Carajillo — Restaurant in Ferndale

I was hopeful, even knowing an opening weekend can be rough for a new restaurant, but disappointed in almost every aspect of my experience at Carajillo, with the exception of the friendly staff: Training, coupled with a soft opening is every restaurant’s opportunity to work out the “bugs” in their operating procedure: from soup to nuts. Yes, Im aware that it was an opening weekend, but I also know that a first open weekend is your time to shine! So many areas to address! The hostess never directed waiting patrons to the other side of the front door where there was a comfortable place to sit; the manager used an entire booth to set up his tablet while there were several ppl waiting to be seated; our waitress, while lovely, did not know the menu, specifically the wine choices; our food arrived quite late, both dishes were overcooked, and the rice side was inedible. Thankfully, the previous tenant created an interesting interior bc that was the best part of our night. I doubt we’ll be back unless we start seeing...

Don’t come hungry. The hostess did say they were running a bit behind, so when they seated us right away i asked our waitstaff person how long the wait really was. They said, 30 minutes. I said ok. Ordered drinks which came out fast. Then ordered the nachos and chips and guacamole at the same time. 45 minutes later. We still have nothing but our drinks. Finally i asked for just chips. They brought us just chips and then like 10 minutes later, the guacamole came. Decent but a little bland. Finally after over an hour i got up and asked for the manager because i was ready to cancel the nachos and leave. After about 5 more minutes, he came out with our nachos. Nachos were pretty good. But the wait time, so ridiculous. There were plenty of waitstaff.. it wasn’t packed by any means, and the bartender was quick. Please get more kitchen help. At the bare minimum, get the chips to the table and be real about...

We went on opening night and as others have said, expectations were adjusted accordingly. We were told there was a 20 minute wait when we arrived but could get drinks at the bar. We all got carajillos, the namesake drink, which we all really enjoyed. The seating area while we waited was in the corner surrounded by windows which was nice. After being seated out waitress was very friendly and was doing her best to adjust to everything in real time with this being their first night operating. Chips and guac were ordered were quite good. The tortilla soup was very tasty and the cheese wrapped scallops, mussels, and seafood I ordered was slightly overcooked but I still really enjoyed it.

Overall a positive experience and a great atmosphere. Certainly worth checking out especially once they find...