Opal Basil on the Trace

This place was a wonderful find! The food is all so different, with a Mexican and Seafood flair. Small plates only. This is not a hurry up and serve me kind of place, it’s a take your time and enjoy the food and company kind of place. Everything is fresh and made in the tiny kitchen you can see from your table. My favorite dishes were the shrimp & gnocchi and the salmon deviled eggs. Seems like a great 2^nd date night place. I will be back!

My family and I tried this restaurant last night and I was amazed that I’d never heard of them before. It’s a beautiful restaurant, nicely adorned with linen tablecloths, their own fresh herbs and peppers growing outside, cool music playing and a friendly and well informed staff that was neither too pushy, nor too scarce. The food was absolutely amazing. Great portion sizes for tapas so that you can share, if you choose. Though, it’s so good you may want it all to yourself. They have a great and creative drink list, but the table water itself was delicious and refreshing with a subtle infusion of basil and lemon. My absolute favorite was the lobster tamale. So many textures and flavors blending at once to just make it a near perfect combination. The duck flautas were so good that my finicky teen daughter tasted it and then ordered her own. Considering she lives on cereal and salad, I was impressed. She also had a lovely and fragrant French pressed coffee. The encrusted sea bass, shrimp taco, carnitas and beef tamale were also equally delicious. We finished it off with a brandy chocolate cake with ice cream and caramel. It was delicious. And I forgot to mention that upon arrival we were served a complimentary cornbread dish covered in a velvety sauce that was the perfect kickoff to this meal. We will return here. Fresh, flavorful, hand made, thoughtful dishes. If you get bored with the same old seafood and regional options (don’t get me wrong, I love them!) this is a perfect night of adventure for your palate.

I have never been so impressed!
I went to a wedding, last year at the Lake house & remarked that the catering was very good. I then learned that the wedding had been catered by a local chef, Robert Vasquez, who had opened his own restaurant on the Mandeville Trace. I had passed their location, jogging on the trace but I didn’t know anything else about it.
This past March, a friend at I went to a Sonoma wine pairing, here & we enjoyed everything. I had shrimp & grits & a sweet pepper salad with a lemon sauce, that was delicious. The plating, the wine pairings, the freshness of the food & its presentation, were all first class. Their desserts are a perfect last course, my favorite being the chocolate basil ice cream, served with bananas & pecans. I have returned to Opal Basil for tapas, a few more times since the wine pairing. Though the tapas menu varies, all choices are delicious. The lobster tamale, baked oysters & the shrimp tacos are my favorites.
Besides the talents of Chef Vasquez, the friendly & professional staff, relaxing environment & wonderful food, this restaurant is also engaged in giving back to the community, whether its showing support for May being the month to call attention to child abuse or giving congratulations to a local middle school child for winning a national cooking competition. Opal Basil also partners with local food vendors for their organic meat & free range chickens.
If you are a foodie, its hard not to be impressed with Chef Vasquez’s celebrity status, as he has battled Chef Bobby Flay on the Food network. As a diner, I have observed Chef Vasquez & found that there is no snobbery or big ego, here but a down to earth chef with a passion for food & family, committed to his customers every visit being a wonderful dining experience. I have recommended this restaurant to several friends & family members.

My husband and I typically can eat on the larger portion side so we ordered plenty to keep us full. After 6 small plates and 2 desserts, we were set. This also gave us the opportunity to try a large variety since the plates really aren’t meant for more than 2 people to split. The food and combinations used were fabulous and mouth watering. However, I must say on a few, I.e. Pork carnitas fried green tomato, BBQ shrimp on Deviled Egg, Crisp Manchego with smoked pork; we were really wanting more. Well worth it though and the drinks are great too!

My favorite restaurant on the north shore! Great staff, great changing menu & nice light atmosphere! We eat here often, rather go earlier then later. It’s a must try at least twice!

