Centro Neighborhood Kitchen — Restaurant in Burien

This is a cute place and I was deceived by the good reviews, but this is hands down the most bland and disappointing food I have tasted. I ordered the sweet potato taco and it tasted like nothing, this is not an exaggeration. I could taste the sweet potatoes and thats all. For ~$7 how is this one taco so offensively unseasoned? I am genuinely upset by it. We could clearly see the peppers in the queso we ordered but we could not taste them. Flavorless queso and I feel they use processed cheese, which is not bad in itself but it definitely decreases quality and taste. The chips were good but nothing special, just chips. A bit hard to miss on chips. My dining companion ordered the tortilla soup, (I do not eat meat so I am taking his word for it) but he called it underwhelming and like lightly spiced tomato soup. He shares my sentiments on my dish and the queso as well.

I felt that the female server was rude and condescending. As soon as we entered we stood for a short moment as we were unsure whether we would be seated or should seat ourselves (there is no signage to indicate which) and she said in an annoyed tone that we can sit wherever as though we should have already known that. My dining companion did not understand that tortilla soup is a type of soup and asked her where the tortialla is, to which she responded in a condescending and upsetting tone "it's just soup." He wasnt upset by this and understood but she made me uncomfortable with her tone and service the entire time. This server made us feel like we were inconveniencing her by eating there There was a male server there who was mostly hands off, but prompt in assisting us and polite as well so it wasn't an entirely uncomfortable experience. I would rate him highly, but there is no way to do that except to type it out.

I love food. I am originally from Texas and in my life have been fortunate enough to eat delectable Mexican cusine. I am used to food having flavor. I am a culinary school graduate and believe food is the ultimate love language. This was such an upsetting meal though and while I am trying to not be mean in this review, I do not recommend this place to anyone. I had to eat a lime segment to get any flavor sensation in my mouth just because eating here made me worry my taste buds were not working. The only good thing about food being bland is that it doea not taate bad, so I was able to eat everything and not feel like the money I spent was wasted.

If you like bland food or if you can't handle spice or flavor in general, Centro may be perfect for you. It is genuinely an adorable restaurant and I badly wanted to like it, but I can't in good conscious enjoy a place that does not season...

I met up with a couple of girlfriends for some lunch on a Saturday afternoon. At 1:00pm there was a short wait, but you can walk around neighborhood while you wait and they will text you when table is ready. They said there was a 20 minute wait, turned out to be only 10 minutes. Our Server was legit! She knew about every item on the menu in detail, and even explained why certain items went better in some dishes than others. For example shredded chicken vs chunks of chicken. Anyhow I had a hibiscus iced tea. Dang, it was so delicious, lightly sweetened with a small amount of agave syrup. My friend had the bowl, wow it looked so good!! She said it was amazing! I had a fish Taco that was so good. On a scale of 1-10 I give it a 10. They serve in-house made fresh corn tortillas!! The fish can be breaded with Panko or just grilled. I choose the Panko at my server’s suggestion. You can order 1-3 tacos for a set price and I guess add more if you want. She offered a small side of lime cilantro rice with black beans to accompany my Taco! I am happy that I did because it was the perfect amount of food. I absolutely loved every bite of everything I ordered and some of my friends food too! I can’t wait to go back and try more stuff that sounded so good. On that note my only complaint would be trying to decide what to eat, when every item on the menu sounded so good. It was truly difficult picking just one dish!! Did I mention our server was an absolute treat! I wish that I could recall her name. Every step of the way she was there when we needed her and super knowledgeable on everything on menu, super helpful, cheerful and our service was impeccable!! Did I mention that I cant wait to go back ASAP and eat my way through the menu?? Dang, just writing about it is making me hungry 😋 I better go eat something. Hope this review helps! I am very sincere in all that I wrote and I swear I am not being paid to write about this little gem of a Restaurant, with...

EDIT #2: man, looks like they got downgraded to a “good” rating from the health department. Shame because I’m more susceptible to food poisoning. Really used to love their food. :(

EDIT: unfortunately, this place has gone downhill since it’s opened.

I’ve recently had to wait almost an HOUR for pickup orders, and the food quality had also gone down. I ended up feeling sick after eating one of the beef tacos. I’m very sad to report this. I won’t be dining here again until this improves.

ORIGINAL: All I can say is WOW! I honestly believe that their barbacoa and steak tacos are THE best tacos we have ever had in our life, and we’ve been to several different places up and down the west coast. We were absolutely blown away with both the tacos and their cilantro-lime rice! Packed with flavor and a generous portion for what you pay for. One taco alone will pretty much fill you up!

We also enjoyed their totopos and guac, queso, and churros. Though the queso was a little more cold than what we would’ve liked, the flavor was still there and it was delicious. You can tell the totopos are made fresh and in-house. I’ve never had anything like them. They were so delicious!

Staff were also very friendly and fast, and our to-go order was ready earlier than expected. That was a huge bonus. We will definitely be returning to try other things on the menu and we can’t...