El Paraiso Mexican Grill Everett — Restaurant in Everett

Let me start by saying we love this place and eat here often. We love the food, most of the staff, the bartender, and over all most experiences are positive ones.

Our issue, however, is with the manager. And there have been two instances recently that drove me to write this review.

The manager I’m speaking of is the heavier set guy with the high hair line and glasses.

Incident number one occurred a few months ago when my father in law and I grabbed an empty booth in the bar. Right after we sat down the manager told us the table needed to be cleaned, we said go for it. He told us we had to get out of the booth for them to wipe down the table. My father in law is older and has mobility restrictions, so we said we’d just scooch closer to the wall and they could wipe down the table while we were seated. At this point a staff member came over with a rag to clean the table but the manager told him not to do it because we didn’t want to stand up. Who does that to a customer?!?

Incident number two happened this past weekend when my wife and I were there on a slow Saturday late lunch. For the first time ever they made a mistake on my order, I always get the same thing (2 enchilada meal, one cheese one ground beef) and I got a chicken enchilada instead of beef. No big deal. I asked the waitress to replace it and she left to do so. After 10 minutes of no waitress and no replacement enchilada (no exaggeration, I watched the time) I still hadn’t seen our waitress or the replacement food. But the manager did walk by and I asked him if he could check on my food. He said he knew of the mixup and then he asked me if the chicken one would just be okay. I said no, I wanted my beef one and he said he’d look into it.

There was no apology. He wanted me to eat the wrong food instead. Again, who does this to a customer?!?

My enchilada finally showed up after this interaction and no apology from the waitress, and of course when the bill came there was no reduction given for the time I had to wait.

I feel that management plays a key role in how the rest of the staff treats their customers. Most restaurants have a policy that if there is any issue with a customer order the manager goes to check on them and offer an apology. We may just switch to Mazatlan at this point.

El Paraiso...

I'll start with the good. When I arrived I was greeted with a homestyle tortilla that reminded me of how my Grandpa used to make them. Completely exquisite with choice of butter and/or hot sauce. I went traditional with butter as my grandpa used to do and it was delightful. That was the best part of the whole experience here though. I brought my wife here and all of my life I've always heard great things of this place. My sister used to know the owners of the one in Snohomish and would praise its food so I presumed it would be great authentic Mexican food. In my honest opinion its flavor was on par with maybe taco bell and I hate saying that but realistically its menu had no depth. I ordered a simple combination dish, an enchilada and burrito and the only thing that separated the two was the tortilla... The enchilada had corn and the burrito had flour. Both I ordered with ground beef and that was all that was in the 2 of them, just beef. Maybe I'm spoiled to assume that a burrito should have more in it than that, but I always expect there to be beans, rice, salsa cheese or something to be in the dish. Needless to say the food was less than average and the portion was tiny. I'm not some big fat guy either that is complaining I didnt get a half a cow for the price of a burger... I'm about a buck fifty and spent $60 on 2 meals and 2 sodas and left absolutely hungry to where I went home and made true authentic Mexican food that had rice and beans and meat in my own burrito. All of that negativity being said, the people are nice and the atmosphere friendly so dont let my review stop you from trying it out. Like I said the lady that made the tortillas at the door will make you feel welcome and I thank her because without her this would've been a one star review. But she brought back a piece of my memory of my grandpa Nieves Rubio and it made the whole experience that much better. They also have a happy hour I didnt try and I've heard the margaritas are great so maybe try that and leave your own...

We had a party of eight. It was a birthday celebration so it was to be a special evening. After being seated we waited quite a while before anyone came to our table. Eventually we received chips and salsa .... but no water. Time passed and the complimentary chips were gone and no one had come to our table to bring water or offer to take a drink order. Finally our waitress appeared and drinks were ordered which took a long time to come while we stared at the empty chip bowls even though there existed a swirl of wait staff passing by our table regularly. At one point more chips were requested but they never came. Drinks were ordered but forgotten. Dinner was delivered in staggered stages creating the awkward “staring at your plate” scenario while we waited for everyone to have food so we could eat together. One of the orders was wrong and our ordering prowess was brought into question by our waitress. Another order was discovered to be wrong when we started to dine but we decided to just go with it. During the meal some of the drinks went dry needing refills for far long. On the positive side the food was good (not anything to rave about but good), and the wait staff did bring a fancy sombrero for the birthday guest and sing to highlight the special night. I’m not the type of person to withhold gratuity to make a point about bad service but the experience doesn’t make me want to go back or recommend this place to anyone else. This is surprising considering the birthday guest researched reviews to pick just the right place for the celebration. I spent a respectable amount of money on dinner here. More than the meal was worth. Over all ... the service was poor and the prices high compared to the quality. El Parasio has gotten all of my money they are going to get. I know my way back to a good place in...