Rubio's Fresh Mexican Grill
23981 Alicia Parkway
Mission Viejo, CA 92691
In Southern California, it is almost a requirement to love fish tacos. Like having a tan in February, enjoying high-speed chases on the news, and seeing celebrities at your local Starbucks, fish tacos are a way of life in Southern California. Tons of fish tacos dot menus from the Mexican border to points far north. Fish tacos can be found in restaurants that are holes in the walls, all the way up to some of the highest-end places to grab a bite. A quick Yelp search of fish tacos around my city yielded over 90 matches. Wow, if I want to hit them all, I have some eating to do.
Rubio's Fresh Mexican Grill is one fish taco place I am very familiar with. I was thrilled when they invited us in to have dinner. We may have Rubio's at least once a month. That might not seem like a lot, but writing this blog, we rarely visit the same restaurant twice. This location of Rubio's is right by the house, so it is always convenient to grab food on the way home from work or when we are out running errands.
Rubio's was one of the innovators that brought the fish taco to the masses. Starting in 1983, Ralph Rubio and his father, Ray, opened a walk-up stand in the Mission Bay area of San Diego. The story goes that while Ralph was in college, he made frequent trips down to the beach areas of Mexico and fell in love with fish tacos. After college, he opened his first fish taco restaurant, which became so popular that Rubio's expanded to three stores rather quickly. Today, there are close to 200 locations scattered across five western states.
We got to Rubio's Mission Viejo location at about 6PM on a cold winter night (okay, not that cold, but cold for California). The story of Rubio's was plastered on one wall, along with signs indicating how far Mexican beach cities were away from us. Just looking at the sign made us long for warmer weather. After ordering at the counter, we went to the salsa bar. They had four salsas available the night we were there. Tomatillo, Mild Salsa, Roasted Chipotle, and my favorite, the spicy Picante. No matter what salsa you choose, it will have a pop of flavor. I like the Picante because it adds a lot of heat, but you can still taste the food. It wakes up your taste buds so you can enjoy your meal. Speaking of which, our food was brought to our table, and it was time to dig in.
Reliable Katie usually gets the same thing every time we come to Rubio's, the Two Taco Fish Plate. She does change up the kinds of tacos she gets, though. Katie felt an Original Fish Taco and an Avocado Corn Fish Taco that night. She really likes that you can get two different tacos with two different tastes here. The original fish taco is a classic. It has a white sauce, mild salsa, and cabbage wrapped around a corn tortilla. The beer-battered Alaskan Pollock is fried perfectly. Crisp on the outside and flaky inside. Improving the original fish taco is hard, but Katie liked the Avocado Corn Taco even better. This taco came with the same beer-battered fish but added a creamy chipotle sauce, cilantro, cotija cheese, a fresh avocado wedge, and a corn-based salsa. Katie liked the freshness of the taco fillings here, and the tomatillo salsa from the salsa bar really pushed the flavor quotient up. She was also impressed by the portion size of this dinner. It really filled her up.
During our visit, it was Langostino lobster season at Rubio's. Who could pass this up? Not me, for sure. I took full advantage of this limited-time offering by getting a Langostino Lobster Taco and a Langostino Lobster Burrito. Both were very good. The taco could have had more wild-caught langostino lobster in it for my taste, but they could probably put six pounds of the langostino in there for me, which would not be enough. The langoustine lobster there was very rich and went well with the creamy chipotle sauce, the handmade guacamole, the salsa fresca, and the red and green cabbage. The tortilla was a little on the rubbery side but did its job of holding the ingredients of the taco together. I devoured this rather quickly. The burrito was filled with the same fillings as the taco, but rice and pinto beans were added. I thought this burrito had too much rice, but the sweet, rich langostino shined through it. This good-sized burrito did a great job of quenching my hunger.
Rubio's really heated us up on this cold winter night. We left feeling very full and satisfied with our meals. It is visits like these that Rubio's has made it into our rotation of restaurants that we frequent. We have never had a favorable experience here, and the food always hits the spot. The menu always features a rotating selection of specials, termed "featured catches." This helps make every visit to Rubio's very unique. Of course, the regular menu is always available if you are averse to change like Katie. The service, as usual, was excellent that night. We were greeted warmly, and the food came out very promptly. Another night when Rubio's really hits the spot.
We would like to thank everyone at Rubio's for the opportunity to come in and try their food. We really enjoyed it. We would also like to thank Danielle Solich for contacting us and providing us with this incredible chance to write about Rubio's Fresh Mexican Grill.
For more information about Rubio's, or to find a location near you, click here for their website: http://www.rubios.com/
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