El Habanero Bar & Grill — Restaurant in Burien

I strongly recommend El Habanero for between noon to 4 pm! We visited on a weekday, around mid-afternoon, September 2025, before the club scene starts late evenings. As a Mexican restaurant, my expectations were far exceeded. There are many Mexican restaurants in Burien, and I did not expect anything unique based on the name alone. However, El Habanero is definitely a step above other restaurants! What makes it so unique and a step above is that they have an extensive seafood menu! Indeed, it was not until I was seated and looked at the menu that I realized that El Habanero was a Mexican seafood restaurant! We were served tortilla chips with an excellent salsa upon being seated. After studying the menu, we ordered beer, fried shrimp cooked in a spicy sauce for an appetizer, and tacos - I had the fish tacos baja, and my husband had tacos with shrimp, pulpo, and abalone! The shrimp appetizer was super delicious because the shrimp had a perfect texture and the sauce was excellent! The tacos were also excellent as the fish was fried perfectly and the sauce served with the tacos was creamy, spicy, and delicious. In fact, the appetizer and baja tacos I ate reminded me of the food I used to eat along the Baja California coast! As for the atmosphere, the restaurant was spacious with a/c, and seemed like it turns into a night club at night because there were many booths along the wall, tables in the middle, a bar, and a stage. There were many TVs, so seems like El Habanero is a great place to watch sporting events. As for the service, it was excellent as the server was very welcoming, friendly, and attentive throughout our stay. As for pricing, we spent about $50 per person, including tip for 4 beers, the appetizer, and two taco entrees. We left very satisfied with the food, both quality and taste, as well as the service. I cannot wait to...

The place was good years ago when they first opened. Way to overpriced and salty. The habanero molcajete is a major disappointment. The huge molcajete dish it comes in looks impressive. However everything in it would fit into a smaller molcajete dish. It comes with 4 butterflied shrimp that are seared with the shell on them impossible to eat, 2 pieces of carne asada, a char burned piece of chorizo and to strips of chicken all draped on the side of this molcajete with a picante sauce that taste like canned enchilada sauce with habanero sauce mixed in and with a couple of table spoons of salt. Sauce was inedible way to salty. Music was overly loud you couldn't have a conversation. Restrooms have one stall but people were going in 2 and 3 at a time. Seems like there might be a drug issue. I will never go back. If I could rate it a...

Good food at reasonable prices. The sopes were really good with the carne asada one being my favorite. I also had a shrimp cocktail. Very generous with the shrimp but I didn't care for the sauce it was in. It was watery, I'm more of a V-8 kind of person. They also need more than one server. She was taking orders, serving food, and alcohol, bussing the tables, plus sweeping the floor under the tables as customers left which made for slower service, and less checking back to see if anything else was needed. No fault of the server, she was doing the best she could under the circumstances. That's why I gave it 3 stars instead of 4. I don't know if I'd return or not, being there's other Mexican restaurants...