Adam B.
Yelp
Am I glad that we decided to give this place a try. For years, it was a nightclub called "Cancun", but it was so rowdy that the landlords said to change it or leave. A year ago, they converted it into an authentic Mexican Seafood restaurant, in the style of Los Cabos, on Mexico's West coast. What we found was a perfectly respectable family restaurant with a nearly 100% Latino clientele, and servers who could not have been more nice or more welcoming. The interior is casual, but definitely not a hole-in-the-wall. I'd have no problem bringing my parents here.
As soon as you are seated, everybody gets a free tostada, piled with shedded marlin, with lime, tomatoes and onions, as a welcome gift. I didn't see baskets of chips, with salsa, but it's a good trade.
We got a round of frozen margaritas, a couple of apps, and two entrees. When we ordered the margaritas, our waitress offered us a rainbow of flavors to choose from, on the rocks or frozen. We went with traditional lime, and frozen. I asked for no salt on mine, and was offered a sugar rim instead, which I declined. Very accommodating. What I didn't realize was that they were available in two sizes - regular for $9.99 and "grande" for $12.99 (see the drinks menu I included, and don't confuse it with a Margarona, which is half frozen margarita and half Carona beer). Now, take a look at the picture of our drinks after we had been drinking from them for a while. They came full to the brim. For scale, that lime on the side is a center slice from a full-sized lime. It takes two hands to lift them. We thought that we must have been given the large, but when the bill came, they turned out to be the regular size. The mind boggles at what the grande must be like. I have visions of a margarita-filled bird bath.
For apps, we ordered the shrimp and cheese empanadas (also pictured), and a single campechano taco (also pictured). The empanadas are fairly small, and taste like shrimp and cheese, and are served with a nice slice of avocado and a little dish of green salsa that could take the paint off your bumper (used sparingly, it's delicious). They were good, but perhaps not worth their price.
On a return visit, we had the guacamole, with optional chopped jalapenos. It was superb.
The taco was the 4" mini-taco variety, rather than the standard 6" one. The corn tortillas it was served on had been grilled on the flat-top until slightly crispy, making them so they did not fall apart when you tried to eat them. The filling, which I believe is a mixture of carne asada and al pastor, was a bit dry. I wanted to see how the tacos were, and this one didn't make me think that I'd be coming here just for tacos. On a return visit, we tried the carne asada and found the meat to be tough and bland. Frankly, had the tacos been competitive with the best ones from taquerias, my review would be 5 stars.
We have had grilled octopus al "ajillo" (with garlic, butter, sliced chiles and onions) in Puerto Vallarta that still haunts my dreams. The grilled octopus ("pulpo a la brasa") in the seafood section of the menu comes with hot sauce, garlic, salt & pepper. We ordered instead "al mojo de ajo", with garlic butter, which I think was the equivalent of omitting the hot sauce. It's not that I don't like hot sauce; just that I was trying to get close to that Puerto Vallarta experience, and boy on boy, did they! It was fantastic, with a really big helping of perfectly grilled octopus that managed to avoid being either slimy or rubbery, with so much garlic butter that vampires for miles around had a bad night. Take a look at the picture and use the wrapped dinner fork for scale. That plate is probably 14" on a side. It came with salad, which I will omit next time, crispy French fries, rice and a nice piece of grilled garlic bread. You can mix the rice with the garlic butter, if you'd like. The shrimp and several of the fish are also available "al mojo de ajo"; so, this request was easily accommodated.
Finally, my wife ordered off the ceviche section of the menu, choosing the house special "los cabos" ceviche, with shrimp, fish, octopus, tomato, onion and cucumber. This ceviche was among the best we've had. Again, it's hard to tell scale in my picture, but that's a full-size dinner plate, and that's the smallest of three sizes. It is served with sliced avocados, tostadas, and crackers, on which you can pile the ceviche. You could also order ceviche with just shrimp or just octopus. You can order a single ceviche tostada from the Tostadas section of the menu, if you just want to try it.
The menu is extensive, with sections of land food, soups, salads, wings & pasta, in addition to page after page of seafood. Prices may seem high, but they're a great value when you consider how much fresh and delicious seafood you are getting. We saw many groups sharing large platters of seafood, which looked amazing. We will definitely be back often.
