El Gaucho

Upon entering the restaurant, the ambience and amazing family like atmosphere of the whole El Gaucho Tacoma team was amazing. Johnny at the Bar and Chip, and Ann-​Marie on the floor, the service and food was superb!. I went with the NY strip and it was cooked perfectly, medium rare and had a nice crust. My husband had a wedge (his favorite) and he was NOT disappointed!
I really didn’t want to go out on Valentines Day because of bad food and bad service! But this WAS NOT the case! Our whole experience was so wonderful.

We had a fantastic meal at El Gaucho! My order of Steak El Gaucho was perfect. Seriously the best steak I’ve ever had. We also ordered the scalloped potatoes, and again, they were wonderful. Steak El Gaucho comes with lobster medallions on top. Those are buttery and fresh.
Our table was by the piano. They performed some nice songs. Didn’t think it was too loud either. Also, the staff are attentive and friendly. You’ll get a complimentary fruit and cheese board at the end of your meal. The cheese tastes like a cork. Didn’t even care though because the steak and potatoes were bomb!
Overall, this meal was beyond delicious and worth the splurge. You’ll want to dress nicely and make a reservation. I think they do happy hour throughout the week, so I might stop in sometime for a little taste.
Make El Gaucho your next steak dinner!

Our friends had a private party in one of the rooms. Service was excellent. A little over the top. Really dark. Every time anyone went to the bathroom someone escorted us with a flashlight. Great service and knowledgeable staff open to questions with genuine recommendations. It was a large party, so a lot of its were ordered to try and share. The steak was cooked excellently and met my expectations for a high priced steakhouse. I fell in LOVE with the key lime pie. Definitely a nice destination for a special occasion due to the price, but well worth it.

As I am writing this review, I am thinking of another date to come back. What to order… food and drinks! LOL What can I say about this place? Awesome! Made a reservation for Saturday night for my birthday dinner. Got there and was blown away by the size of the place and they have Valet Service. The atmosphere was nice. Heck yeah! Lost a star for having to wait over 30 minutes to get our table. But gained it back with the service that we had received while there. Food and drinks cost an arm and a leg but was well worth it. Bartenders that night were amazing! Drinks were on point! The food was delicious! I had leftovers for the next day! Don’t remember the name of the dish that ai had ordered but it was SO GOOD!!! We also ordered a bottle of Pinot. Delicious! So much to eat and drink I know that I will be back!!!

Seriously amazing experience from the music, ambience, friendly and attentive staff to the steak, drinks and dessert (bananas foster). I took my wife, daughter and mother in law out to celebrate tonight and El Gaucho nailed it! This restaurant will now be my go to for celebrations and appreciation dinners. Thanks to Rojay and Megan personally.

Took my boyfriend here for his 27^th birthday. It was FANTASTIC. Service was exceptional! We had the wicked shrimp, and the Chateaubriand for two. So amazing and so much food! Can’t wait to come back soon.
I’ve been here a few other times with friends and for happy hour as well. If you’re looking for a happy hour with amazing ambiance and don’t want to do the whole gaucho dinner experience, check out happy hour.

A party of four of us dined at El Gaucho in Tacoma last night. What started off as a long wait to get a table turned into one of the very best experiences in dining and customer service we’ve ever encountered.
The General Manager, Joe, personally took care of us. Everything was five star. We all had the New York Strip and, even though we wanted them cooked differently, all were cooked to perfection!
My wife and I were celebrating our 37^th Anniversary and another just had her Birthday. The staff went out of their way to make us all feel very special. We will all be back very soon!

My experience there is a very positive one. I arrived early for my reservation and after being there only a few minutes I was offered a drink starting with water and ending with alcohol. I was waiting by the kitchen, but not fully in the bar area. Attention to detail.
Our server, LoLo, sat us down and gave us some time to go over the menu. We ordered the oysters on the half shell, Mac and Cheese for the kids and the Chateaubriand with loaded baked potato and asparagus served table side.
Oysters were good, Mac and Cheese need a little salt and the Chateaubriand was over cooked. I ordered med. rare and got med-​med. well. I made this aware to LoLo and she said a manager would be over to talk with me.
Joe, the assistant manager, came over and agreed that it was, indeed, over cooked. Joe immediately took it away and said he would take care of it. I thought he would offer and apology and a free dessert and take some off the bill. Instead, we were cooked an entirely new Chateaubriand. This time it was cooked to med. rare. The Chateaubriand was AMAZING!
For dessert we had the bananas foster served table side. It was very good.
Conclusion:
1. Thank you LoLo and Joe. Your customer service was amazing. LoLo and Joe handled everything with the top must professionalism.
2. We will be going back!
3. I will be asking for LoLo’s section every time we return.
4. Joe is a great assistant manager and listened to our concerns and took care of us.
Thank you LoLo, Joe and El Gaucho for the wonderful evening!

