La Sinaloense Restaurant — Restaurant in California

La Sinaloense is a Spring Valley restaurant where you can taste the storied cuisine of the coastal Mexican state of Sinaloa without the risk of getting shot dead and hung from an overpass. That said, if the food in Sinaloa is as good as what is served here, I am willing to accept that risk. Come at me, narcos! (Just let me finish my meal first, please.)

During my first time in, I had asked my waiter for the restaurant's signature dish, and he indicated it is the "Molcajete Sinaloense." I have had similar seafood molcajete dishes in the past, but nothing as special as what La Sinaloense served me. Here, you will receive the "Death Star" of molcajete de mariscos dishes, as it has destroyed me for all others. Also, even though I ordered the "small size," it was enormous, and could easily feed at least 3 normal people. The gigantic black stone mortar bowl is lined with foil containing a bubbling lava-like tomato and cheese sauce filled with octopus, shrimp, scallops, clams, mussels, and crab, draped with nopales asada and garnished with cilantro, sliced radish, and fresh avocados. The simmering hearty broth tastes as if the ocean has been set afire and reduced with tomato sauce. Before being added to the pot, the shrimp and octopus have been grilled on a plancha to pick up a thick brown crust on one of their sides. It is served with rice, guacamole, pico de gallo, refried beans, and corn tortillas. Let's put it this way: next time I am hungover, I'm coming here.

The "Tostada de Aguachile" is another classic dish of Sinaloa featuring raw shrimp, red onions, and cucumbers submerged in lime juice heavily spiked with cilantro and serrano chiles. The aguachile sauce here is relatively tame, though spicy enough to clear one's sinuses. I prefer my aguachiles to have a bit more piquancy, but I can't argue with the balanced sweet and sour flavor of La Sinaloense's version, and I enjoyed the clean taste of this dish's crisp, taut shrimp.

For tacos, I've tried both the "Garlic Shrimp Taco" and the "Shrimp Culichi Taco." The culichi sauce used on the latter taco is a buttery, creamy chile sauce, more savory than spicy or sweet. I liked that taco, but I preferred the more simplistic "Garlic Shrimp Taco" for its in-your-face garlic and butter combination. It is a delightfully rich "taste bomb" and one of those indulgences that I would gladly sacrifice long-term health for and eat 3-4 times per week if I lived in the neighborhood.

Complimentary "Chips and Salsa" and "Seafood and Vegetable Consommé" are brought out at the beginning of the meal, the latter of which is excellent, reminding me less of the styrofoam cups half-filled with salty consommé one grabs from the local mariscos trucks and bringing more of the taste and texture of a quality minestrone soup with its soft, leafy vegetables. The squeeze-bottle red salsa provided (not the comparatively sad and runny salsa they bring out with the chips) could melt iron, but it is more than just heat, tasting of freshly pulverized chilies with a slightly sweet finish.

If nothing else, La Sinaloense is an interesting-looking place to eat with full waiter service, a woody patio area to dine on, decorated with a myriad of green plants, and a large water fountain that competes for your attention with your food throughout your meal. My meal attracted a good amount of annoying flies. Not a deal-breaker obviously, but the restaurant should consider investments to keep the insects at bay. Service is casual but earnest and...

I’ve been customer of La Sinaloese Restaurant for more than 12 years now, and the food is always good, service is outstanding. But today I noticed the new owner, a middle eastern man, yelling at his employees, walking around the restaurant in a bad mood creating a really high stress ambient. I ate cause I was hungry, but I was stressed just seeing his mad face, again service is always good, but I didn’t appreciated the way the owner was treating the employees. If you are the owner, man, relax! You are a good example of how a business man is not supposed to do business. Specially in “Customer Service”. You don’t know how to manage? then contract someone that knows how to manage a restaurant. The last thing we as customers want when we go to a restaurant is to see a bossy person yelling at the person bringing our food to the table. This new owner makes me miss German so bad (the prior owner before Arturo) who was always smiling and making customers feel like we were part of his family. Arturo was also very kind, professional ni...

I was recommended by a few of my family members and it’s just 3 mins away from my home so my boyfriend and I decided to try it. We get there approximately at 6:30pm and another couple of girls get there right before us. Not busy at all just two tables to serve. The waitress sits us down and goes and get us chips and salsas while we look through the menu. First thing I noticed is that the table that got there before us got their complementary soup and we never got.We proceeded to order our drinks. She then took another 10 mins to take our order while we waited another table came in and she also serve them quickly and gave them their chips salsa and soup we’re still waiting for our food finally she realizes and goes to get our food which was already cold from sitting. Overall food was good besides the fact it was cold, service was horrible the waitress named Gaby had a horrible attitude and didn’t even asked if we wanted more drinks. We didn’t end up leaving till 8pm due to how slow the service was.Overall...