Albert T.
Yelp
I originally tried the original Paseo location years ago back before the ownership change and remember having one of the best sandwiches I had ever eaten. Since this Paseo location was conveniently on the drive back from Snoqualmie Falls, we decided to make a stop to see if they could repeat the magic.
Caribbean Roast ($15.70) - Seeing this pricing, I was kind of shocked given how Paseo's competitors in the city are a couple of dollars cheaper. Paseo is a totally different beast nowadays, so perhaps they are riding a bit too much on their past fame to jack up their prices? Still, I gave this sandwich a fair shake. Paseo's hallmark has always been a sandwich dripping with delicious pork juices, a flavor bomb in the mouth. Good sandwich construction is a must, to keep the sandwich intact enough to meld everything together into a delicious bite. This Paseo - Exceptional drippage? Yes. Flavor bomb? A bit, but less complex than the competition. Construction? This sandwich is a disaster.
Let's start with the baguette - it's not toasted nearly enough to redevelop some of the crust and is served lukewarm. The baguette top and bottom are reversed on top of each other. As in the rounded end piece on top of the flat piece on both sides. It makes this dish basically a pork salad with bread on the side. The poor orientation of the baguette slices, combined with the narrowness of the baguette (a hallmark of this sandwich), and the fact that they place the convex side of the lettuce facing the meat, allows everything, and I mean everything, to spill out all along the sides and ends. Upon lifting the sandwich to take my very first bite, three quarters of the ingredients landed on my plate. I'm not sure if this construction was intentional or an oversight.
While the construction is poor, the items inside the sandwich are decent to good. There are onions, sliced into ring pieces instead of eights, with not enough time on the grill to caramelize any of the sugars or to help stick to the sandwich. There's plenty of pork, moist and tender from the juices it soaks in. Decently flavorful, being tangy, slightly sweet, and very savory, but missing some of the mojo/citrusy/garlicky elements. There's garlic mayo, adding fragrance and additional fat and creaminess. There are pickled jalapenos, raising the spice level up just a tad, and boosting the pleasing acidic notes. The one thing Paseo does better than competitors is the amount of meat they add - probably 50% more than other place. The flavors in this sandwich are good enough, but the construction is so terrible that it affects my rating. (3/5)
Tostones ($6.25) - This dish comes with 5 tostones, dusted with a salty seasoning mixture and then drizzled with a smoky and slightly spicy chipotle sauce. The tostones are hard, yet not exhibiting much crunch on the outside, and very dry rather than fluffy on the inside. My first thought was that perhaps these tostones were battered and deep fried given the texture and how there seemed to be an outside coating that didn't make these feel like smashed plantains. Then I re-read the menu - apparently these tostones are double fried, which I guess creates these frankly subpar tostones. (3/5)
Paseo has taken a big step down in the caribbean roast sandwich game. There are now places in Seattle that make a far superior sandwich in both construction and taste, and are cheaper to boot. With that being said, I think this is the only place to get caribbean roast on the Eastside, so location-wise, there's not much competition.
Bathrooms - One unisex room