Julio's Restaurant — Restaurant in Bothell

Visited here 4 times because we are lazy and we live 2 blocks away. Same experience all 4 times so we won't be back. The food is good, but the service is BAD. It begins when you walk in the front door. There's a counter right by the front door. Sometimes the woman there says hello. Other times she can't be bothered to greet you. 2 out of the 4 times we visited, the woman handed us menus and pointed to our seat. RUDE!

Once in your seat you are lucky if the waitress even acknowledges you are there within 5 minutes. On all 4 visits we experienced slow service. With each visit it took too long to get our food. If a restaurant is busy we are patient, but on all 4 visits there were a fair number of open tables. My gut feeling is they just don't want to hire additional help. The girls that work there are friendly but slow.

For some reason they have an appetizer that takes 20 minutes to prepare. An appetizer. Isn't an appetizer something you eat while you're waiting for your main meal? Service is already slow enough so we never order this item (which is a bummer because it sounds good). Better to make this a meal size than an appetizer.

On ALL 4 visits we ordered steak. Each time we specifically asked for the meat to be prepared well done. (from our experience ordering meat well done usually yields medium-well which is actually what we're happy with). ON ALL 4 VISITS the meat came to us blood red. I'm talking rare vs anywhere close to well done. ALL 4 times we sent the meat back. These are not 2 inch thick steaks. They are very thin, so dude in the back - please let the meat cook just 2 more minutes. I am sure the ticket says 'well done because I watch the waitress write it down.

Each time we sent the meat back, the waitress was always unapologetic, indifferent and offered no consolation. They really don't care. This just makes the experience even more annoying. We don't go to restaurants looking for discounts and we are by no means picky eaters. As John Taffer would advise (without hesitation) this is when the manager should come out and say "Hey guys I'm sorry about that, we're fixing your meal now and here's my card for an appetizer on the house on your NEXT visit". Done. No need to kiss up or make a scene or spend more than 1 minute to make the customer happy. It's very easy. As with most business, your first impression is the most important. By offering it free on the NEXT visit it would have pretty much guaranteed the manager (1) we would have been satisfied and (2) we would come back. There you go. Guaranteed second visit. THAT my friends is the way to grow your restaurant business.

Waitress walks away with our food so now we're sitting there, still hungry and after already waiting too long for the food to begin with. The food comes back out which means the woman basically drops off the plate and walks away. I am not kidding. She does not come back to check on you to see if it's ok. In fact even after you have your food she STILL does not come back to check on you. Basically you're gonna finish your meal and then sit there until they eventually come to take your plate. My advice is to ask for the check at that time otherwise the waitress will disappear again.

We like the food here but the service is really bad. There doesn't appear to be a manager. Maybe it's a family business and because the place seems pretty popular they just don't care. That's my gut feeling. But there are 127 other Mexican restaurants within a 5 mile radius so for us, there's no need to come back.

I sincerely hope the owner of the restaurant reads this review and then actually does something to fix the problem because there are plenty of other reviews here which all mention the same thing. 4 stars for the food. 1 star for the bad service. And we gave...

They say:  "To ensure the ultimate in freshness, Julio's cooks only what's needed per day as well; producing minimal waste, assuring little-to-no-need for additives, chemicals or even the need for a walk-in cooler. "  Commendable, but I was disappointed tonight that they were out of Chiles en Nogada at 5:30pm.  I'll try it next time. The Carnitas was one of the best I've had, definitely the best I've had in Washington.  It was moist and had great flavor.  It'll be hard to get past it to try other menu items. Enchilada Suizas were outstanding.  They used flour tortillas instead of the usual corn.  This did not detract, rather it made for larger, generously filled, delicious enchiladas.  Two came on the $9 ala carte plate.  A dollar more will get you rice and beans. The chips, salsa, rice, and beans were unusually good. Their menu is not huge, but it includes lots of interesting and tempting items.  We will be regulars here.

On our next visit, the waitresses told us again that the Chile En Nogada was not available.  This time, we asked her to go ask Julio, and sure enough, we finally got it.  What a masterful combination of wonderful tastes this dish is.  Roasted poblano chiles are stuffed with cheese and chicken,  battered, fried, then sauced with a creamy/dreamy white sauce (Nogada).  If you are a fan of chile relleno, this dish will spoil it for you.  You'll never be able to eat another without the memory of Chile En Nogada haunting you. There is a lot of prep work needed for the chiles.  They have to be roasted.  Then after cooling, they need the skin peeled, and the seeds removed.  They usually aim for dinner service for the chiles to be ready. The Halibut Tacos had large cuts of fresh fish that made for very tasty tacos.

Their Camarones Diabla is absolutely delicious.

The Carne Asada used a very high quality cut of beef that was thick enough to be presented medium rare.  It was the absolutely the best we've had anywhere. Julio's just may be the best Mexican restaurant in...

Julio's has gone downhill in quality.

A friend recommended Julio's to me on the basis of a wonderful pre-pandemic meal there. She recoiled at the photos I showed her and the description of my meal; so it appears the quality has taken a nosedive since then.

Let's start with the service. It was bright and friendly. The staff were busy, but happy and constantly eyeballing tables for water or chip needs. The decor was pandemic-bare with few tables inside and a large outside dining area. The place seemed clean, so points all around for the basics.

But then there's the food.

Let me start with the chips and table salsa. Both were pretty good. Fresh hot tortilla chips and a delicious dark red tomato salsa. But the tacos vampiros were disappointing on several levels. The meat itself was tender and delicious, but the gritty, strongly funky cotija cheese ruined the subtle flavor and texture of the steak. Equally problematic, the onions, cilantro, and jalapeños topping the steak were roughly cut and needed to be finely diced - or pickled - anything to show that poor taco some love. It was finished off with two store-bought barely-warmed corn tortillas, a massive let down from the fresh tortillas my friend had there years ago.

The rice was slightly underdone and the refried beans weren't bad; but might have been canned.

For $16, I was disappointed with my meal. I probably won't go back. At that price I expected more from the food, and there just wasn't any real effort made in...