FISH TACO BLOG

This trendy SoHo taqueria/swank eatery has been on the top of my list for quite awhile and didn’t disappoint. The grilled fish (served with skewer), shredded cabbage, and spicy salsa verde of their “Pescado a las Brasas” is the perfect summer snack. Normally I favor fried fish in my fish taco, but this skewer grilled morsal is making me reconsider my point of view. Only downside is the $3.95 each price tag and limited seating of the Taqueria – the next door cafe and downstairs brasserie fare slightly better in that regard.

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The Mermaid Inn, one of three Mermaid Inn/Oyster Bar locations from Cindy Smith and Danny Abrams, is a warm yet trendy East Village seafood outpost. They also have grilled mahi mahi fish tacos on their Tuesday specials list, when they are available for $6 apiece. Unfortunately these fish tacos are more seafood dish than fish taco. The taco consisted of a corn tortilla, grilled mahi mahi, chipotle sauce, guacamole, and pico de gallo. With the grilled fish, the excess of guacamole, and without the necessary cabbage, the texture of the taco leaves much to be desired. Grilled fish isn’t the end of the world as long as there’s some cabbage there to balance out the mush. Taste was good, but I was sentenced to a knife a fork when most of the mush pushed out the other side on my first bite. Bummer.

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Chat ‘N’ Chew, the kitschy diner/restaurant off of union square is a great place to warm up from the cold and enjoy a can of PBR and some comfort food. Unfortunately, their Fish Tacos could use some work. The homemade tortilla was a good effort, but perhaps a little over cooked. Like eating your fish tacos wrapped in a limp tortilla chip. There was also a red (possibly ranchero) sauce covering the fish that tasted like a blend between marinaraand ketchup that really had no reason to be there. On the up side, the pico de gallo and white saucewere served on the side, allowing me to portion those as wanted. The fish was thick and decent tasting – possibly catfish. May be better to stick to the “thanksgiving on a bun” dish instead.

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Cafe Habana is a very popular micro-chain with famously delicious roast corn on the cob. I noticed during my most recent visit that there were Baja style fish tacos on the menu as well.

According to the menu, the tacos are “beer battered catfish, served with fresh tomato salsa and your choice of rice and beans.” Notice anything missing? Well cabbage was included, even though it wasn’t quoted on the menu, but the tacos really missed the presence of the typically included white sauce. Otherwise, I was impressed with the cooking of the not-too-crispy catfish, and the large side of included rice and beans. Perfect? No. But good certainly, and the Cafe Habana did have Tapatio on-hand to spice things up a bit.

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Baja Fresh comes to New York City! There are two locations in Manhattan, one on Broadway and another on Lexington in midtown, serving up California Mexican to the masses. With roughly 300 locations of Baja Fresh around the country, it would be easy to outright dismiss its fish tacos, but given the lack of good lunch food in my area I thought I would give it a go.

Baja Fresh’s fish tacos are made with fried mahi mahi (grilled upon request), cabbage, pico de gallo, white sauce, and served with a slice of lime on the side. After a brief walk back to the office, the fish was still fairly crispy, though the rectangular stick shape of the fish sticks is a little off-putting. The taco is nicely balanced with the perfect quantity of each ingredient present. The corn meal tortillas tasted a little odd – maybe the bulk ordering has resulted in a lower quality tortilla than some other chains. I also had to add a little medium salsa (courtesy of the Baja Fresh salsa bar) to give it some pep. It would have been nice if there was a little spice to begin with.

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Was something missing? That was my main question after sampling the fish tacos at Pinche Taqueria. I suppose there was in fact salsa and guacamole as the menu quoted but it was in such small quality that there might have well been none. The fish was crispy and flavorful, but seemed dry with the lack of topping. Generous Tapatio was needed to balance it out. Previous visits to Pinche Taqueria resulted in a much better experience.

I visited the Layfeyette street location of the Tijuana chain, but there is also a Mott street location in New York. The fish tacos are $3.95 each which is cheap for New York, and Pinche Taqueria is open till 4am on Wed-Sat, making it a great late night snack spot.

