Review of El Gaucho Restaurant in Bellevue, Washington

In my current role I have the opportunity to dine with customers and arrange meetings at fabulous restaurants all over Bellevue. One of those restaurants I took some international customers to in the past few months was El Gaucho. We had about 15 guests that were dining and when we entered the restaurant the Hostess was ready for us (we had a reservation) and took us to an excellent table in the middle of the restaurant. The service there was well renowned and I must say that I was not disappointed. We had three dedicated servers to our table and there was never a water glass or bread basket emptied thanks to their superb care. The steaks were incredible and the seafood legendary. I had the filet mignon Oscar styles and my co-worker had the pork chop. We were both completely satisfied and the portion size was perfect. We ordered a swanky dessert for the table of bananas foster flambéed. The presentation was like being at a circus event it was so dramatic and spectacular and our server was really into his work. Our international guests were delighted from the display and very happy to sample the finished art form.

Though El Gaucho can be pricey, if you have a Passport or Prime Card you can receive a dinner free after purchasing one of equal or greater value and have an incredible dining experience at the price of going to a lower quality steak house.

I also had an experience to eat at El Gaucho with a co-worker for lunch just a few days ago. We ate out on the patio in the gorgeous summer weather but unfortunately the service was nothing compared to my dinner experience. The waiter took forever to get our drinks and the food took over 30 minutes to get to our table. I ordered the grilled medallions of tenderloin sandwich and the meat on the sandwich melted in my mouth but it came with just meat and bread which I thought was a bit odd. The au jus for dipping was great and even though it was a simple sandwich it did taste really good. The side green salad with house dressing was lacking in flavor and I wished I would've ordered fries to go with it instead but I probably will give lunch another try at El Gaucho since I was able to use my Prime Card and eat for around $10.00 with my co-worker.

If you haven't tried El Gaucho I strongly recommend dinner and maybe your lunch experience will trump mine.