San Carlos Restaurant

I’m not a huge fan of southwestern food (my husband is), so I was happy to find a couple items on their menu I would’ve ordered.
The crab chimichanga was flavourful and SO heavy. I was so full that I couldn’t eat breakfast the next day.
We would come back and sit on the patio during the Summer but would probably avoid coming in Spring/​Fall/​Winter and having to sit inside the restaurant.

Major disappointment. I really wanted to like this place a lot, but they simply drop the ball too many times. Hopefully this review will be taken as the ‘wake up’ call it is meant to be.
THE ROSES: Wonderful salsa! They could sell this by the quart or gallon! Burritos are very well executed as well. Front of house staff are pleasant, albeit disorganized (see thorns)
THE THORNS: Unconscionably long wait. Granted it was Graduation Night in town, and apparently the kitchen was slammed. There is still no excuse for not being up front with the patron that things are behind. As it was, we waited nearly an hour for our food, watched patrons who were seated after us GET FED AND LEAVE, and finally I had to go to the hostess to see if we were forgotten. Granted we were comped our drinks, but — TOP TIP FOR MGMNT — keeping the diner in the loop would’ve gone a looooooong way.
Most of the food was, sadly, lackluster. I asked for refried beans, and got whole ones anyway. They were overly salty and undercooked. The entrée salad had a laughably stingy piece of carne asada, a ripoff at $ 15.
THE VERDICT: Your results may vary, but tonight was a disaster for us. Sadly, I cannot recommend this restaurant.

This place is okay. The food is a bit overpriced and not very good (overcooked and dry). The outdoor seating area is really nice and the staff is friendly. Also, free chips and salsa. If you’re not looking for anything too special/​fancy, it’s a good place to go.

I expected better. Nice place physically and the staff was friendly and attentive but the food wasn’t anywhere near as good as we expected. Very so-​so. It looked to us as if they were trying to serve high-​end plates but it didn’t work out.

For many years we would stop at San Carlos for dinner on Sunday evenings when the ferry line back to Seattle was a boat or two wait. Why sit in traffic (on an island no less) when you can sip a margarita and watch tv in a cozy bar? We’d wait until 8:30 PM and then just drive on the boat. We stopped coming in after we observed a creepy (no better word) misogynistic encounter that involved (we discovered) the owner! Recently, an islander informed us that the longtime owner finally retired and he sold the restaurant to an employee … (January 2016) … so we popped in to give it a try. The bar area is still cozy … lots of locals … and we had a decent meal. Our food was way too salty … (swollen ankles salty) … but, heck, it’s a Mexican restaurant. The mood was still relaxed and casual … good margarita. Glad to be back.

Not bad chips and salsa. Seafood burrito was great. Mahi mahi tacos were ‘meh’. 12^th man margarita was not very good this time. Coffee was good. Fajita burrito was very good. Service was good, as always. The 3 – 4 drinkers at the bar were loud and filthy mouthed. The bartender should realize this and had them leave or shut up. Not a good bargain, way over priced. But, if grading on a scale-​better flavor than other Mexican restaurants in area. But not enough to justify the expense.

How does this place only have 3 stars?! It’s my FAV! And I consider myself an expert on Mexican food lol! Although, it’s not super street taco, LA hole in the wall type of Mexican. It’s still so gooood! Goat cheese enchiladas are
. Cocktails are always fresh and delicious! Love this place!

The staff is in need of some serious remedial training. I’ve been there twice in the last month and neither experience was positive. Every place can have an off night, hence the second visit. The service is awful and they could care less about it. I approached the «manager» after having waited for 30 minutes for a server to take my order and he was disinterested. Apparently at one time this was an outstanding restaurant, but the original owners have recently sold it and the new régime is going in a different direction. With all of the competition for the consumers restaurant dollar, I don’t understand why an owner/​chef would so blatantly disregard the art of customer service.

We make it a point when we travel to Bainbridge to be SURE we are there on a Friday; it’s the only day San Carlos serves lunch. Still in love with the salmon & bay ship quesadilla, and steak enchilada. their seasonal fruit margaritas are always good. friendly service, reasonable prices. enjoy!

This was my 2^nd visit to San Carlos and just as enjoyable as the first. Great chips and salsa and the house burrito was delicious. Service was top notch as well. Will definitely go back.

So much better than Casa Rojas!
Really good Margaritas. Nice atmosphere. Good service and good food.
I disagree with the negative reviews.

Zero stars. There aren’t many options on the island, but as a resident I can tell you that any one will be better. We waited an hour for awful, astonishingly bad, really bad food and had to tolerate surly, slow wait staff to boot. One of the worst dining experiences you can be dramatically overcharged for. Go hungry instead, and thank me later.

With a party of about 15 people, service was very slow. Had an entre salad which was only mediocre, but other selections were good.

