Francisco's Kitchen & Cantina — Restaurant in Lake Stevens

Sorry for the 2 star review but it is what it is. I'll start with the good because it is fairly limited. Nice bar selection of booze and beers. Staff was very friendly and I like the look and feel of the place. To bad the food is bargain quality with high end prices. Bacon wrapped scallops....yum. They are until you wrap a piece of bacon around a scallop and deep fry it to the point of bacon cardboard and a dry lump of white meat. C'mon, I can get better bacon wrapped scallops at Haggen, pound a few PBR, and burn them on the grill and come out with a better product. Next was the ceviche. Love ceviche. This was not ceviche. This was pico de gallo with some precooked shrimp, and not much of it, thrown in then served with huge round chip like things served in half a pineapple. Sorry Francisco's but if you want ceviche locally go have a beer and damn good ceviche at Nacho. They do it right. Bright, fresh, loaded with shrimp, and served properly. How much more am I paying for that pineapple? To much. The ceviche sadly was the best thing we ate. Main course was the fish tacos. Again I don't think the fish was fresh. The whole beans were good, I did like the slaw on the taco, but nothing to write home about. Looking over the menu it is clear they are trying to bring some high end dining to downtown. $36 for a steak is not chump change. Thankfully I did not order it at the time because I would be surely not happy based on everything else. One more thing......fruit flies. Constantly little tiny fruit flies buzzing around. The table next to use was served a glass of wine with one in it! Put on the table, in front of the lady, looked like a white wine of some kind, and the server placed it down with a obvious bug swimming on the surface.

I really really wanted this to be a win. If the owners are reading and following they have to know something must be done. Fire the cook, let them go back to Denny's and work the flattop because they clearly are looking to serve 4 and 5 star meals at 5 star prices and don't have the muscle to pull it off in...

Just from the outside I was worried this place has a dress code so I walked in and immediately greeted by staff and asking how I am. I just survived a rear end crash at Carnation so this dinner time I am passing by on highway 9. Decided to not spending on fast food I drive all the way to city center.

I am by myself so I am fine sitting at their bar stool, actually tall chair to be specific. I briefly look at the menu and quickly determined my simple yet fulfilled dinner, a vegetable soup that is made in house and a halibut fish and chips. The bar turn around was really fantastic, there were 14 taps for beer if I wasn't driving after I would have a pint already. My food was presented to me 8 min later, it was hot and fresh, I love the fact that their vegetable wasn't fully cooked by it is in a hot soup and hot bowl so the remaining temperature of the bowl exchange heat with the vegetable and slowly cook it to desired temperature.

The fish and chip blow my mind how big a portion it is, 3 piece of halibut, really huge plate. Fries was cooked just enough to drizzle with salt and crisp enough to not feeling too dry.

The whole environment is so friendly, very family oriented yet you can have a regular post business meeting in there, it has sports playing on tv but no one is cheering. So much love to local diner places, always a good chance to...

I always rate based on food, then anything else that ruins the experience. Let's talk about the ceviche.

You cut a pineapple in half and scoop in your ceviche plus some nicely cut avocado to top it off. What you get is a sculpture that looks like very edible food. Picture worthy for sure.

The civeche waters/spices were absorbed by the bottom of the pineapple. What you get is a salad with minimal ceviche flavor

Since the pineapple is an art piece (as is the avocado) work is required by the customer to cut it up and to include it in their hardshell taco, which tastes as bland as any grocery store bought taco. Soft shell is highly preferred by me personally since the soft will absorb any excess ceviche flavor, but since all of it was absorbed by the bottom of the pineapple, you get a bland salad that is only barely saved by the pineapple, IF the customer works to cut it themselves.

Food that looks good but doesn't deliver is like...a really disappointing date. Never again will I order this beautiful and yet boring civeche.

The atmosphere is loud, even when only a couple of tables are active. If it's fully active I highly recommend a table outside if you're with company. Service is average and on point, nothing to complain here, tip your...