Cotixan

Oddly enough, I'm not the world's biggest fan of Mexican food, even though I live in one of the best American cities for it. It's great, but not something I'd want to eat all of the time. However, when I'm in the mood, I definitely head for Cotixan's. I like the branch on Genesee and Balboa, by the Home Depot. We went on Friday night and I'd have to say that the fish tacos are the best I've had. The fish is freshly fried and crispy and the meat is fresh enough that it's possible to really taste the fish, which is tender and buttery. It's hard to wring a lot of flavor out of white fish (cod?) that usually used for frying, but Cotixan either fries it really well or uses really fresh fish. Or both. The fried fish is placed into two corn tortillas, fresh green and red cabbage, and a light mayo-based sauce. Unlike Rubio's fish tacos (very good, but now #2 on the list), the fish isn't dominated by the sauce.

Their other dishes are very good. Our meal included two hard tacos, one beef and one potato. The taco shell is fried and filled with the filling, cheese, and lettuce. The beef one looked good, but a little sparse on the beef. I had to lift half the lettuce and cheese up to see which one it was. The potato was mixed with mayo, which killed it a bit, but overall, it was decent. We also had the cheese enchiladas, which are smothered with red sauce, cheese, and lettuce. It's easy to OD on the cheese, but the dish is pretty good.

The restaurant is basic, with counter service, self-service drink machines, and bottle of red and green salsas you can take to your table. I usually have a bottle of green sauce on hand to add to everything. Tomatillo (green sauce) salsa is my favorite... it's spicy and tart and doesn't have the acidity that tomato based salsa have. Tomatillos are in the same family as tomatoes, but a different genus, according to Wikipedia.

Service is brisk and efficient and pricing is great. With all of the Mexican restaurants to choose from here, this one tends to stand out from the rest.