mussels which was a large portion but they didn’t have much flavor and were slightly gritty, which tells me they weren’t the highest quality. We also got the Arroz con pollo, chicken was tasty but the grain was undercooked and still hard in some places. I’m sure we could have sent it back but we’re just not like that. We also got the chorizo dish which was just, meh.

Drinks were on point and delicious. Great bartender.

I really wanted to love it, but for the price I’ve spent less elsewhere and had a better meal. I would probably try it again and order different dishes and see if it was just...