La Casita Mexicana is pretty good, but not the best by a motherfucking longshot!

Don't get me wrong, this place is wonderful, but not exactly the holy grail, especially if: 1) You happen to be Mexican and someone in your family is a good cook. 2) You are married to a Mexican whose family cooks well. 3) You know someone who is Mexican and is a good home cook and they had you over 4) You have traveled in Mexico and eaten a lot of good food (both street and restaurant food). The ingredients and the overall quality of this place are much higher than let's say 90% of Mexican places in the county, but it is by no means the #1 best. I read some article in LA Magazine, I think it was, that rated this place #1 in LA. No way, cocksuckers. (I use the term "cocksuckers" affectionately) I had the cecina, chorizo, and asada combination plate with beans, rice, and a bit of cactus salad. I enjoyed it, but the meat was a little cold. The melted queso appetizer was good, but consisted of queso de Oaxaca with a bit of chorizo in there. Nice for folding up into a tortilla, but you can put something like this together for a couple of bucks at home. Homemade tortillas here rock but they would rock if you ate them on the moon. The salsa? Competent and hot. The chips with moles served to you at the outset were my favorite part of the entire meal. My wife got the mole combination. Nice depth in all of the moles, but Guelaguetza is a couple of blocks from me and significantly better in the mole department. I bet that fat ass Rizzo and all of his cronies used to eat here before they were humbled by scandal. I could just imagine him stuffing chips topped with mole in his greedy mouth and paying for it with a city credit card while the owners preen around. The place serves good but not great homemade Mexican food but there is no way in the Wide World of Sports that I would go out of my way to eat here again. Even at the risk of tooting her goddamn horn, my wife cooks way better food than the people in this kitchen.

Tacos Baja Ensenada Sells the Best Fish Tacos in Southern California

Looking for a place to feed your starving family for around ten bucks a head after you run trails all morning? The Baja Burrito is an outstanding buy at $6.50 and you would have to be quite a trencherman to finish it. It is stuffed with crispy batter fried fish and shrimp, beans made with lard, rice, cabbage, crema and salsa. With the roasted yellow chilies, this is a formidable burrito. The tacos are equally fantastic, whether they are fish, shrimp or Baja's (fish AND shrimp in a flour tortilla). The shrimp ceviche is well seasoned and delicious and only $2.99. The Campechana, while some of the seafood is from a can, is tasty nonetheless. The only item that I have not found to be top notch is the shrimp quesadilla. The fish tacos in Ensenada that you probably grew up on if you are from Southern California are better, but if this place had access to the same fresh fish right from the bay, they would give those street vendors down there a run for their money. The place can get crowded but they keep the line moving pretty quick.

Baja Fish

Personally, I wish I could flip a switch and make the South Bay disappear. I despise everything that Manhattan Beach stands for and many of the people who live there. Give me Pedro over Manhattan, Hermosa or Redondo any day of the week, but all these places suck. There are some good things about Pedro, such as 22nd Strret Landing fishing, and Baja Fish. The Mexican Seafood at this place is competent, fresh, cooked to order, and the price is right. I get the grilled tuna burrito and a cocktail with octopus and shrimp under normal circumstances when I come here. There is a salsa bar, and the sauces are pretty good. I have sampled most of the items on the menu here with the exception of the soups. Every single time I have come here, I have been exceedingly happy with the food. You just order at the counter and you pick up your food when the order is ready. The employees here are friendly and efficient. The freshness of the fish is readily apparent to me when I look at it on the ice in the display case. They offer a great deal on the yellowfin burrito with fresh avocado, rice and beans. You will fill up here for ten bucks a person. It is worth the drive for me!

Ciro's Restaurant: A lot of #1 and #2. Mostly #2.

THE GOOD The beer is cold, the chips and free avocado salsa rock. The salsa roja is hot and tasty. The service here is outstanding. No problems here. There are things that cannot be fucked up here like the flautas, and the chorizo and egg burrito. The flautas here are the gold standard, thin, crisp taquitos with a little bit of shredded beef with avocado salsa, and crema. Unfortunately, they do not compensate for overall poor quality of the food they served to me the last couple of times I came in. THE BAD The quality of the food here is going downhill pretty quick. The steak picado used to be pretty damn good. Not the last couple of times I have been here. Instead of steak, I was served sinew fried with onions and peppers. The cheese in the enchilada plate is not melted. Please put them back in the oven and serve them when they are ready. THE FUGLY Fuck nostalgia when you order a fried taco plate and there is enough grease on the plate to lube your car. The cook here needs to lift the fucking basket up from the deep fryer and drain the lard from the goddamn tacos before he puts them on the plate. This place gets nearly 3 stars, almost as good as El Tepeyac across the street, but not quite.