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San Carlos Restaurant
Rating Details »
279 Madison Ave N
Bainbridge Island, WA 98110
(206) 842-1999
Bainbridge Island, WA 98110
(206) 842-1999
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Private Lot
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Delivery:
- No
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- Yes
- Good for:
- Dinner
- Alcohol:
- Full Bar
11 reviews for San Carlos Restaurant
You get what you pay for at San Carlos. I LOVE their low-carb salad. The house dressing is to die for. Their salsa is perfect and you can't find a better margarita.
Heads up: San Carlos only serves lunch on Fridays.
I have to begin this by admitting to being a former employee of San Carlos. At the time I signed on, I had just gotten out of the hospital after a near-death experience which involved two surgeries, skin grafts, and eight weeks in a hospital bed. I was weak and didn't even realize how scattered I really was. I wanted to work in a place where the demands of the cooking job weren't that great and there were agreeable people to work with. In every sense, San Carlos was the right choice.
I'm not going to go into rhapsodies about the food here. I like it a LOT but, chances are, some of the SC interpretations wouldn't sit well with Mexican patrons. San Carlos is American-Mexican, a food niche which, IMHO, really needs no apologies. Lee Jorgenson, the owner along with his wife Maryann, make frequent trips to Mexico and Lee always comes back buzzing with new ideas for dishes he tasted there. He cares enough about the experience you're going to have at SC to take pains to at least try to render them faithfully. As another reviewer suggested, this is food which is made from scratch. The machaca and picadillo stew in a pots all day long, the carnitas are made to order, and everything smoked is done right there in the kitchen. The guacamole is made fresh every day and is as authentic as any you'll find around Seattle. The flank steak is grilled to order. The chips are routinely fried up four or five times during the dinner rush. Salsa is made several times daily. And Lee usually makes his chiles rellenos himself, from scratch, even roasting and peeling his own chiles. The ONLY food item, in fact, that I have any real issue with is the salsa, which I always found a bit un-chunky and mild for me.
Their margaritas carry a well-deserved reputation for their flavor and generous portions. Lee personally selects their tap ales and wines and has done a great job at assembling a small but complete list of better wines at reasonable prices. Their servers do tend to be a wild mix of high school kids and seasoned veterans but Lee supervises closely and his shift managers run things, even on busy nights, with cool and professionalism.
Most of all, Lee and Maryann Jorgenson are as kind and considerate employers as you will find in the ever-shifting world of restaurants. They reward their night servers with an ale or a cocktail at the end of their shifts, genuinely care about their welfare, and, to an extent which is nearly unprecedented in my experience, they treat each employee with courtesy and respect. That's not part of your dining experience, of course, but attitudes in one part of a business tend to carry over into the rest. People on Bainbridge DO seem to develop a longer-lasting and more positive relationship with San Carlos than with most other Island restaurants and I believe it's Lee and Maryann's fundamental decency and genuine care for their business that makes that not only possible but likely, if you step through the door more than once.
As a chef and notoriously-picky SOB (I healed up, finally, and ran four other restaurants after leaving SC), I cannot recommend any restaurant on Bainbridge Island more highly than San Carlos. I don't question the negative reviews I read; every restaurant is capable of an off night or the occasional blown plate of food but, IMHO, on the average, San Carlos is carrying a Tony Gwynn-level batting average.
San Carlos...ugh.
I've been here on several occasions with different groups who wanted to try it out and have been endlessly disappointed.
My first experience was on Valentines Day a few years ago. My family decided to eat early before the lovebirds and we were told that without a reservation there was no way we would be seated. This was AFTER waiting to find a hostess. By the way, the Restaurant was COMPLETELY EMPTY!
Second experience was like pulling teeth trying to get service, but I had a positive attitude and was ready to give them a second shot. After waiting an eternity to get service, water, and our food...(finally), I was met with mediocre mexican. Mexican food is so simple I find it perplexing that it could be so bad. My daughter ordered a bean and cheese burrito with rice and was given a greasy $8 bean and cheese burrito....with beans. I asked the server later why she didn't get rice and she said they ran out, however, no one told us.
The last straw was a chewy, gristly, chicken breast salad I ordered. A few people at the table were disgusted with the fatty chicken breast, and that was topped off with a snotty waitress, and poor service. At the end of our meal someone mistakenly ordered flan, which is generally a tolerable mexican dessert,. Our experience with the dessert was it tasted more like phlegm than flan. :-(
I'm not a resident of Baingridge Island so I can't rate the food as compared to other restaurants on the island, but as far as everything the the seattle area this place seemed average.
