article and photography by Maggie Tsai | Managing Editor
Seattle Restaurant Week, which ran October 13-17 and 20-24, featured a fabulous lunch at Barrio Mexican Kitchen & Bar. Located on Capitol Hill, Barrio is known for its modern and laid-back atmosphere and for serving up Mexican food as posh cuisine. Wooden-based interior design and a whole wall of white candles added a vintage taste.
The three-course lunch menu starts with “antojitos,” which means “appetizers” in Spanish. The rockfish ceviche was one of my favorite dishes of the day. The fish goes well with mango, cucumber, habanero, chiles, red onions, and cilantro; very fresh and exotic. It comes along with banana chips, and makes for a chip n’ dip combination that will make you feel as if you are on an adventure in the tropical forest. The fresh-squeezed lemonade was like a summer breeze that lightened my meal with its sweet and sour taste.
The “Especiales” are bold and delicious: the Tinga de Pollo Quesadilla was stuffed with jack and cotija cheese, chipotle braised chicken, oaxaca, and poblano-onion rajas. If you are a spice-craver, then this dish will definitely serve you well! The Guajillo Pork Enchilada is just as amazing as it looks. Shredded pork, golden raisins, almonds, jack cheese, onion rajas and guajillo tomato sauce made it a very tasty dish. The enchilada was bathed in cheese and we all know that cheese is just heaven-on-earth!
The dessert was a sweet ending for the wildly flavored lunch. The dulce de leche crème brûlée and the pineapple sorbet have definitely won this reporter’s heart and left a great memory!
