Su Casa

Su Casa Mexican and Seafood Restaurant
6738 La Jolla Blvd
La Jolla, CA 92037
(858) 454-0369
www.sucasarestaurant.com

Overall Fish Taco Rating: 1.75

Overview:
Su Casa is a family owned restaurant that's kind of a mainstay of the La Jolla/Windansea community. It's known mainly for its fun happy hour atmosphere, 70s style round booths, excellent table-side guacamole and an array of margaritas - some of which really should come with cab ride. It's a great location for a few margis and a walk to the beach afterwards. Most of their food and drinks are pretty good... with a couple notable exceptions. Read on.

The Deets:
Chris and I used to frequent Su Casa years ago and we loved that place like a second home. Ah, those were the days... Sadly, those days are gone. Did ownership change? Did aliens take over their brains? Aliens with really bad ideas about how to make a fish taco? Dunno. But I can no longer stomach that establishment. As Chris points out, the service was poor. Really poor. Zombies on quaaludes are quicker on their feet and exude more enthusiasm. Not sure if they're just understaffed and overworked, but clearly they need to improve in that department. They have both fried and grilled version of their fish tacos; each come with chopped lettuce/cabbage, flower tortillas (I think), which are of the hard 'n crispy variety. We each ordered one grilled and one fried. And then we waited... and waited...

Our Ratings:
CHRISTOPHER: After receiving poor service, I was further depressed by receiving a poor fish taco. I ordered a grilled and a fried one for comparison. The grilled one lacked flavor, leaving me with a taste in my mouth like I just licked a corrugated cardboard box with ranch dressing on it. The corn tortilla was such a black hole of taste, that any flavors within it's proximity were sucked into oblivion creating an gaping chasm of enjoyment in my mouth. The fried fish taco was a slight improvement, but only because the taste of greasy batter was better than licking cardboard. A very underwhelming finish that required a lot of Diet Coke to wash away the stain it left in my soul. I give it a 2.

DARREN: ...When we finally got our fish tacos, we received two grilled fish tacos and two that looked and tasted mysteriously like chicken tacos: this is because they were chicken tacos. Eventually, those were replaced with two fried fish tacos. The "grilled" fish taco should probably be renamed "stewed" fish taco. I didn't sense anything grilled about the fish. It was soupy, soggy and tasteless. The piece of round, stale, brown construction paper claiming to be a tortilla and the massive amount of chopped up other ingredient (I think it was lettuce... not sure) didn't help. Heck, I couldn't even tell if those were corn or flower tortillas. The fried fish taco was definitely fried... but it could have been steamed. It did have batter on it and it did taste slightly better than the "grilled" version, but not by much; it still suffered from the same flavor-eliminating other ingredients. The tortillas on both were over heated and rather inflexible, much like hot, greasy cardboard - not so good in my book. And in just a couple minutes, they began to disintegrate from the soupiness of the fish. My rating on both fish tacos: 1.5.

Not to insult them too badly, as they do have a good atmosphere, excellent guac, great margaritas, and ample parking. Just don't go there for happy hour and expect quick service.

Oh, by the way, the chicken taco wasn't very good either.