Roberto's Taco Shop (Mission Beach)

Roberto's Taco Shop
3202 Mission Boulevard
San Diego, CA 92109
(858) 488-1610
Roberto's Taco Website
Overall Fish Taco Rating: 9.5

Overview:Roberto's Taco Shop is a little corner Mexican place near the beach in Mission Beach, and oddly located next door to about 17 other Mexican places. But in this market, its location, location, location...
Our Ratings:

CHRISTOPHER: I stumbled over to this place drunk one night after seeing an Oingo Boingo tribute band playing at Soundwave in Mission Beach, and I was hungry for...what else?...a fish taco. I decided to mix it up and ordered a fish taco and a crispy shrimp taco (I was feeling drunk and experimental). While the crispy shrimp taco was quite good, it was the fish taco that rocked my casbah. The fish was moist and flaky even though it was deep fried, and the cheese and lettuce was a nice compliment but not too much. However, what really threw me was the tartar sauce instead of ranch...and it was a powerful tartar sauce too...with chunks of relish which gave the taco a completely whole-mouth feel: it was sweet, a little spicy, salty...it had everything your mouth could ever want.

Now, the reason I gave it a 9.5 instead of a 10 is that I acknowledge that I was drunk at the time, and everything is "OHMYGODTHISISTHEGREATESTTHINGIVEEVERHADINMYLIFEYOUGOTTATRYTHISRIGHTNOWBUYLIKEAHUNDREDOFTHEMFORALLMYFRIENDS!", so I am leaving a margin of error of my decision making process at the time, which can and will be retested at a later date.

Stout Public House

Stout Public House
1125 6th Avenue
San Diego, CA 92101
(619) 702-7933
Stout Public House


Overall Fish Taco Rating: 1

Overview:
Stout Public House is my favorite place in San Diego to watch hockey games, drink Molson Canadian and chum around with the few other hockey fans in San Diego. The bar is owned by a guy from Vancouver and is stocked with plenty of Vancouver Canucks jerseys to give the place a hockey bar sorta feel. How could they possibly do any wrong?

The Deets:
Horrible. The fish was uber-frozen and had the texture of chewing on a sock. The cabbage was too rubbery, and there was really no sauce or salsa to speak of, so it was like chewing on a sweaty white gym sock. I ate about two bites and sent it back and made a mad dash to the bathroom. The staff was nice enough to remove it from my bill and say, "This never happened." I have yet to go back for fish tacos again, but they'll still have me for hockey games...where I'll order the buffalo wings instead.

Our Ratings:
CHRISTOPHER: 1
DARREN: N/A (yet)

Side note added by Darren:
Yaknow, I'm actually from Vancouver and I can tell you something with complete honesty; Mexican food is not a forte of my people. Now, smoked salmon they do. Really well! I recall during a particular visit up there when a few friends and I tried out a "Mexican" restaurant near UBC. Everything on the menu had a Mexican (or at least a Spanish-sounding) name. However, when I bit into my fish quesadilla, I experienced... wait for it... smoked salmon, arugula, chives, and some kind of mayo sauce. There might even have been a spicy dijon mustard in there. Make no mistake, it was deelish! But it was about as Mexican as bagpipes.