United States: Washington State: King County: Seattle: Capitol Hill: El Gallito

stagger
Seattle

Worth visiting!

A review of this place

I have passed by El Gallito countless times, and I finally got around to eating there. Unfortunately, my spouse found it “awful” while I merely found it not all that great. There are much better choices.

I found the salsa to be interesting, but not exactly my style. The spouse again thought it awful; it was very, um, tomato soup like, in her words. The guacamole was very bland. We both ended getting getting cheese & guacamole enchiladas with rice and black beans; I also got a bean taco. They weren’t all that good.

On the plus side, service was friendly enough. I liked the glasses they had made of Corona bottles.

It could be that their meaty fillings are more tasty, and there seemed to be a lot of options in that regard, but since we would not be ordering those, it would not help us. I would say that it is worth going to (because I think most places are if you have never been), but I also probably will not be coming back.

Comments:

stagger
Seattle

I agree that there is not a lot of notable mexican food in Seattle. I hesitate to call most of it terrible, because I reserve that word for stuff I absolutely cannot eat. Personally, I am not really into mexican food all that much, but my spouse is a much bigger fan. She drags me to mexican places whilst I drag her to japanese/sushi places.

As for better places, as you say La Carta is by far the best, as least for me. It’s minor flaws to me are only that it is farther away (personally) in Ballard and that it is always crazy busy and crowded. Most other places fall under the not-all-that-notable category.

As for El Gallito, upon further thought the meal I had yesterday flat out sucked. The gauc was really the worst I have ever had; it looked and tasted like handmashed very-unripe avocados with absolutely nothing else. Based on that one meal, the better choices would be absolutely any other place. Yes, we would not eat most of the menu, but what we had should not have been that bad. Assuming it was an off day, I think I would find it non-remarkable as opposed to bad, thus joining a sea of unremarkable restaurants.

If I wanted mexican on Capitol Hill I would just go to Tacos Guaymas, although it is unfortunate they do not have black beans. Or just hoof it to La Carta. My wife does not really care for them (Taco Guaymas), though. For her, it would be La Carta or the Taco del Mar on 23rd and Jackson (a chain!). Then there is southwest inspired, in which case I would go to Cactus, but that isn’t mexican, obviously.

But she is still looking. A few people have told me Coliman in Georgetown is good. Of course, people always tell me Agua Verde is good, but I don’t really care for them (although, yes, definitely better than el Gallito). I know some like the various taco buses around, but they tend to not be vegetarian so that does not help the spouse. But we are moving to SE Seattle imminently, so perhaps we will check out the two buses there.

Josh Petersen
Seattle

Well

Interesting – because I pretty much can’t stand to eat at Guaymas (the food is just bland and, well, bad!) and don’t even think to try a chain like Taco del Mar. So for me, Mexican is a trek to Carta de Oaxaca (which really doesn’t work with kids), Jalisco (which is just too much of a cheese bomb, usually) or El Galito – which is pretty fine, by comparison to many of the other options, so long as you order well and have the right expectations for a family run joint. A chain it ain’t. But I think you should go back and try the mole enchiladas and get a margarita or a beer.

I’ve tried the Southpark joints and the Rainier valley taco buses, El Sombrero in Columbia City, etc. None of those cut the mustard for me. I don’t get why the Mexican options are so poor in Seattle.