If you are looking for a family-friendly restaurant that serves homemade fare, you should try La Cuesta Mexican Restaurant.
The atmosphere is mellow, the service quick and the food is delicioso.
La Cuesta is family owned and has been around since 2005. Business was steady the other night when my family tried it out.
Among the diners were several families with children, couples and a group of dolled-up youngsters out for a snack before getting their Saturday night on.
We sat at a booth and before ordering admired the restaurant’s art deco light fixtures and lizard wall art. Contemporary Latin tunes added delightful background music. The atmosphere was so soothing that our 7-year-old sat happily munching chips, perfectly calm and satisfied.
For a Mexican restaurant, La Cuesta has a robust kid’s menu including quesadillas, grilled cheese and burritos. Our kid ordered chicken nuggets with fries ($4.95) and a lemonade.
My husband ordered the molcajete with steak ($12.95). I ordered carne asada ($14.25).
The food was served on huge ceramic plates about the size of hubcaps. OK. Not that big but these plates were impressive. They also were hot, which kept the food warm while I ate. In fact, the plate was still a bit warm when I was finished — which also says something about how fast I might have wolfed this down.
But I had a good reason. This was tasty food. The skirt steak was nicely charbroiled; the creamy refried beans had a mere smattering of cheese, which I prefer. A chunky, cool guacamole that accompanied the meal tasted like freshly scooped-out avocado. The corn tortillas, also piping hot, were nice and chewy.
My husband’s molcajete arrived on the plate in a separate serving dish and he described it as kind of a stew of mushrooms and steak in a creamy sauce spiked with tomatoes. I tried to get a more detailed description out of him, but he was pulling a Homer Simpson on me — “Can’t talk, eating.” When he finished, he did say something about how he liked that La Cuesta represented traditional real food and I couldn’t agree more.
Our kid’s plate was not quite as big as ours but his meal was just as tasty. He approved of the slightly salted and light and flaky fries and actual chicken breast nuggets. He loved his lemonade and though I said I would pay for a refill, the waiter gave us a free one.
We all finished our food while our son stayed entertained and eating the whole time. When he had reached his “eating-in-a-restaurant” limit, we were out of there with clean plates.
My husband pronounced the meal “Que bueno!”
La Cuesta Mexican Restaurant
1621 41st St., Everett; 425-303-0783; <a href="http://www.lacuestarestaurant.com/index.html
“>www.lacuestarestaurant.com.
Specialty: Mexican
Price range: Inexpensive to moderate
Vegetarian options: Many
Of note: Drive-through window also
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