Azteca Mexican Restaurants

Someone told me about the ""Avoid"" review posted a few days ago & I had to check it out. I am in shock! Every experience I have had at this location has been great. I have been going to Azteca on a monthly basis for the last 14 years or so and mostly frequent Kent & Southcenter locations. Knowing the management & staff at the Kent location, I find it impossible to believe any of them would have deliberately ""planted"" a wad of gum in any napkin. Nor would whoever set the table have set it with a soiled napkin. Which leads me to believe IF there actually was gum in a napkin, maybe some kid put it there after the table was set? Perhaps the busser who saw the napkin spoke very little english & went to get help from a manager? It is unfortunate the manager on duty failed to come to the table. I know there is a lot of teamwork that occurs at this location....especially when they are busy. They expidite each others food orders, run each others credit cards & anything else needed to help make everyones visit enjoyable. Maybe this could be the reason someone else brought the check? They are human & there is always the chance of error, weather it be with a check or a food mistake. However, they do their best to avoid those mistakes to make everyones experience a good one. Everyone is entitled to thier ""story"", but I just hate to see Kent Azteca being bashed like that as I know the staff & management of this location VERY well from years of going there and I know first hand that everybody who works there is extremely big on making sure every customer leaves satisfied & happy. Another reason they have been in business for so long!!! Don't let this ""Avoid"" review discourage you from going to Kent Azteca. Their motto is ""Welcome to the Family"" and once you go there a few times...you are part of their family. Pros: Great Food, Great People, Great Place Cons: Need a sign on the street more

This location opened in the 80's and no it's not the newest place therefore has plenty of character. The decor is nice & the atmosphere plesant. Pros: Great Portions, Great People, Great Place more

My wife and I ate at the Kent Azteca this past Wednesday, June 30, 2010. We've been there a couple times before. We never thought too much about the place - nothing especially good or bad about it - but its one of the closest Tex-Mex places to our home, so that's where we go. Tonight, unfortunately, this restauraunt managed to distinguish itself in the worst possible way, and we absolutely will never set foot in the place again. Or any Azteca for that matter. The meal itself was the usual, pretty much the same as you could get anywhere. I had a chimichanga, and my wife had some sort of shrimp thing that she likes. And about three-quarters of the way into the meal, my wife noticed that there was a lump in the corner of the napkin in her lap. Turns out is was a freshly-chewed wad of gum. It was in there in a way that you could easily miss it. We weren't even sure that that was what it was, but I had to go and take a sniff - ugh - and yup: spearmint. I didn't make a scene or anything like that: I understand that things can happen. I caught the attention of a passing employee - the woman who brought us our water - and showed her what the problem was, and why we were no longer interested in our food. The woman looked at it, said something like ""oh, this shouldn't be here"" and walked off. WTF? She did come back a bit later and said that the manager was going to drop by, but we never saw him or her. Somebody else - not our waiter - came by with the check (the waiter, I guess, preferred not to deal with it, so handed it off to his buddy). And we paid, and we left - all staff seemed to avoid eye-contact. After I saw the freshly used gum in the napkin on our table, I began to notice other things. The carpet of food on the floor, the greasy look of the chairs and tables, the dirt around the windows ... this place is a health hazard. And judging by the way they reacted to a chewed-up wad of gum on a customer's table, it is apparent that Azteca management has completely forgotten that they have a ton of competition, likely with equal or better food, but DEFINATELY with less chance of making you sick. The Seattle area is jam-packed with Tex-Mex restaurants, so you should have no problem finding a more suitable place to eat. I try to be a nice guy, but my advice is to avoid Azteca like the plague ... which come to think of it, is exactly what youmight be doing. The place is gross. Pros: Its mostly food Cons: It might kill you more

Service was good. Attentive waitress. The chips and salsa were great. I had the steak fajita quesadillas. Pros: good food with generous portions Cons: location: where the nice and not so nice parts of Kent meet more

Whenever we've gone here we've been given good service. They use to have this ""All You Can Eat"" in their bar area only, but not sure if they still have it. It was a good deal if you want mediocre, unauthentic Mexican cuisine. In the restaurant itself, the food is passable. I think the only way to get really good Mexican food is to travel south to California or Arizona, etc. Also, a couple of times, my friends said this restaurant in particular got their bill wrong. They were billed twice off their debit cards and the manager laughed it off when they returned after receiving their bank statement, and confronted him. He did give them a refund, but was very unapologetic and cavalier about the whole situation. Pros: Service with a Smile Cons: Billing Incorrect (pay cash if you can); Dirty bathrooms more