The Mill at The Kasteel — Restaurant in Oak Harbor

The Mill at the Kasteel…

A culinary experience I personally gravitated around for about three years. Today, however, suggests that maybe we shouldn’t meet our heroes.

My wife and I stayed at the Auld Holland years ago, and I’ve delivered countless meals for DoorDash from this restaurant. It has always been a personal landmark when passing through town for work. I’m not sure why it took so long for me to order a meal for myself, but the day had finally come.

I’ve always enjoyed the atmosphere, inside and out. It’s a comforting welcome to Whidbey Island after a long drive from larger towns around the Puget Sound. I was somewhat confused to see a neon sign with a foliage background (like one of those photo op walls influencers gravitate towards). Personally, it took me out of the old European home aesthetic that seems to be the original idea.

I ordered take out, because I like to eat in my hotel room alone like a weirdo when I travel. I wasn’t quite ready to eat just yet, so I SCHEDULED for the food to be picked up at 4:30 pm. It was to my surprise that the food was promptly cooked and placed on the pick-up counter shortly after I placed the order at around 3:15 pm. I confirmed this with the server who gave me the bag when he said “it’s been sitting here for a while”. He said that when they see a ticket, they just cook it and don’t pay attention to the scheduled time on the ticket. I don’t want to sound overly critical about the service, but I would suggest that the cooks make the food a little closer to the pick up time to keep it hot for the customers.

Moving on to the actual food; and this is where I became significantly more disappointed by my experience with this restaurant.

I’m not a chef by any means. Nor am I a butcher. But I’m fairly certain that the steak I received was a NY Strip rather than a Ribeye. That was a big red flag for me based on the cost of this steak.

However, on a more positive note, it was cooked relatively close to what I asked for which was a medium rare. It was tender and didn’t taste half bad. The gristle gave me a silent jump scare as I chewed, but I personally don’t mind it.

Vegetables and the mashed potatoes were cooked. That’s always a good sign… Sarcasm aside, they weren’t anything to cry about. I really enjoyed the gravy which worked very well with the mashed potatoes and vegetables.

I ordered a side cinnamon roll, and received one and a half rolls. The half roll looked as if it was cooked like a French toast. Interesting, but unexpected. The taste was pleasant, but the side of syrup made me question whether I actually had the correct order at that point.

Overall, I will probably stay within driving distance of The Mill at The Kasteel from now on. The takeout service was disappointing, and the food was...

Finding a (mostly) Mexican restaurant inside of a Dutch Kasteel (Castle) was...unexpected, to say the least. I'm assuming that the restaurant was (once?) the property of the owners of the adjacent Auld Holland Inn, and switched hands at some point. Either way, nothing appears to have been lost in the handoff, because the food here is excellent, even if a bit off-theme!

My wife somehow decided against ordering her favorite, a Monte Cristo, in favor of some Carne Asada, while I went with the Steak Ranchero. In hindsight, we probably should have traded orders. While both were delicious, the Steak Ranchero included mushrooms (which I hate and my wife loves) that were not listed on the menu, and I vastly preferred the taste and texture of her entrée to mine. That said, I was not disappointed. I'd order it again, sans mushrooms, if the Carne Asada wasn't on the menu. Since it is, it'll be my order of choice any time we find ourselves back in Oak Harbor - it's that good!

Service was attentive a bit uneven: we were asked if we were ready to order three times before the water arrived at our table, by different servers; the first two times within 30 seconds of our butts touching the seats. Once we had, we didn't see hide nor hair of any server, other than when our food was delivered, for the rest of the visit, until the came (a little later than I'd have liked) at the end.

Those nitpicks aside, I love everything about the aesthetic, and despite the somewhat confused cultural collision taking place here, nothing about it detracts from the experience. I wish more establishments would unabashedly embrace a theme, identity or culture...even if it comes to them second-hand. So, call it what you want: castle, kasteel, castillo - doesn't matter. Just know that when you're here, you're going to eat like a King...a...

I’ll start by saying I hate writing reviews like this for family-owned businesses.

I was staying in Oak Harbor for week with my mother and there aren’t a lot of options for non-fast food dine-in breakfast. The reviews for this restaurant were promising. Upon entering we noticed 2 things: the interior was a throwback to the 1970s (totally fine) and the overpowering smell of cleaning products coming from the bathrooms that are next to the front door. We were greeted by Gato who was also our server. We visited midweek around 9am and found the restaurant surprisingly empty.

I ordered a scramble with hash browns and my mother ordered a classic 2 egg breakfast with sausage links and hash browns. The eggs were very dry, as were the sausage links, and the hash browns weren’t too greasy but tasted off. We came to the conclusion that the oil used to cook things on the cooking surface is rancid and that the cooking surface isn’t cleaned well since our food also had flavors of other foods.

We ate our breakfasts because we were quite hungry, but knew we wouldn’t be back because the quality of the food was so poor. The coffee was good and our server, Gato, was outstanding. For the price we paid (~$50) for 2 breakfasts and 2 coffees, plus tip, I would expect better food.

I’ll also note that as a vegetarian there weren’t any non-meat options for more traditional breakfast items (e.g., classic 2 egg breakfast, French toast) and that if you are very concerned about cross contamination with meat products (I don’t like it but can tolerate it on occasion), then I wouldn’t eat here. Also, they do have smaller portions for seniors but they don’t tell you that on the menu. We only learned that...