The trade show I recently attended out in the Seattle area turned out to be a bust. But the good thing was that it allowed me to spend some time in the town of Burien not far from SeaTac International Airport. I quickly fell in love with Olde Burien and their small shops, interesting restaurants and lively bar scene. On the Sunday afternoon when I was there, I was in the mood for some Mexican food and I found a little taqueria called Centro Neighborhood Kitchen. We had a Centro (pronounced "CHEN-tro") back in the Quad Cities for a number of years, but this is not connected to that former restaurant.
Enrique Arias grew up in a family which owned a number of Mexican restaurants in the greater Tacoma area. His grandfather, Ruben Arias, grew up in Jalisco, Mexico before immigrating to the U.S. in the 1960's. Ruben Arias opened his first restaurant - El Toro - in 1979. The restaurant grew to four locations by the mid-1990's. His son, Enrique, Sr., took over one of the four El Toro locations the family owned and turned it into Maria's Cocina Mexicana, so named after his wife Maria. Their son Enrique, Jr. was part of the family crew who helped run the business as he grew up. After getting his bachelors degree in business administration and supply chain management in 2010, he went back to the family business to run the day-to-day operations.
In 2012, Enrique, Jr. started his own company where he would buy up distressed properties, fixed them up and was able to rent them out at a considerable profit. While still working at the restaurant, Arias became a real estate agent and turned out to be pretty successful in doing so. It was during that time in his life that he met a young lady by the name of Trisha who grew up in Burien, WA.
After getting married, the chance for Trisha and Enrique to move back to Burien to live in the house she grew up in came about. Trisha was a vegetarian and was not happy with the options she had when they went to restaurants. She had turned Enrique into a "flexitarian" - a person who will sometimes eat fish or chicken, but will primarily just eat vegetables. (This is a term I learned from my colleague who is a vegetarian, but his wife is a "flexitarian".) They decided they needed to address the needs for people like her who wanted fresh Mexican vegetarian meals. It was then that they decided to open their own restaurant.
The couple had looked at a couple spots in Tacoma before settling on a spot in downtown Burien. Pregnant with their third daughter, the Arias' opened their little Mexican restaurant - Centro Neighborhood Kitchen - just after the pandemic restrictions were lifted in the summer of 2020.
Pictured right - Enrique and Trisha Arias with their three daughters in 2021. Photo courtesy Seattle Times.
Not only did Centro Neighborhood Kitchen serve vegetarian fare, they had a number of steak, pork carnitas, chicken and seafood options available in tacos, tostadas, burritos and enchiladas. The restaurant became an immediate favorite of people who liked the protein and non-protein options they served at Centro.
I had already been in Burien a handful of times before I made it back on a glorious Sunday afternoon. The weather the whole time I had been in the Seattle area was unseasonably warm and this day was no exception. I was able to find a parking space on the street in front of Centro Neighborhood Kitchen. (see map) The small sidewalk patio with black tables and bright orange chair was full of diners, so I slipped inside the restaurant to get a place to sit.
Centro is not a big place on the inside. It seats - maybe - 20 people or so. But it was comfortable and cozy with a light colored paint scheme on the walls. I found a booth along the wall and took a seat.
There were a couple people working the dining room that day, a guy and a young girl. The young girl - Aliyah - came over with a menu and handed it to me. Chips and salsa are not gratis at Centro and they have a number of dipping options for their house-made chips including an avocado salsa, pico de gallo, a queso dip, and guacamole. I got the salsa verde to go along with the chips. The green salsa had a wonderful smoky flavor and was some of the best salsa verde I've had.
There's a small bar area behind the front counter at Centro and they make all their margaritas from scratch and without soda pop or syrupy fillers. I had to have one of their house margaritas made with Pueblo Viejo blanco tequila and mixed with a house-made citrus juice. The margarita was delicious and I made quick work of it. When I ordered my food, I got a Dos Equis Ambar that they had on tap.
To say the menu at Centro is interesting is an understatement. True to Trisha Arias' need for fresh Mexican-style vegetarian meals, the restaurant featured items such as nachos topped with cauliflower florets, black beans, and fried jalapeños; a vegetarian burrito with black beans, lime-cilantro rice, sautéed onions and bell peppers, and guacamole; and sweet potato enchiladas.
For those wishing to add some protein to the offerings at Centro, they offered a fresh salmon tostada, and a marinated flank steak with charred cauliflower florets as appetizers. The "Barba dilla" was their house quesadilla featuring beef barbacoa with cheese, chopped red onions and cilantro. Halal-style chicken tinga was also available to add to many items on the menu, as well as pork carnitas, or a lime-cilantro grilled chicken breast.
But I was there for the tacos and I certainly had a choice of some delicious sounding items from the menu. They had a pan-seared Pacific snapper that was dusted with panko crumbs, but at the bottom I noticed that you could also get the fish grilled and without the panko crumbs. That was one that I ordered. The grilled fish taco was topped with red cabbage, an ancho ranch habanero-honey drizzle, and finished with hibiscus-pickled onions and cilantro.
My second choice for a taco was easy - the pork carnitas. That came with chopped cilantro and red onions, a dusting of cotija cheese, sliced radishes, and a smoky cascabel pepper salsa.
For my third taco, I was torn between the beef barbacoa and the carne asada taco. Both came with premium Black Angus beef as the barbacoa was slow-braised, while the carne asada was flat-top grilled. I decided upon the barbacoa taco as it cooked in a guajillo chile adobo sauce and Dos XX Ambar beer, then topped with chopped red onions and cilantro, and finished with a melted cheese crust. A small tube of avocado salsa came on the side with the three tacos that were served on a small metal plate.
Actually, I probably should have gotten the carne asada taco as I wasn't all that enamored with the barbacoa taco. To me, it just seemed a bit lifeless in taste. I didn't seem to get the pizazz I was looking for from the adobo sauce and while it was still good, I was sort of "meh!" about the barbacoa taco.
But I can't say that about the carnitas taco. It was excellent. The pork was succulent and tasty, and the cascabel salsa was a great compliment to the delicious pork flavor. Hands down, this was the best taco of the three.
The grilled fish taco was somewhere in the middle. Probably closer to the carnitas taco on my "favorite's" scale, not much higher than the barbacoa taco. The snapper was light and flaky, but the ancho ranch habanero-honey drizzle didn't do much to enhance the flavor and there was a little too much chopped red cabbage on the taco. Still, it was pretty good as far as fish tacos go.
The whole time I was at Centro Neighborhood Kitchen, there were people coming and going - either picking up to-go orders, or coming in for a nice lunch. It was certainly a popular place and the food that I had was the major reason why. I shouldn't downplay the barbacoa tacos as they were still pretty good. I just felt the grilled fish tacos were better and the carnitas taco stomped on both with how wonderful the braised pork shoulder tasted in the taco. The house-made margarita was also outstanding, and the tag-team service I received from Aliyah and her male counterpart was friendly and prompt. Centro Neighborhood Kitchen was a good and interesting find during my time in the Pacific Northwest.