New Menu Items at Rubio's Fresh Mexican Grill

Rubio's Fresh Mexican Grill

25482 Marguerite Parkway

Mission Viejo, CA 92692

Fish seems to be everywhere these days. Looking through the coupons we receive in the mail, it seems like almost all fast food and casual places are really pushing the fish items on their menus. Even the supermarkets feature fish on the front pages of their ads. Of course this happens every year during Lent. The time of year when an estimated 78 million Catholics forgo meat on Fridays, and instead turn to seafood. This has to be a big time of year for restaurants that are always about seafood. So it makes sense that fish focused restaurants roll out new or special items to entice diners during their busiest time of  the year. We were recently invited to try some new items at one of our favorite fast casual seafood restaurants, Rubio's Fresh Mexican Grill.

I guess it has been a long time since we had been to Rubio's. Before we moved at the first of the year, we were regulars at the Rubio's by our old place. Now that we are all settled into our new digs, we have been busy exploring the restaurants in our new area. It's now time to turn our attention back to some of our old favorites, like Rubio's.

Things have changed a little at Rubio's since our last visit. Food doesn't come on paper plates anymore, and they have real utensils. Not only is this classing up the joint, but it's also all part of Rubio's commitment to be socially responsible. Whether it is using sustainable seafood, printing menus on recycled paper, or becoming more involved in the community, Rubio's really wants to improve the quality of life in the communities that they serve, as well as provide quality food. By getting rid of the paper plates, they are helping keep the landfills clear. They are also focused on bringing us high quality seafood, like Regal Springs tilapia.

Regal Springs is a company based in Indonesia that wants to produce the best tasting tilapia in the world, but wants to do it in a responsible way. These tilapia are grown in deep reservoirs in Mexico, Honduras, and Indonesia. The fish are only fed the highest quality of food, and the water is monitored to insure that it is free of chemicals and contaminants at every stage of the operation. Rubio's had introduced  the Regal Springs Tilapia Taco earlier, and it was such a hit, they decided they had to use this special tilapia in other menu items. So Rubio's co-founder, Ralph Rubio, and his culinary team got to work on creating two new dishes utilizing the tilapia. Let's see what we have been missing at our local Rubio's of late.

All this build up about the tilapia, and we start off with the Guacamole and Chips ($1). In the five years that Katie and I have been together, I have not known her to miss out on ordering guacamole at Rubio's. Their guacamole is very natural, not overly seasoned, and goes great over the tortilla chips that are prepared fresh daily. I always manage to steal a little guacamole for my tacos, but that's my secret.

See I told you we would eventually get to the tilapia portion of this post. I'm not much into salads, and this would be Katie's first time having a salad at Rubio's, but it will not be her last after having this Chipotle Orange Salad ($7.79). This salad combined spring and butter lettuce, fire roasted corn, avocado, black beans, mandarin oranges, your choice of grilled or blackened Regal Springs tilapia, and finished with a chipotle orange vinaigrette. Katie really liked the contrasts in this fresh salad. She went with the blackened tilapia here, which went nicely with the cool citrus dressing. The tilapia was prepared well, very tender, and they were very generous with the amount used in this salad. Katie also wanted me to mention that she enjoyed the numerous layers of textures in this as well. Even though I am not much of a salad guy, I could not resist poking my fork in her bowl to have a few bites of this salad.

I believe that burritos are definitely one of the hardest foods to photograph well. They almost always look the same, and they never look as good as they taste. This Regal Springs Tilapia Burrito ($7.69) definitely tasted good. I was a little unsure that this burrito would fill me up, but it was jam packed with guacamole, Mexican rice, fire roasted corn, cilantro, onion, red and green cabbage, a creamy chipotle sauce, and of course Regal Springs tilapia. With so many ingredients used in this, I was a little afraid that the tilapia would get lost here, but it definitely made its presence known. I lamented the fact that I did not get the tilapia blackened, but the Diablo Salsa, from Rubio's great salsa bar, provided more than enough heat to satisfy any heat seeker.

Since we were here, we also had to try the item that got Rubio's creative juices going with their tilapia obsession, the Regal Springs Tilapia Two Taco Plate ($7.69). I thought I was going to miss the crunch of the Original Fish Taco, but that was not the case here. The great flavor of this taco was guaranteed with the inclusion of a creamy chipotle sauce, salsa fresca, a Serrano slaw, and of course the Regal Springs tilapia. The grilled fish option provided a nice smokiness to the fish, that was not as evident in the burrito. I was a little sad that I had to share the other taco with Katie, as I could have made quick work of both of these tacos.

After this little nudge to come back to Rubio's, I am sure we will become regulars at our new location in no time. I definitely noticed that this location did a booming carry out business during our 7PM visit. I also noticed that the employees here made the rounds to all the customers in the dining room, asking if we needed anything, and if everything was all right. Kind of made you feel like you were eating at a full service restaurant, while not paying for it. At this time of year, when everyone is looking for seafood, it's good to know that Rubio's is doing things the right way, and making food that tastes great too.

We would like to thank everyone at our local Rubio's Fresh Mexican Grill for making us feel so welcome, and providing us with a great meal. We would also like to thank the fantastic Danielle Solich for this great opportunity to experience these new menu items at Rubio's.

For more information about Rubio's, including your nearest location, click here: http://www.rubios.com/

An Old Favorite, Rubio's - CLOSED

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/