Ambiance– dim– romantic
Food– expensive however happy hour very affordable
Experience– host always acknowledges you– and in addition sometimes a gentleman will escort you to the restroom!

Went for the Macallan Scotch Dinner, five course Scotch pairing. El Gauchos always has the best food and service and this event was no different. What brought this evening to a new dining level was the Scotch educator. Kieran was very knowledgable, funny and charismatic. His passion for Scotch is infectious.

Although I don’t quite understand El Goucho’s place in the world, I think it’s best explained in that there really isn’t an establishment making a better steak nearby.
On my most recent visit during Tacoma’s Restaurant Week, the staff was courteous and attentive (as always). One quick mix-​up with the appetizer was quickly fixed and the water was perfectly chilled (not too cold) and refilled efficiently and discretely. The house white wine was ok, but paying $ 10 for a $ 6 glass of wine simply because the steak is good could be considered a stretch. Going off script with modestly priced red blend was a major mistake, probably the worst wine I’ve had in years. Honestly, I almost think it was a mistake, wine almost always has at least some redeeming qualities.
Moving to the entrees; the filet mignon was excellent but had to be resuscitated from under a sticky wave of pepper corn sauce. The chicken was a bit tough around the edges and paired with a monochromatic tarragon centric puddle of beurre blanc sauce. A flavorful medallion of lobster stood out as a small island of flavor but was the only distraction from the chicken-​tarragon majority. Desert was an intense, but excellent, blackberry lemon sorbet.
This is my third trip to El Goucho and I will probably give it a rest for the time being. The steak is excellent but the experience just didn’t come together as it could have. Given the expectations that come at this price point, I will find it hard to get excited about another trip to El Goucho.

No specific occasion for the visit. We just ate here to try it out. Great food and service. Would recommend this place to anyone who doesn’t mind spending money on food!

Ok this is going to be a tough review. Overall I like El Gaucho; my favorites are Portland, because you can still have a cigar and Seattle, because you have the movie theater underneath, lounge, and the Inn; which is very cool place to stay.
Anyhow the Tacoma El Gaucho is not my favorite at all. Ok the food is great, probably one of the best steaks in Tacoma hands down and then their burger is also great. Also the mixed drinks are very good and you are not going to find better service in Tacoma either. But what gets me here is the music. They have a nice piano on the bottom floor and that would be fantastic if it was not for the beat box. I really feel like I am in a bad 80’s movie; seriously who enjoys that; I would rather have no music at all. El Gaucho please hire someone who knows how to play the piano only or do live music like Maxwells, but for the love of God lose the beat box!!!
Lastly for god sake don’t buy by the glass. I know restaurants make most of their profits through liquor sales and high-​end restaurants love their mark-​ups, but at almost 300% when buying by the glass. Do yourself a favor and bring your own bottle or go with the mix drinks.
Overall a great place in Tacoma with a nice setting and fantastic food.

