El Gallito

When we first moved here and I saw we were but 3 blocks away from a Mexican restaurant, I was excited. But then we read some not exactly stellar reviews and coupled with the fact that Washington state had not yet passed the indoor smoking ban, we decided to hold off. However, we are about ready to move away and we thought we could give El Gallito a try. Maybe we were too quick to judge based on a few internet crituques. Maybe it was secretly Very Good. Maybe we would become regulars, having initially shunned this controversial eatery without even giving it a chance.

I am hard pressed to think of worse food I’ve had in my life. Daniel Spils comments about “tough meals” had at this eatery, which is an understatement. I cannot believe I actually paid money to eat this food. In fact, it was so bad, they should have paid ME to consume it.

I am not sure what they put in the salsa. Maybe it was guar gum. I am not really sure what guar gum is, but it seems to intuitively be similar to the consistency of their disgusting salsa. Today I had lunch at Taco Bell with my mom when we took a break from house painting. I find Taco Bell to be barely edible, but I will say that I would take their single serving “Fire” Sauce packet anyday over the El Gallito salsa.

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.

...guacamole enchiladas.

The very last day of film school at the Seattle Film Institute, one final class that was actully two days after our graduation, we took our teacher here for a farewell dinner. Solid stuff and not too expensive. Who knew Capitol Hill was swimming with good Mexican places?

The pork was dry, the beans hard, the salsa watery and the service was non-existant. Maybe we caught them on an off night but we definitely will not be going back soon.

Try something with the mole sauce.

1700 20TH Ave
Seattle, WA 98122-2808
(206) 329-8088