San Diego Mexican Food Reviews

5185 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92117
(858) 715-6773 (map)

When people tell me San Diego food sucks due to the lack of great mom&pop shops I know they aren't eating much Mexican food. Because the number of great family places is impressive here. Take Cockteleria La Playita for example. Tiny little shop, not much more than a counter, an old homestyle stove, and a guy cooking.

Seafood is the only thing on the menu here. Cocktails, ceviche, tacos, and larger dinners. It all gets cooked right in front of you on the previously mentioned stove.

Perhaps the stove deserves it's own paragraph. It's hard to believe a restaurant could work with a rickety electric stove like the one you might have at home. But if you think about it, this place is small, so four burners is enough. And with only fresh seafood on the menu you don't want to mess with it too much, so simple preparation is best. And, frankly, it's cool. I sit down at the counter, order my gobernador, and there it is being made three feet away. Anyway.... I thought it was cool.

Prices are reasonable. $3 for a gobernador taco. $5 for a ceviche tostada. Portion sizes seemed about average. The ceviche portion in the photo above is not correct. It looked so good I ate 1/3 of it before remembering to take a photo.

Everything was fresh and tasted great. Simple and delicious. I'd have to rate the gobernador taco lower than the Mariscos German version, mainly due to portion size, but then it was also cheaper so maybe that evens it up a bit. The ceviche was some of the best I've ever had. The scallops were raw just seconds before I got the plate, and were sweet and fresh. The fish taco wasn't really to my liking. It's very well made with plenty of good fish, but they used lettuce rather than cabbage and the fish was breaded rather than battered.

The seafood cocktails looked really good, but I didn't have room for one so that will have to wait for another visit.

Plenty of parking. Friendly folks. Quality fish. Clean yet casual. The menu is small, but you're only going for a few simple fish items anyway so that's not a problem at all.