El Sirenito — Restaurant in Seattle

Service was very bad, to the point where everyone at our table (who have all worked service jobs) spent various amounts of time having full length conversations about the things they were observing and how off putting it was. We generally agreed that what we were seeing was likely the result of employees who did not care anymore and probably were "done" with management there, as opposed to just being bad employees.

Food was OK at best, several dishes were left unfinished but most of the food was eaten. Fish tacos did not even get finished as no one wanted the last couple halves that were there, just not good enough to gorge on I guess. The non-fish stuff was fine, but over-salted and kind of bland.

Decor and interior was fine, nothing special, but the outside seating space was nice enough. Would have been good for them to actually turn on the heaters for us, but this feeds back into lack of service. They had the heaters on for the only other table that was there when we sat down, but never turned them on for our table.

Menu is a mess, they really need to be more specific with what their dishes actually are. Substituting fried fish for fresh fish or visa versa and not saying that specifically on the menu is always going to result in mixed experiences for people, even more so when the deep fired foods are battered. It would also be good to actually label what is gluten free and what isn't to prevent food being ordered that cant be eaten and then having to charge the customer for food they cant eat because you didn't label it on your menu and didn't think to offer up the information when directly asked about it.

Finally, we are fairly confident that we got food poisoning from this food. Cant specifically say this was it, but...

It's been a while since we had a good date night, and I was on the prowl for some ceviche. That turned out to be the only good part of our experience tonight. Started out just fine, made a drink order and ordered some appetizers. Drinks came just fine. When the appetizers got dropped at our table, we asked for more water. It never showed up. I tried for about 10 minutes to get our servers attention to get some napkins, but when those got dropped there wasn't even a query about if the apps were ok or if we wanted to order more food or drinks. We were never spoken to again after the appetizers came. It really felt like we were being deliberately avoided. After we sat there with empty drinks and plates for 15 minutes, we finally asked for our check from the other server because ours wouldn't even look in our direction. There easily could have been another hundred dollars on that check. We are both reasonable, even nice people, having worked in the service industry ourselves, and we tip really well for the same reason. ...

Stopped in early on a Saturday for light eats and a drink. Really nice server. Charming ambiance, indoor and outdoor seating, flowers on table, nice lighting. I imagine as the space fills it becomes loud as tables are seated in close proximity. House cab was good, as were chips salsa and guacamole. One order is for two people not four. I had a tuna dish, which was very tough tuna, not delicate at all sadly. Would not order again. The ceviche was good, steak asada good, and a shrimp cocktail good, nothing great or make you want to go back to eat. I would stop in for a drink chips and salsa and try a fish taco next time or quesadillas because you cant get that wrong. Staff were really nice, and service was really good which made the charming ambiance even more enjoyable. Food was ok, basic, fine. If im in the area and want some chips and a glass of wine easy...