Unfortunately, I made the mistake of paying $ 5.00 for a little 3-​bite taco at the Mandeville Trailhead Concert last week. Not only is the price absurd for what you get, but I almost cracked a tooth on the pulled pork! Even after succeeding in not hurting myself, I couldn’t get past the most bland flavor, or lack-​there-​of. Barley Oak has a $ 2 taco that spanks their $ 5 taco. I know it’s «just» an outdoor concert, but you’re supposed to be advertising your capability of making tapas… or of making anything, really. Because of this poor showing, I’m not inclined to even try the restaurant.

Went for Valentine’s Day. Was not what I expected. The drinks were delicious, the food. not so much.

Absolutely amazing!!! I love tapas and Opal Basil does it up right. We tried a majority of the menu items and each one was spectacular. Our favorites were the baked oysters with spinach & mushrooms, smoked salmon deviled eggs, carnitas with fried green tomato and goat cheese, and fried shrimp taco. The bacon creaux-​nut for dessert was divine. Service was great, ambiance was right on point, and I can’t wait to visit again!

Great potential, but…
Slow disorganized service, especially for a small place.
Eclectic menu.
Pricey given portion size.
Owners came out and apologized which motivated the third star.

Great atmosphere. Friendly chef. Some tables have a fun view of the kitchen. The Lime Cilantro Shrimp was heavenly. The crawfish deviled egg is also a must. The skirt steak was tender and tasty. The carnitas and fried green tomato are s good mix.

I found Opal Basil on Unilocal.My husband is hard to impress, and I was looking for something different for his birthday dinner. We loved it.
The décor of the restaurant is beautiful, and they have several herb and lettuce box gardens outside. The kitchen is open and facing the dining room. It has a very at home feeling. Our server, Thomas, was wonderful (as was the whole staff). The first thing, they brought our waters which infused with lime and basil. Very refreshing. Thomas even made our cocktails. I started with the Tamarind Ginger Mojito that was served straight up in a martini glass. AMAZING.
We had read reviews and opted for the Chefs Tasting Menu. I recommend this, as it come with four courses, paired with two wines or house cocktails. I HATE deciding what to eat, and the tasting menu was perfect.
Chef Robert could be seen whipping up each course through the whole meal. The food is small portions but we did not leave hungry! I also tried the French Coffee Service after dinner. Amazing! The Citrus Sriacha Crème Brûlée was one of the best desserts I’ve ever had. I am dying to go back.

Always a great experience and friendly service. Best fine dining on the Northshore! Food is outstanding. Drinks are well made. Presentation A+

We ate at Opal Basil tonight for the first time. We got there early so we were the only occupied table for a while. We tried the chefs tasting menu and two other small plates. Every dish was delicious. We had the cronut with a brownie in the center for dessert. It was one of the best desserts I’ve ever eaten! I can’t wait to go back.

Great time! This is our second time at Opal basil. Service was great. Had the Chef’s Tasting Menu between my Wife and I. We added three additional plates. Everything was delicious. One of our favorites was the crawfish Devilled Egg, Pulled Pork, Spicy Hollandaise. Great Food and Drinks. We will be back soon!

Outstanding flavors. Reasonably priced. Wait staff a little too familiar but friendly. Will definitely return.

Some restaurants are good — some restaurants are fun to be in — but it’s rare to find a restaurant where the personality and the history of the chef and owner is omnipresent and in such good taste. His wife helps carry that through by infusing that into the beverages as well.
The flavor profile is steeped in south western and delivered with care and know how. Each dish has a distinctive nod to that background and each bite is fabulous. We made a reservation for 7 which gave us to the great luxury of trying everything in the menu including all 4 deserts. The standouts were clearly the naked Brie crisp — a duck dish on the ap list — the beef crisp — and a chocolate brownie desert to write home about.
Each small plate was a piece of crafted deliciousness and the décor is a soothing see foam bathed in light flowing in from a wall of windows over the trace.
The chef took time to speak to each and every table. He is proud of what he does and he should be.
I would say it’s one of a kind except he also shares his artistry at Vive downstairs and we found out that he now operates Jubilee — which will definitely be our next stop.
Go — you won’t regret a minute of it.

