Poquitos Capitol Hill — Restaurant in Seattle

I came to Poquitos with high hopes, but the experience fell pretty flat. Let’s start with the food… honestly, it was kind of bland. I ordered some wings that looked promising, but the Ranch dressing they came with didn’t taste like Ranch at all — more like some mysterious experiment from the chef that ended up tasting like anything but what it should. If someone had told me it was yogurt with cilantro, I would’ve believed it.

And don’t even get me started on the little details. The celery that came with the wings still had those thick inner strings — like they didn’t even bother cleaning it properly. Yeah, maybe that sounds picky, but when you’re eating at a place that tries to come off a bit upscale, the least you expect is celery that doesn’t scrape your tongue.

Then came the street tacos… and well, if “street” was in the name to describe the atmosphere more than the flavor, then they nailed it. Because the tacos lacked seasoning, soul, that personality you crave when you order tacos with hunger and hope. They weren’t terrible, but they weren’t great. Just tacos — nothing more.

Now, the place itself. Poquitos definitely has energy, I’ll give them that. But having the windows wide open in Capitol Hill might sound charming… until you’re sitting there getting hit with the lovely scent of the city’s grime. It felt like eating in the middle of Saturday night traffic. Add to that the overall bar smell — because really, that’s what it is — and the whole vibe becomes more about noise than taste.

Bottom line: it’s a decent spot if you’re looking to grab drinks and yell over the music to talk. But if you’re coming for the food… there are plenty of other places in Seattle where the tacos have flavor, the Ranch tastes like Ranch, and the celery isn’t trying to...

Poqiutos: Where the food sings, but the bartenders mime.

Let me preface this by saying the food at Poqiutos is genuinely fantastic. Like, write-home-to-your-abuela-and-tell-her-to-step-up-her-game fantastic. However, if you’re looking for any semblance of human interaction beyond the bare minimum required to exchange money for goods, I suggest you grab your food to-go and set up a picnic with some particularly chatty squirrels.

My dining companions and I bravely (or foolishly) decided to perch at the bar for a leisurely three-hour dinner. What followed was a masterclass in minimalist bartending. I’m fairly certain the staff were engaged in some sort of silent competition to see who could utter the fewest words. “Drink?” “Food?” and a mumbled “Sure” were the only audible utterances we received. I half-expected them to communicate via interpretive dance or perhaps semaphore flags. We weren’t demanding constant attention, mind you. We just expected, you know, basic human decency. A “How’s everything?” or even a grunt of acknowledgement would have been welcomed. Instead, we were left flagging them down like we were stranded on a desert island and they were a passing cargo ship. Every. Twenty. Minutes. It was like trying to hail a taxi in the middle of the Sahara.

Perhaps they were method acting a silent film? Maybe they’d all taken a vow of silence? Or perhaps they just genuinely despise human contact. Whatever the reason, their glacial service nearly froze my margarita.

It was only the festive holiday spirit (and the truly exceptional food) that prevented us from leaving a tip that would have made Scrooge McDuck blush. So, go to Poqiutos for the food. Just be prepared to bring a friend who’s good at charades, because you’ll need them to order...

I've been to Poquitos many times in the last eight years. The food has always been consistently great. The ambiance is nice and cozy. However, last night we had an unfortunate incident, I'll not be coming back and I'll make sure to warn the Latino community to stay out of this place.

= They made a mistake with our order, brought duplicates, and told us they would take it off the check. So far, no problem at all, this happens and they handled it very well;

= When our check arrived, we got a duplicate charge, we tried to check back with them to correct it and the answer was "but I saw there were two of these dishes on your table!" with the suggestion that we might have been trying to be dishonest, somehow. We cleared it out and tried to remind them about what had happened initially;

= We were in a group of five people, asked to split it five ways and our server started getting more and more upset with us, clearly also upset with the previous incident. Evenly splitting the check five ways is not uncommon and we were very taken aback by the suggestion that it was rude to have asked for it;

= We noticed that our check had come back yet again with the duplicate charge and we talked to them about it;

= Our server started outright verbally harassing us, being very aggressive, xenophobic, and trying to lecture us.

I'll unfortunately not be returning and would not recommend it to anyone who is not white and American. There are no shortages of Mexican restaurants in Seattle where you'll be treated with a modicum of human decency...