« Ballard Restaurants

My family ate there tonight. The place was crowded but cozy. The food was good, we especially liked the fish, queso appetizer & flan. The salsa was fresh and good, the chips were disappointingly from Cash & Carry. The service was very disappointing- it was slow, inflexible and unapologetic. I would go as far as saying the server was pretty rude at times. The food took quite a while and that's cool for fresh food. I would recommend it for a change but bring your patience, you'll need it.

We enjoyed the food very much. The service was great. Not a big variety, but the food was good.

I liked it. Different and tasty. Yeah, no bar when I was there, only beer and wine. Staff maybe not your quintessential variety, but polite and friendly at least if you start up a conversation with them. They probably wouldn't take criticism well. But I thought the food very good.

delicious Mexican food with just a slight northwest slant. very casual, comfortable atmosphere. great sangria and great prices!

I know exactly where I was eating : the crappy Mexican restaurant next door to Cafe Fiore on 85th and 32nd. We won't be wasting our money there again.

Not sure where mickey was eating, cuz there is no bar, much less a bartender at Esperanza.

My wife and I visited this resturaunt the first week in February. It was a slow night and staff was very attentive. Having both worked in the resturaunt industry for many years and living in many major cities, we both understand that servers come and go and that experiences may vary. Our waitress was very friendly.

As for the food, it was fantastic. We recently moved to Seattle and have been consistently disappointed with local Ballard resturaunts (the quality & price of food). This place has excellent dishes for a reasonable price. The chicken was incredibly tender. The carne wasn't the best I've ever had, but it was really good. The salsa was unique, not like the typical 'tomato & onion' salsa that you find at many places. Most of all, the fresh ingredients stood out. Overall, we were both impressed with the wonderful melody of flavors in each dish. The flan tasted very fresh and had a wonderful citrus zest to it! Highly recommended!

After hearing rave reviews I took a good friend to this place for her birthday dinner and... it was horrid! The food was terrible, in fact, practically tasteless. And the waitress was the worst She totally ignored us and, finally, after waiting over and hour for our food to arrive, we had to interrupt her blathering session with the bartender to ask, "Where is the food we ordered an hour ago?"

She finally brought us our awful meals and didn't even apologize, instead simply said, "it's been a busy night for the kitchen."

I worked in the food industry for 15 years, as a waitress, cook and caterer.I expect a little attention from the server when things go wrong.

We left an insulting tip -- about 5%. Hopefully, she got the message.