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Mama’s Mexican Kitchen is the oldest and one of the best known Mexican restaurants in Seattle, serving up their style of Cal-Mex in a festive atmosphere since 1974. I’ve been eating here all my life, but I’ve never actually tried their fish taco until this day.

On the outside, I have to say that this is the largest fish taco I’ve ever been served – it’s a fish and chips sized fried slab of fish covered with coleslaw, wrapped in a flour tortilla, and joined by a side of pineapple salsa for $5.75. While sizeable, the slaw is off-putting and it contains slices of carrots large enough to choke a 10 year old. The fish is fried heavily and doesn’t do this normally delightful light dish justice. If you’re going to Mama’s get the Burrito Nolasco and a Cadillac Margarita, which are both excellent, and skip the fish taco.

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Yerba Buena is Julian Medina’s East Village Latin bistro. His other restaurant, Toloache, was reviewed earlier and also sports fantastic fish tacos. Yerba Buena’s fish tacos (Tacos del Pescado on the menu) are on both the lunch and dinner menu. The dish features two tacos with crispy fried tilapia, jicama cabbage, and chipotle slaw for $12. Though not as crispy as the similar tacos I had at Toloache, these tacos had pleasant, light spiciness and rich slaw/cabbage topping and came with a side of rice and beans. The amount of tilapia was a little on the light side – slightly more tilapia or even a third taco would have been a perfect portion size.

The brunch also comes with an optional $12 all you can drink for one hour supplement, featuring all the typical brunch drinks and a very tasty Mojito.

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This seems like an obvious flaw, but Lure Fish Bar’s fish tacos were terrible because they were served on hard taco shells (see picture). The verdict’s out on whether these were made in-house, or simply heated up Old El Paso taco shells, but they were bad. The thick shells definitely got in the way of enjoying the delicate grilled Mahi Mahi and pineapple (nice addition) that were inside the taco. Did the kitchen simply run out or soft tacos? Maybe the main chef was on holiday? Unfortunately, a few other Yelp reviews seem to indicate that the hard taco shells were an intentional choice.

The fish tacos are available on the Lunch and Brunch menus and run a hefty $16 for three tacos. Lure still gets 1 start for its nifty I’m on a Yacht decor and otherwise delicious dishes – if you go, order the lobster roll instead.

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Dos Caminos is a longtime brunch favorite of mine, and I decided to finally try the fish tacos at Dos Caminos brunch this past weekend. Brunch at Dos Caminos is served on weekends till four and consists of an entree of the breakfast or lunch persuasion, a margarita or mimosa, and coffee or tea for a very reasonable price. Most brunch dishes fall in the $12-14 range.

The fish tacos were on the menu as “grilled mahi-mahi, spicy slaw, chile aioli, warm flour tortillas”, and there was a little slather of unadvertised guacamole underneath the fish as well. The ingredients and presentation were excellent, but I’m still not a fan or grilled fish on my tacos – the satisfying crispiness of fried fish was sorely missed. Next time I’ll stick to the steak and eggs, or the always excellent quesadilla eggs benedict.

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Toloache, Julian Medina’s midtown mexican hotspot, is nestled on the edge of Times Square. Their fish tacos are some of the better dishes in the area and some of the best fish tacos I’ve tried in New York.

According to the menu, the fish tacos contain “Baja-style tilapia, spicy jicama slaw, and guacamole.” The take-out menu lunch portion has two tacos for $11. The fish was delightfully crispy and generously portioned, almost too large for the taco. Spicyness was mild, but present. The addition of guacamole made the fish want to slip out of the taco, but was tasty nonetheless.

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After living next to Vamos for several years, I thought it was about time I tried their fish tacos. I ordered the appetizer size (2 tacos for $8) of the fish tacos. According to the menu, the fish tacos are “beer battered and crispy fish with habanero aioli, tomatoes and pickled onions.”

Sadly, the tacos don’t live up to the “crispy” description that the menu describes. Also, the tacos were a little on the bland side, despite the generous portion of sauce seen in the photos, forcing me to add a little Acid Rain hotsauce to the mix.

Eating these tacos was certainly better than not eating them, but I wouldn’t order them from Vamos again.

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