My wife and I had a very pleasant time enjoying the many dishes on the menu. Just the right size to experience many different flavors and styles. Recommend it to anyone looking for a very nice atmosphere, staff and creative cuisine.

We had dinner here last Friday night. We shared 3 plates and everything was wonderful, but the seafood tacos in the almond flour tortillas were the star for me. I’m still thinking about them… My husband loved the chili shrimp on pork check. The atmosphere is nice (especially for a date night), the balcony is great, service was very good and the chef makes rounds of the tables to check on diners. The menu changes, but I still have hopes of seeing those tacos again because rest assured we will be back.
What really made this fantastic for us is that we have food sensitives and allergies. There is a long list of what we can’t eat between us and that makes going out usually a sad experience of all those lovely looking things on the menu that we can’t eat, followed by picking the only option on the menu that looks plausible and usually followed by some sort of unpleasant reaction the following day. We rarely go out because it just isn’t worth it. We could eat most of the items on the menu here and what was amazing was that the server was actually knowledgeable enough to tell us what to avoid and the chef came by and told us to always let him know and he will alter whatever he can to accommodate.
I hesitated to write the last paragraph because I don’t want all you healthy folks to think this is a restaurant only catering to a dietary subset. It isn’t, they just happen to have a knack for making great food that just happens to also be healthy and creative. The food is genuinely wonderful and is easily as good (better in many cases) as the food I’ve had at any of the chef driven restaurants on the South shore.
P. S., they also have a lunch counter downstairs (Vive Foods) that looks great too and offers weekly lunch/​dinner options delivered to home or work. We’ll be stopping there next for a gluten free shrimp po boy for the man and whatever Paleo option they have for me!

Had a wonderful dinner here last night. The chef takes what he does seriously and the waitstaff are very friendly and professional. The upstairs balcony is a really nice place to sit and have nice meal and inside is fine as well. The water they serve is infused with basil and mint and is also a nice touch.
The dishes are small plates, similar to a tapas but larger, so order at least two to start. Everything we had was delicious. I had the lobster tamale which was loaded with lobster inside the the claw points on top, nice plating. We had two plates each, split a third plate and were very satisfied so we took a desert to go, to enjoy later.
The chef uses a lot of locally sourced food giving that fresh farm-​to-​table taste. There is a lot of south by southwest flavors with a lot of creativity in his dishes. I was impressed, we were very happy with our experience at Opal Basil on the Trace and plan to return.

Had an insane dinner Saturday night for Valentine’s day at Opal Basil in Mandeville.
If you’re on the Northshore it’s well worth a trip. Tom Fitz has been raving about it on his first couple of visits so we gave it a shot. It’s a tapas only kind of a place and right up our alley! Posted all the pictures.
Our server Meghan was perfect, each course was brought out in a timely manner, never two courses at the same time. All in all a great dinner.
Started with and amuse bouche:
Crispy Shrimp, bacon, Goat Cheese firecracker, lime chile sauce
Choice of Soup or Salad
Truffled sea scallop, pernod cream cauliflower «caviar»
Heirloom tomato, shitake mushrooms, sriracha snow pea salad
Mezzo (googled it, means middle)
Red Chile pulled pork, manchego cheese polenta cake, honey BBQ sauce. (By Far my favorite!!)
Choice of:
Mixed baby greens, lump crab, citrus segments, red pepper, lemon vinaigrette
Or:
Roasted begetable terrine, wilted kale, avocado devilled egg, roasted garlic dressing
Entrée:
Chimichurri beef filet, sweet potato crunch, piquillo pepper slaw
Dessert:
Blue berry bread pudding