For my first time here with an Ethnic Dining Lunch MeetUp, I found my 3 taco lunch special (1 fried shrimp taco, 1 fried catfish taco, 1 shredded beef taco, all topped with diced tomatoes and cabbage), boring and unremarkable, not the 4.5 stars I read. The bottoms of all 3 tacos fell out before I picked them up so had to ask for additional tortillas, even beans and rice, boring. Server said the bottoms fell out because I put salsa in the tacos (I did that because I found the flavor boring). I think my fellow diners liked their selections better than I liked mine. Guy who ordered the "drunken shrimp" (like a cerviche, the shrimp was raw) really loved his order, tho I thought the portion was very small for $16.95. I guess I am comparing that price with AYCE shrimp cooked 5 different ways at an Asian buffet that you can eat for lunch for $8.
Except for the lunch special items, I think the food here is kinda expensive for the building and area, and in some cases, the portion size, like the actual size of the fish fillet on the Veracruz order.
I might come back to try something else, but really I think La Santisma's food just a few doors south on same street and side, is much better in taste, portion size (not talking about beans and rice!), and La Santisma is also 4.5 Yelp stars. I rate LS's food 5 stars, highly recommend the marlin quesadilla (a large empanada sealed and fried), that I made 3 dinners out of. You could make a dinner just out of their 16 kinds of salsa, in the salsa bar, alone. 3 stars for Mariscos Ensenada for the food. La Santisma was on Check Please, recently, too. I'd be interested in people's comparison of LS's food to ME's since both are 4.5 stars.
I rate the service (we had 11 people at our table) today, when restaurant was NOT busy or packed, 1:30 pm, 4 stars.