Mariscos Chapala

I’ll update as I visit more. I popped in a couple of weeks ago for a to go order. Ordered the enchiladas and Chili Verde. The kid liked the enchiladas okay but she didn’t eat them right away and had reheated them. They did look yummy. The Chili Verde was delicious. The pork was moist and tender and the sauce had a good spicy kick.
I will be back to try other items on the menu.

The menu has a mix of cooked and uncooked seafood. Overall very good food. Service was great too.
If you’re coming to dine late at night, best to call ahead to see if the kitchen is still open.

Mariscos Chapala is definitely a pretty interesting place. One half of the space is a bar with pool tables divided by a wall, the other, a tiny hole in the wall sit down restaurant.
If you want a cheap lunch you can’t beat $ 5 lunch plate specials.
But on the recommendation to visit this place, I came for the seafood. They serve fish 4 different ways here — deep fried, deep fried in red sauce, deep fried in hot sauce, and deep fried Veracruz style. I ordered a deep fried red snapper in a Veracruz sauce (white wine and ranchero sauce). Kind of reminds me of a sweet and sour sauce and it lacked heat. Served on a plate of beans, salad, and Mexican rice, the fish was crispy on the outside, soft and fleshy on the inside, topped with peppers, onions, and jalepenos. I probably should have stuck with ordering a tilapia instead, since the bones are much easier to pick through and less sharp.
I might be inclined to try the shrimp next time I’m here. They offer up an entire page of shrimp plates with pictures. I don’t really think you need to know a lot of Spanish to come here; the menu has pictures you can point to, and I found the staff friendly and able to speak English.
I came back a few weeks later on the recommendation to try the seafood soup. It was a cold Saturday night, so it was definitely appropriate for the occasion. I also had a carne asada taco. The salsa tastes fresh. Or fresher than most places I’ve been to. The taco had lots of lettuce and cheese. The beef was well seasoned and cooked just right, juicy, and not dry and tough. But I really came here for the seafood. It’s a huge bowl. Like Phở L or XL sized bowl. The broth was fairly neutral, maybe a clam broth or something? The soup had scallops, monkfish, crab legs, clams, squid, octopus, shrimp, I am sure I am forgetting stuff. Just enormous volume of seafood and soup.

There aren’t many places open late in my area, other than your Del Taco, Rigobertos (blah), Pepe’s, and Jack in the Box. When not in the mood for greasy taco’s, or burgers at the local fast food places, I head here for a Campechana or Shrimp Cocktail, not too heavy. It’s not like an «American» one, but rather what you would expect at a marisco’s place, freshly chopped onions, cucumber, avocado and shrimp. I always tend to add a few, ok, more like ¼ the bottle of Cholula or Tapatio in it to give it that extra kick. I like to eat mine with lots of crackers, and they definitely provide enough for me. They have a decent selection of food items from your mojarra frita to your caldo’s. Their shrimp soup was ok, just needs a little more flavor, but that’s what the cholula was for :-/​…
Place is interesting. On one side is the sit down restaurant, and on the other side, you got your bar where arriving on a Friday or Saturday night, you just might get some live entertainment, a DJ one night and a live band on another. In the bar area, they have a few plasma screens to watch a Futbol game. Not a bad place to go to when you have a late night craving for some Marisco’s, and I’m not talking the fish sandwich from Jack in the crack…

Most Mexican restaurants will ask you «corn or flour?» Mariscos Chapala asks «tortillas or garlic bread?» — YES, Garlic Bread… WTF?
Make no mistake about it, this is not El Torito… in fact you may need to order en español…
Hunting for somewhere to eat around 9PM, I was suprised to find many area restaurants already closed for the evening. Remembering that Mariscos Chapala is open until 1AM nightly, I headed there for a better night. Mariscos Chapala features a dining area and then a separate bar with 2 pool tables, TV, a CD jukebox, etc… I usually dine in the bar area.
Last night I ordered the Campechana (Shrimp & Octopus Coctail). It arrived to the table in clear juices with a ¼ filled bottle of Tapatio. Hoping for a lil’ more kick, I asked for something ‘mas picante’…I was given a nearly empty bottle of Cholula. I finished it within seconds and asked for more… The waitress said that was all they had. Now, this is not some tiny kitchen here, I would expect they would have more Cholula, and in fact have more choices… more salsas, etc…
Re: salsa, I think they use the same jar that my mom used to… shame, I wish this otherwise decent Mexican restaurant/​bar would start bringin’ the heat!
$ 4 beers, foreign & domestic…