San Carlos Restaurant — Restaurant in Bainbridge Island

My daughter and I met in Bainbridge Island to spend a few hours together. We were looking for a place to eat, and one of the "locals" heard us talking and shared about some of the local fare. They said this Mexican restaurant was the better of the two on the island.

Cleanliness: 3; Personality of staff: 2; Service: 3; Price: 2; Food quality 1: Food taste: 1

At first, it looks okay and no complaints, though the service was pretty "flat." Being my first time, I asked the server what she would recommend and she was not helpful at all, not wanting to make suggestions, or having no opinion.

I opted for a "boat" of their White Bean & Green Chili con Carne, and an order of their crunchyHouse Taco with machaca, each were $4.95. My daughter ordered the chicken enchilada plate at $13.95.

The "chili" was rather dry in consistency, covered with commercially-shredded cheddar cheese, and was lukewarm. It tasted rather old, like being the bottom of the pot. It was served with a flour tortilla. The tacos were served on very thin commercial crisp taco shells and the machaca was very salty and wet. The shells were soggy on the half that they were laying on the plate. The flavor of the filling was actually rather disgusting. My daughter ate part of her beans and rice and one of the enchiladas. Her only comment: It wasn't very good. Chips were pretty standard; salsa was mediocre, at best. With tax, our bill was over $26. Service did not even warrant the full difference to $30 left as the tip.

If I were to rate this restaurant on cleanliness, personality and service alone, I would have given it an overall 3, and benefit of the doubt. Rating on Food quality, taste, and price, it would get an overall: 1. The cleanliness and average service were not bad, but giving each a 3 (though mathematically makes sense) does not make up for the other things, therefore I have to give an overall 1 star.

This is, by far, one of the worst (if not the worst) Mexican restaurants I have ever eaten at in my 50+ years living in CA, TX, WA and everywhere else I have ever been. When I left, I commented to my daughter, "We would have gotten better Mexican food at Taco Bell." It would have cost us less by 2/3, too.

The only redeeming factors were: My daughter and I were able to talk without worrying about the place being too busy and noisy; she gave her leftovers to a homeless person who was hungry when she walked back from the ferry to her...

The food was hands down delicious and the saving grace of this review.

Their special chicken chimichurri is out of this world. It has the scent, the flavors, the texture and is absolutely perfect; especially since they even give you the option to substitute beans for roasted vegetables. I had a bite of their grilled steak fajitas from a friend's plate and that was also seasoned to perfection. Our waitress was fun and nice but there were some annoyances with wait time and technical difficulty.

Now for the constructive feedback...

1. The wait for food and for someone to take our order is really really long. Not only that, after the waitress took our order, they had a technical difficulty where the machine lost our order and she had to redo it. Fix your machine! And staff more people during the dinner rush so the wait is not so horribly long.
2. The restroom is poorly designed; it is gender neutral and has exactly one toilet and one urinal in the same room and in a shared toilet stall. Qué!? Solution: put a stall between the two, not both inside the same stall. It is easy as that and your bathroom capacity is increased. Considering how much you are charging for the food, I would expect the restroom to accommodate at least 2 people at the same time. Also, the bathroom did not seem very clean, possibly due to poor lighting. I would recommend a lighting upgrade as well.
3. The food was good, but the cost of the meal is quite pricey. Normally, this could be accounted for either by great service or beautiful, well maintained, venue. The restaurant had minimal design effort, the bathroom does not seem to be well maintained or thought out at all, the service was ok at best... Please adjust the dining experience to match the price. i.e. more decorating effort, better bathrooms, better machine & better staffing to...

We had a reservation at 6 o’clock and got our food at 7:30. The waiter advised we eat fast or box our food. Thanks guy! Lol. The guy asked if we wanted to pay. “Um We haven’t got our food. Yet!” They presented boxes before we got food, which was strange.

No apologies from management. Missed our ferry. With out of town guests WITH KIDS. Had a wonderful time all day, then experienced, “The San Carlos”. It’s a gamble, read other reviews if you want any warning.

This place has the worst staff. The worst is the manager did not even apologize, the waiter had to. That speaks loudly. We only ordered 3 items. It took one hour and a half.

I went there years ago it was ok. Never going back. The ferry crossing time is 35 min, it took three times the time to get 3 dishes. Pathetic. “Sorry we are slammed”. As I see nobody in the same dining room. If they are slammed, they should let patrons know it will be a long wait like that up front, like other good restaurants do. Honesty, owning up to mistakes will go far.

The few bites of the smoked chicken enchiladas were tasty, but it wasn’t worth the hassles.

See photo for number of items, order time and when they ran the card (which we had not received our food yet). They brought out the food which was...