UGH — this place! We have been here maybe 4 – 5 times while living on BI and I keep hoping the next time will be better than the last, but last night was the last time and it was no better, just plain horrible.
Nearly every time we go in, we are barely greeted by a hostess (??) or someone who seems to barely know what’s going on. They always act like they are so busy or have a book full of reservations and will have to «see» if you can be accommodated. We were a party of 5 and were seated with only childrens menus. More oblivious servers and bussers passed by and we waited at least 5 – 10 minutes until I asked to get menus, water and chips. The server seemed embarassed that we didn’t have menus yet, so I was hoping this is where things would start to turn up. We did get our drinks quickly, but then again… a long 10 – 15 minutes until we had to ask a hostess that was giving us a third round of chips to get our server so we could order. Order was taken — we didn’t have anything too complicated, from chicken fajitas to a cheeseburger for my child.
Food finally arrived and it was so not up to snuff for the price tag. Again, had to ask for the check. Left mad and still hungry.
I also need to mention that it was very awkward to hear the more seasoned servers «schooling» the younger and I will assume, new, employees.
So, to sum it up, if you don’t care about being treated with indifference by staff, waiting a VERY long amount of time for expensive and not so good food, this place is for you.

We have gone to San Carlos quite a bit over the years and it is been okay as a nice place to have a family dinner or a relaxed bite in the closest thing we’ve had on Bainbridge Island as a sports bar. But we’ve had mixed experiences of late with our last dinner in the bar very poor. Long long wait for food and food was pretty bad. It will be quite a while before we return.

(I wrote this review and have posted here, as well as Google reviews.)
My daughter and I met in Bainbridge Island to spend a few hours together. We were looking for a place to eat, and one of the «locals» heard us talking and shared about some of the local fare. They said this Mexican restaurant was the better of the two on the island.
Cleanliness: 3; Personality of staff: 2; Service: 3; Price: 2; Food quality 1: Food taste: 1
At first, it looks okay and no complaints, though the service was pretty «flat.» Being my first time, I asked the server what she would recommend and she was not helpful at all, not wanting to make suggestions, or having no opinion.
I opted for a «boat» of their White Bean & Green Chili con Carne, and an order of their crunchyHouse Taco with machaca, each were $ 4.95. My daughter ordered the chicken enchilada plate at $ 13.95.
The «chili» was rather dry in consistency, covered with commercially-​shredded cheddar cheese, and was lukewarm. It tasted rather old, like being the bottom of the pot. It was served with a flour tortilla.
The tacos were served on very thin commercial crisp taco shells and the machaca was very salty and wet. The shells were soggy on the half that they were laying on the plate. The flavor of the filling was actually rather disgusting.
My daughter ate part of her beans and rice and one of the enchiladas. Her only comment: It wasn’t very good.
Chips were pretty standard; salsa was mediocre, at best.
With tax, our bill was over $ 26. Service did not even warrant the full difference to $ 30 left as the tip.
If I were to rate this restaurant on cleanliness, personality and service alone, I would have given it an overall 3, and benefit of the doubt. Rating on Food quality, taste, and price, it would get an overall: 1. The cleanliness and average service were not bad, but giving each a 3 (though mathematically makes sense) does not make up for the other things, therefore I have to give an overall 1 star.
This is, by far, one of the worst (if not the worst) Mexican restaurants I have ever eaten at in my 50+ years living in CA, TX, WA and everywhere else I have ever been. When I left, I commented to my daughter, «We would have gotten better Mexican food at Taco Bell.» It would have cost us less by 2/​3, too.
The only redeeming factors were: My daughter and I were able to talk without worrying about the place being too busy and noisy; she gave her leftovers to a homeless person who was hungry when she walked back from the ferry to her apartment in Seattle.

Overpriced for quality of food. Service was good. Margarita was good. Pork burrito was under seasoned, and BF says it tasted frozen. Crab chimichanga was too salty and was greasy. It seemed like the oil was too cool when they cooked it. Salsa was salty. Flan was overcooked and tasted like jello flan with salted caramel sauce. We likely won’t return for food.

Outstanding. I ate the smoked chicken chimichanga and I highly recommend with a tequila. Service a little slow but worth the wait… Highly recommend

Decided to give San Carlos another try last night. We arrived at 5:30, had a couple of drinks at the bar, then were seated at a table at 6:00. We didn’t get to place our order until around 6:30. By 8:00, we were sick and tired of waiting and decided to leave. We paid for our drinks and weren’t even offered a comped drink or anything after waiting 90 minutes for our food. We were a table of 5 and the server blamed the wait on a table of 18 somewhere else in the restaurant. That’s just bad customer service. I don’t really care if you have an 18 top… I’d rather hear «I apologize, let me comp you a couple of drinks» than «here’s a lame excuse.»

If you are looking for a romantic, cozy restaurant and southwestern cuisine, San Carlos is just right. I say «crab chimichanga» to my sweetheart, and his eyes roll back in his head. One of his favorite dishes on the island. For me, it is always hard to decide, so many wonderful choices. Enchiladas, BBQ ribs (with southwestern flare), fajitas, everything is delicious and the portions plentiful. I enjoyed a peach margarita tonight, and keep hoping they will bring back the prickly pear cactus one. My all time favorite, even tho the peach was phenomenal.
I see a few negative reviews on Unilocal for San Carlos, and suppose if people try, they might have the off experience. I guess we’ve been lucky. It’s always been a wonderful place for us to dine.