MARISCOS PUERTO ANGEL
★★★
Address: 16856 Sherman Way, Van Nuys.
Information: 818-988-2700.
Cuisine: Mexican seafood.
When: Lunch and dinner, every day.
Details: Soft drinks. No reservations.
Prices: About $15 per person.
Cards: Cash only.
★★★
Address: 16856 Sherman Way, Van Nuys.
Information: 818-988-2700.
Cuisine: Mexican seafood.
When: Lunch and dinner, every day.
Details: Soft drinks. No reservations.
Prices: About $15 per person.
Cards: Cash only.
There are intersections in the Valley, many of them, that bring me unexpected joy just by being so … madly diverse. So crazily multi-ethnic. A melting pot with parking that can be filled with contrarian surprises.
Consider, in this case, the crossroad of Balboa Boulevard and Sherman Way in Van Nuys. There’s the always tasty Mexican chain called El Taco Llama, next to a Salvadoran pupusa palace called La Nueva Fogata. Across the street, for those in the mood for a classic Vietnamese banh mi sandwich or three, there’s Lee’s Sandwiches, not far at all from our own In-n-Out Burger, which acolytes on the other coast dream of on wintery nights.
And then, right in the midst of it all, is Mariscos Puerto Angel, an understated Mexican seafood shop that’s easy to miss (or at least was on a recent evening) because the overhead signage wasn’t visible in the gloaming. And yet, there it was, an affable eatery, named for a beach town near Oaxaca, with the motto “Especialista en Mariscos.”
And indeed, this tasty fast-casual restaurant sure is. Indeed, as modest as the place looks, it’s a swell destination for fish, shrimp, shellfish, octopus and more. At prices that cause very little pain at all.
This is the land of Formica tabletops, and a counter where you order your food, as basic as can be. There’s no beer. But there are many soft drinks from Mexico: Fanta, Squirt, Mirinda, a choice of Mexican colas, Sidral, Jarritos sodas, and always tasty horchata, tamarindo and jamaica.
The menu is practically all seafood, except for a green salad, guacamole, papas fritas and the ubiquitous chicken nuggets. And, of course, you get chips and salsa when you sit down — and very good chips and salsa too, with crunchy chips and medium-hot salsa.
Tough to resist
The menu, extensive as it is, inspires a fair amount of excessive ordering. Did I need both a ceviche and a seafood cocktail? Not really, since they’re close culinary cousins. But the prices are so good, I couldn’t resist. Many of the cocktails run from $6.49 for a medium up to $8.99 for a large, way below the usual price. The shrimp ceviche is $4.49 for a medium, $6.99 for a large. At prices like this, the question is why not? As long as you still carry cash with you. (No cards, sorry.)
You can get half a dozen raw oysters for $5.99, and a dozen for $10.99, a price I haven’t seen in years. For the same price, there are pata de mula, which translates as “mule’s foot” and is also known as a “blood clam” because of the red color of its liquor, a shellfish not often found in LA. But here it is. You can get it in a cocktail as well as raw on the half shell. For those of us who like our seafood uncooked, this is a bit of heaven.
And for those who need a modicum of heat, no worries. The fish tacos served here, utterly greaseless and very tender, make me wonder what I’ve been eating in the multitude of “I Heart Fish Tacos” joints out there. Ditto the tostadas, topped here with shrimp, octopus and a mix of fish and shellfish. The experience is one of eating the real deal, the food found at a really good casual fish house way south of the border that gives you an idea of how unfortunately Americanized so much of what we eat can be.
Bigger plates
Though it’s easy, and tempting, to eat small dishes here, there are 18 plates as well, all served with rice, fries and salad, built around a nicely cooked bit of seafood: lots of shrimp dishes (the shrimp in garlic sauce is about as good as it gets, the grilled shrimp blessedly undercooked), up to big combos like the shrimp, octopus, abalone and clams, which at $10.99 doesn’t seem entirely possible.
But if you have a yearning, do get one of the big caldos, soup-stews packed with much of the menu, from a simple fish soup, up to a Seven Seas Soup that covers all bases.
Do be careful with the crab legs, which can splatter and leave stains that don’t wash out with ease, if at all. It’s a small price to pay for a dish that offers a lot of pleasure, in turn, for a small price.
Merrill Shindler is a Los Angeles-based freelance dining critic. Send him email at mreats@aol.com.
Mariscos Puerto Angel
Rating: 3 stars.
Address: 16856 Sherman Way, Van Nuys.
Information: 818-988-2700.
Cuisine: Mexican seafood.
When: Lunch and dinner, every day.
Details: Soft drinks. No reservations.
Prices: About $15 per person.
Cards: Cash only.
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