On a tip from the sputtering tail end of the comment stream (river?) from our Ch-ch-ch-abel’s post, we wandered by the newly opened Chabela’s restaurant on 45th Tuesday night and had a chat with the manager, Peter Diaz, who, along with the chef, have a small stake in the restaurant alongside the owner, Andres Lopez.
They “soft opened” earlier this week and plan to have their “hard opening” two weeks from Sunday, on March 3rd. What’s the difference? Well, advertising won’t start until the hard opening and the customers are encouraged to be gentle on the staff, who are still learning the menu.
They’ll be open for dinner starting at 4 pm for the foreseeable future, and he described their menu as “modern fresh Mexican grill”: nothing frozen, all grilled. There’s a photo of the menu posted on their door below.
“Chabela” was the owner’s mother’s name, and he has included many of her recipes on the menu in her honor. At the risk of exhuming the dead horse for additional beatings, I was told that the similarity between their logo and that of the similarly named national outdoor retailer’s logo came as a surprise to the owner, who did not himself design the logo.
Welcome to the ‘Hood! I look forward to checking out your food. As a recovering Texan, I’m constantly searching for decent Tex-Mex. I’d settle for a strong margarita during happy hour!
Too expensive for someone like me.
lets meet in front ofr QFC and grovel for $$$$ and then have tacos and enchiladas..
OR work
Welcome!!! Sure is nice to have you in the neighborhood. I’ll gather neighbors from my block, we’ll come there to eat soon!
do i detect comic sans?
menu looks great…. cannot wait to start being a regular 🙂
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE…. offer delivery. You will make a FORTUNE!!!!!
No one delivers Mexican and we would order twice a week!
Went to dinner tonight (Saturday, 2/16) at Chabela’s. All in all, it was an ok experience and will probably try it again. First off, the ambiance is fine. They’ve painted the restaurant and moved the bar up front. The TV’s playing sports and the loud music are distracting. I guess it’s a “bar and grill” so that might be expected. However, not really what I’m looking for in a dinner spot. It would not upset me at all if they lowered the music (and maybe played Mexican music instead of album rock?) and got rid of the TV’s.
The service was excellent. I’m guessing when it gets busier, we won’t be waited on by quite so many people. However, they were attentive without being intrusive and very pleasant. The service is definitely the strongest part of the dining experience.
We got the usual Mexican restaurant chips & salsa to start. I thought the salsa came from a bottle, but my partner wasn’t sure. It was fine – nothing special. My partner and I ordered steak fajitas. The presentation was very nice. The way everything was plated was very appetizing. My beans and rice could have been a little warmer, but they were tasty. There was a little pile of something green on top of a little pile of lettuce. I guessing it was cactus, but not really sure. Could have been green beans – it really didn’t have a flavor. The fajitas were ok. The steak was presented in chunks instead of slices (I’m used to more of a flank steak presentation). The spicing was different than I am used to for fajitas. Maybe a little cinnamon with an underlying kick – like cayenne? Not really sure. The fajitas were tasty and a little unusual.
All in all, Chabela’s is a good addition to the neighborhood. Certainly Rosita’s at Greenlake is better – but that’s also a car ride away. We’ll try this again in a few weeks and order something different. I wish them all the best and welcome them to Wallingford!
Rositas uses canned beans and uninspiring rice mix.
Had dinner there last night. They’re definitely still in soft opening mode — staff not quite familiar with the menu, kitchen not quite familiar with getting plates together all at once. But everyone was very pleasant, and really wanted us to like it. My molcajete (chicken) was delicious, and definitely two servings’ worth. Rice was fine, and luke warm. Beans were also tasty, but room temperature. I’ll try them again, but possibly not moe than one.