LOVE this cute little place! The wait staff are so nice and helpful and the food is out quickly and tastes amazing!

This place has some FANTASTIC Mexican food!!! Their fish tacos are fantastic! their mango salsa is amazing!! It's definitely a must if you live around here! oh and their margaritas are great also read more

My favorite restaurant in Seattle, go there at least twice a week. Great food for good prices, wide variety of the classics and everything I've had has been wonderful. My favorites are the tamales, anything mole and their mexican hot chocolate. Family owned place, service is always adorable and friendly. Overall, highly recommend it, don't understand why all these bad reviews are about the ambience and the service. It's a cute family run mexican restaurant, it's not going to be done up like Von's and you're not going to get immediate service like a crappy chain restaurant. read more

I am a big fan of this restaurant. I wasnt even sure if it was open. I had to ask a friend. I drive by this place a lot but never saw any activity, i assumed it wasnt. I finally went today and was presently surprised to find a place, so close to my house that had such great mexican food. I had the "camarones a la diabla" basically shrimp cooKed in a spicy sauce with onions, carrotts and mushrooms. It came with beans, rice, chips, and a small side of extra salsa. The cook, I have to give it to her. It was very tasty and well seasoned. The rice was finished to perfection. I will be back, time and time again. I was even licking my fingers when i finished eating. I will recommend restaurant to everyone. read more

I've been here only once, and I will try it again to see if it's any better...or worse. We (boyfriend and myself) arrived early on a Saturday (around 5pm) for dinner and a few margs. We were the only ones in the joint for a good 30 minutes, which was kind of nice because we got great service. The ambiance is nice, I especially love the Frida Kahlo artwork on the walls, as she is one of my favorite people of all time. The Food: The chips and salsa were OK, the salsa was very hot and too watered down (I like my salsa thick and chunky and to stay. on. the. chip. - not dripping off of it like a leaky faucet), but it was just fine for an appetizer. My boyfriend ordered the chicken mole, and he was disappointed with it, he said it was watered down and too sweet. Of course, he is used to his grandmother's mole from Mexico, so perhaps people who've never had the "no-one-cooks-as-good-as-my-grandma" authentic version of mole would find it satisfying. I had the carnitas de puerco, and I too was somewhat disappointed. I love my pork and could live on a daily allowance of pork tacos. The pork here was dry and lacked flavor, and I didn't get a lime wedge to squeeze over it. The beans had shredded cheese (cheddar?) on it rather than the more authentic and enjoyable Cotija cheese. To me, an authentic Mexican restaurant never uses yellow cheese shreds, it's just a no-no. The Drinks: I had the cadillac margarita and it was strong and go-ooood. It was so good I had two more while we waited for a friend to meet up with us. My tequila buzz almost made me forget the lackluster food we just half-consumed. Almost. Bonus star for getting to text my friend to meet us at "the little cock". ha ha I'm so immature I love it. read more

3 stars for the chips and salsa. Not sure of the draw but maybe it just wasn't pour moi. Definitely a crowd in there and it's been around a long time despite lots of development in the neighborhood. For what it is, could be cheaper. read more

We've been eating at El Gallito for the last 20 years. While their service is not always the fastest, especially on busy nights. It is the best Mexican/American food in Seattle. There are resaurants that serve dishes that would actually be served in Mexico. But if your looking forward to mexican foods you grew up with in the States this is a great choice. They have all the items you know with more flavor and spice than your average mexican restaurant. Once you try their food your regular restaurant will seem a little bland. As for the person from issaquah who wrote a review about getting food poisoning from the mole, I've been eating the mole at this restaurant for 20 years and never had a problem. Are you sure your friend and you didn't just give each other the flu? The reason I say this is because you mentioned that you and your friend felt sick on your way home. As a person who is personally involved In the medical community food poisoning doesn't present until at least 6 hours after you eat something bad. So unless you and your friend spent 6 hours eating one dish of Chicken Mole it wasn't the mole that made you sick. read more

I love Mexican food. I moved within a few blocks of this place, and was super excited to have a family Mexican restaurant so close! I was anticipating being a frequent customer. Unfortunately both times I have visited the restaurant I have been very disappointed. Each time the restaurant was nearly empty, yet service was ridiculously slow. It took about an hour each time to receive entrees for two. The food was barely edible. Salsa was so spicy it was painful, and I'm a fan of spice! So disappointing, won't go back again. read more

Great place for regular mexican food. huge portions, great drinks, and awesome prices. We went here on a saturday and there was no issue with seating and the staff was friendly. Will certainly go again soon but maybe will get something off the al a carte menu because the dinner portions are enormous! read more

