South Beach Bar & Grill
5059 Newport Ave.
Ocean Beach, CA
(619) 226-4577
http://southbeachob.com/
Overall Fish Taco Rating: 8.5
Overview:
South Beach Bar & Grill is, for many San Diegans, the only reason one would go to the hippy-esque community of Ocean Beach (a.k.a., the People's Republic of O.B.). The restaurant/bar is a local icon and a favorite for anyone who likes casual dining and fish tacos. In fact, it's famous for, if anything, it's fish tacos. I have friends living on the east coast who want nothing more than go to South Beach for a couple fish tacos when they visit - it's that popular!
The menue and drink lists are extensive. There are over 25 beers on tap, and a dozen or so wines, not to mention a full bar. They have a dozen types of tacos alone, and several different ways of serving oysters and clams. And, by the way, the oysters here are unexpectedly great. The only problems you'll encounter at this place are that it's often too crowded to find a table, they only take cash (altho, there's a cash machine inside beside the door), and service can be slow when the place is packed - which is almost always. But happy hour starts at 3pm to give you an early start. Quite nice of them.
The Deets:
This place has it right as far as giving you a choice. They're served on a default flour tortilla, with cheese, red cabbage, salso fresca, and white sauce, but you can request corn tortilla. The taco menue is divided into grilled or fried - and the grilled fish really is grilled! Your choices are mahi, wahoo, or shark*. The fried fish taco is pollock only. Unfortunately, we were too stuffed from our generous plate of fried calamari and 16 oz beers to get any different tacos - so this'll have to be divided into Parts 1 & 2.
Our Ratings:
DARREN: I had the grilled wahoo taco. In short, it's really, really good! The fish was perfectly done; very solid and tasty. The salsa and white sauce were just spicy enough - I did not need to add any hot sauce. My only complaint: too much cabbage!!! I had to shovel most of it out to get to the fish, but I didn't mind since it was overall super yummalicious. And then I had cabbage salad ;) The tortilla was obviously fresh and not overcooked or stale at all. Also, I had wished the fish chunks were a tad bigger, but that may have just been because it was soo damn good. I give it 8.5. And I'll definitely have to go back to get the mahi. Oh, and by the way, the fried calamari... amazing!!!
CHRISTOPHER: (needs to go there soon)
*Side note by Darren: Personally, I tend to frown on places that serve shark in any form and I don't eat them; most sharks that are used in the cooking industry are approaching candidacy for the endangered species list (as are sword fish and marlin - I don't eat those either), because they are used in the shark-fin soup industry which is a world-wide problem. They are also caught on longlines that tend to have a lot of bycatch; incidental catching of other species like non-edible fish, sea turtles, dolphins, small whales, seals and sealions, which typically results in injury and often death of the unintended species. However, I like South Beach, so I still go there... I just don't get the shark.