Food:
- Ok. I ordered a Chili Relleno and it should have been called a cheese relleno because it was swimming in cheese. It was good but I couldn't eat the whole thing because of a cheese overload
Service:
- Great and friendly
Ambiance:
- Ok. It fit the build but wasn't anything to write home about.
Overall this place was about twice as expensive as an equivalent Mexican restaurant in the Seattle area but I get the feeling that is the cost of being on an island.
Looking through other peoples reviews I really wasnt suprised to see ratings from 1 star to 5 stars because each time you eat here is going to be a completely different experience. I have had everything here from the incredible to stuff my dog wouldn't eat, this place is so touch and go adn changes each year as new high school students staff the restaurant.
I do like the bar area, its a great place to watch monday night football with some buddies, drink a few cold ones and place bets as to whether the food will be edible or not.
I am hooked on San Carlos' smoked salmon quesadilla, with a side Lemon Drop Margarita (yes, you read correctly). The quesadilla is served open face, & we suspect they add some addictive ingredient that makes you crave one every single day. I hear the other drinks & menu items are good too, but like I said, I'm addicted to my quesadilla :-)
They offer outdoor seating for the restaurant, cozy. Yet I don't recommend the limited outdoor seating in the BAR....lame atmosphere & even worse: self-serve. Too confusing to stumble back in for another margarita.
I agree the service is spotty depending upon the caliber of high school or college kids they have on staff - - I recommend dining in the bar as that staff seems to have a bit more life experience, & tenure at this restaurant.
I like the atmosphere here; it is in a renovated old house and the decor really reminds you of the Southwest. I ordered the seafood enchiladas with smoked salmon and shrimp inside. Now my entree was great, but I also tried the chili relleno which was definitely not as tasty. This place was recommended to us by two different people so we had to check it out. I may want to try other entrees here on a future visit, but perhaps I should stick with the dish that I enjoyed due to the other reviews which are all over the map.
I really, really wanted to like this place. It looked intriguing from the street, and when I checked out the menu online, it looked interesting and different. Yeah, the prices seemed a little high, but you get what you pay for, right? Right?
The first time I went here, I ordered some chicken enchiladas that were the special of the day. $17 for blah chicken enchiladas made with thigh meat!! Ok, that teed me off. Maybe I don't understand "Bainbridge prices", but give me a break! We were ready to swear off this place for good after one visit.
A few weeks later, some friends invited us out for dinner and they happened to really like this place, so we gave it another try. This time, I ordered some beef enchiladas with goat cheese. They were not bad. Although again, the quality of the dish just didn't seem in line with the price. I had to break out the smelling salts when my husband passed out from sticker shock when presented with the bill.
My final verdict: way overpriced. Some people really like the food here, but it just seemed ok to me. Definitely not worth what they're charging for it.
I would say they have above average Mexican food and some very unique dinner specials. My staple, at any new Mexican joint, is the Carne Asada. I figure that this is an average dish to which you can easily judge a place by. Let me tell you this... I have never had Carne Asada this good. There was an actual 12 to 14oz flank steak on my plate which was grilled to medium rare-ish perfection. It was topped with a sweet sauce that I couldn't quite place... yet, it seemed to compliment my steak almost perfectly. And, judging from the looks on the rest of my friend's faces they were enjoying their meals just as much as I was.
I really enjoyed my time at San Carlos. Everyone was friendly and attentive, but not annoyingly so.
hint: try the peach margarita's
The minute you enter San Carlos the delicious southwestern cuisine hits your nose causing your eyes to start quickly looking for a table so you can get your order in. Grab a table in the restaurant or if you want a little more action sneak to the back and sit yourself down in the bar. If you are around for the 4th of July this is the spot to view the parade from with a satisfying margarita in hand.
must order drink: prickly pear
must order quick bite: chili
must order food: carne asada & santa fe prawns
Living in Phoenix we have high expectations for Mexican food. This casual place was packed for lunch with only 1 server. Waiting for our food and munching on slightly above average chips and salsa we wondered if the food would be any good. Luckily, it was AMAZING. We both had the halibut tacos, the daily special. Huge pieces of halibut in a special hot sauce/spice/garlic mix were lodged in a taco sheel with cheese, pico de gallo, and lettuce. On the side was a cold orzo salad with veggies, a great alternative to rice. The black beans were basic and fresh, not to saucy. The guacmole was good as well. We talked to the cook, and they get the fish for the tacos daily, whatever is in season. At 15.95 a peson, the portion was huge and the best mexican we have ever eaten. Still dreaming about it that fresh fish!