Warning for Valet parkers: A very important ring was stolen by El Gaucho’s valet driver last week out of my car. It was my mistake in leaving it, but we assumed it would be all right because of the quality of customer service here. We assumed wrong. After meeting with their general manager, who was kind and seemingly helpful, I still have a queasy feeling in my stomach that they remain trusting in the Valet, when I *know* he stole expensive and sentimental property of a customer, and will still have access to do this in the future.
However, I will try to separate that case (and person) from my review.
Let’s start with the good (not great) … the meal:
DRINKS: Blueberry lemon drop was delicious. Hubby had a recommended scotch.
APPETIZER: Tenderloin Diablo — absolutely wonderful, not too spicy. Dipped our bread in this creamy sauce.
MEALS: I had the Oven Crisped Chicken — skip it. Too much food, not tasty enough. I’d prefer a grilled or crisped breast. Corn sauce was runny.
Hubby had the Steak El Gaucho — he loved the steak, but not as impressed as he was with Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse in Seattle (better seasoning and overall preparation).
AMBIANCE: A little too cold, a little too dark (which is why everyone’s pictures are shitty), the red/​black carpet screams of decades past and horror movie-​esque. I was really shocked when we first entered based on all the good things I’d heard; I assumed «upscale El Gaucho» would be more modern. It really reminds me of Teatro Zinzanni in Seattle, without the circus ring or magic acts.
Musician was fabulous though.
PRICE: For the above, we paid $ 220 for 2 people.
SERVICE: This is where they shine! From the hostess to the server to the bathroom escort, your water glass will never be empty and the staff remains professional at all times. A little stiff maybe, but professional.
You know how sometimes you spend an arm and a leg at dinner, but you walk out with that fuzzy, warm feeling, cradling your partner’s arm and all is right with the world? Unfortunately, we didn’t leave El Gaucho feeling this way. And I wish we had.

Mixed emotions and thought with El Gaucho — although there were many things that really stood out to us as great, there were just as many that left us scratching our heads.
What we enjoyed — we came here for an early anniversary dinner and the restaurant had decorated our table with rose petals and an anniversary card; this definitely made our experience quite enjoyable. The service is on point — as in Ritz-​Carlton on point. I was even personally escorted to the restroom by one of the servers. And they are all dressed to the nines — we certainly felt underdressed. I also marveled that cigars were listed on the menu — too bad their smoking lounge out back no longer exists. I think that would have been quite special and unique! Their live piano player and singer also offered the perfect musical accompaniment to dinner. And overall, the dim lighting, red velvet, luxurious feel of the restaurant just screams old fashioned class — loved that!
We ordered the Chateaubriand for two and the entire meal was carved, arranged, and plated right in front of us. This was quite special to watch — almost a behind the scenes glimpse into how a chef would plate their piece de resistance. The servers are so rehearsed in their movements: our steaks with all the sauces and sides were plated by two servers in perfect synchronicity with each other: really quite impressive.
The drawbacks — lots of reports of cars being broken into, windows being cracked, etc. And yes, the self-​parking around the restaurant is shady. I felt very wary parking the rental car in that lot. And it reeked of trash just walking up the sidewalk to the front entrance! Also, at the end of the day El Gaucho felt more like a show than a restaurant. Lots of theatrics with flaming sauces — as in literally on fire — being dripped down onto skewers of meat. I’m surprised a server hasn’t set himself or a customer on fire yet! And definitely on the expensive side — as in New York steak prices. Same goes for their wine. The cheapest decent and recognizable bottle is in the $ 50-​$ 80 rage… that definitely rivals NY prices! With just the steak alone at over $ 120, a bottle of wine sadly could not be factored into our budget that night.
I may come back again just for the sake of the flaming sword show, but if I wanted a real good steak dinner — with the steak as the MAIN show and attraction — I may look for somewhere else.

Hate to admit this was my first time eating at an El Goucho restaurant. The name and reputation is pretty famous around these parts so I was happy to finally check it out.
First off the parking sitch. it was easy to find a spot but kind of scary in some areas and I see why there has been break-​ins before. Some spots don’t have good lighting down in the overflow sections. But at any rate I digress lol.
The atmosphere is pretty cool inside and the bar made some decent drinks which helped past the time while waiting for our table. The piano player was a nice touch and our wait wasnt long. Once we were seated at our table the view from upstairs was pretty cool.
The menu was good, some decent choices if you are not a big steak fan and looking for an alternative. I went with the NY strip and it was cooked perfectly, medium rare and had a nice crust. The sides were good too the lobster mac and cheese is a must try.
The service was ok, though it didn’t live up to the quality I was expecting. Our drinks weren’t refilled until the end of our meal and we weren’t checked on very much. We seemed to of gotten the most attention when we were done so they could usher us out. I was a little disappointed to be honest.
Overall I would definitely go back or maybe make it a point to check out the Seattle location and see how it compares to this one.

Our favorite restaurant for a night out Tacoma. Excellent service and the steak melts in your mouth!