You know those restaurants that you don't go to, but you end up at? This is very much one of those places. Walking in your nose is caressed by that familiar tortilla smell that accompanies most mexican eateries. Once that wears off, you'll notice the empty tapitillo bottles, lack of condiments, and pock marked tables. Our waiter was very inattentive at first, waiting nearly six minutes before he took our drink and food order at the same time, but once we were past that point, he was very prompt with refills on chips and sodas. The chips and salsa are standard, nothing special there. The food was good-ish, the major attraction being that it was cheap. I went home and immediately had what I refer to as volcano ass, which may not have been the food but the two pots of coffee I had drank, and took a nap. If you like cheese, cheap mexican, good vegitarian options, and you are in the neighborhood, this place is a decent choice. It's not worth making a pilgrimage to, though. read more

Always consistent. Kid friendly, it's sometimes crowded and loud during dinner. The food is better than burrito chains but nothing to write home to mom about. Staff keeps it simple, not to much chatting. Which is how I like it. read more

Great food if you're not expecting the most authentic place. A good place that reminds me of the chain restaurants but with a home style of it's own. Good burritos, good margaritas, good guac. read more

No one really knows about this place other than those who live in the neighborhood. The place is not exactly welcoming--lots of wrought iron bars on windows ect. and a giant roster on the sign post. But...the food--which is your American-Mexican standard---seldom disappoints. read more

First time at El Gallito was great! My wife and I met a friend, who has been dining here for at least 10 years. It's a "no frills, basic" Mexican restaurant, with good, wholesome food at reasonable prices, with good service. Margaritas are good, and Mexican beers are available by the bottle. The salsa with the chips is great, and enchiladas, chile relleno, and colorado beef are good. read more

El Gallito has some of the best tasting Mexican food in the region, with authentic family type recipes, and we've been a huge fan of the food for quite some time. The downside to the restaurant is the service. We noticed it starting to go downhill over the last year, and when we went back this evening, it was downright terrible and the first time I actually walked out of a restaurant without ordering a thing; not that we actually had a chance to order food. While I get being understaffed and busy managing orders, we were not even acknowledged once with "Apologies, I'll be right there". It felt as though they were trying to ignore us long enough to make use leave, as they just couldn't manage serving our 2 families. I am genuinely sad about this as it was a great go-to Mexican restaurant for us, but now I am not sure we'll go back. They do have the right to refuse service, but our children were well behaved, we weren't being disruptive to the other patrons, so the best I could guess was they just didn't want to "deal with us". But, if you want to experience the great food, get take-out, so you don't have to deal with terrible service. Their Mole is fantastic, as is their Chile Colorado. read more

The food is always amazing, some of the best Mexican in Seattle. I like the atmosphere. It is close to home and one of my favorite go-to places for a good meal. My only complaint is a big one and if it weren't a problem I would give it 5 stars. The service is awful most of the time. Not just a little bit slow, but ridiculously slow regardless of whether there is a crowd or not. In fact, sometimes when there isn't a crowd it seems worse, like the staff forgets you are there. If the food were not so great I might just stop going, but I keep hoping they will get a clue and fix things. They are nice enough and I think they want to do well with service, but just don't know how. I hope that I can do an update soon to revise my review to 5 stars! I want this restaurant to be what it can be, one of my favorites. read more

Ate ceviche and got food poisoning, called the restaurant just to give a heads up and got a very rude response... i understand that it happens sometimes and it can be out of their control but her response was very off putting. :/ read more

This rating is based off of a first impression. I got the tortilla soup and was really excited about it because I love tortilla soup and it is also shown as a special on the menu so I had high hopes. Honestly, it's the worst tortilla soup I've ever had. It was super bland and just seemed like I was eating chicken broth. It basically had broth, chicken, avocado, and tortilla chips. I tried hard to eat as much as I could and could only muster eating less than half. It seems like the quality of food is good, but it just was lacking flavor and the flavor it did have wasn't good. I would rate just the soup itself at a 1. However, my boyfriend got the carne asada and he loved it. He thinks it's delicious for a great price, which is why I'm rating the overall at a 3. That being said, maybe if I would have gotten someone else I would be writing a different review. If I end up going back, I will order something else and write a new review (hopefully better one) based off of my experience. read more

I moved here from the southwest where great tasting affordable mexican food was on everywhere corner. El Gallito offers just that a cheap, great tasting mexican food. The service is fast too. read more

Just OK. If it were in a place like San Diego, it would be considered terrible. The corn tortillas are nothing special, which is a good indicator for a Mexican restaurant. The refried beans were not as good as mine and the rice had a strange flavor. Not much flavor at all but what was there was not so great. The Carnitas were by far the best part of the meal and they were pretty good. I guess. I would say that a lot of good reviews must be from people who haven't eaten good Mexican in the Southwest or Mexico itself. I grew up 20 minutes from the border and I am continually disappointed by Mexican food everywhere I go. I was so hopeful after reading reviews, even though it was only at 3.5 Yelp stars, I was hoping the negative reviews were from the people who hadn't had good Mexican food and so they were expressing uneducated opinions. We used to eat at a place in Mexico called El Gallito that had this chicken cooked unde a brick over mesquite and so I think I was hoping for a flashback. The search continues. I the http://www.burritoeater.com/ would only give this one mustache. read more