Los Compadres Restaurant — Restaurant in Long Beach

This is one of three locations of Los Compadres, a Mexican restaurant enterprise that began in 1987 that specializes in the cuisine of the Mexican state of Sinaloa.

This particular outpost of the budding Los Compadres empire is built around a large bar, so I was surprised that they had such a hard time with my request for Patrón Silver, served neat. When my bartender looked at me confused, I repeated, "Neat. With no ice... for sipping." She returned with a 1.5-ounce shot glass filled to the rim with premium tequila, bizarrely embellished with a wedge of lime. I could have then asked her to pour it in a proper glass, but at that point I lose a drop or two of booze in the transfer, so I accepted it all with a raised eyebrow and a mighty sigh.

While Los Compadres may not understand how to properly pour liquor, what it does understand is making tasty "Gobernador Tacos." Their Gobernador Taco is a dead-simple combination of grilled shrimp, sautéed bell peppers, and melted mild white cheese on a grilled corn tortilla. Where I live, down in San Diego, you're never more than a stone throw away from a mariscos truck selling a stellar Gobernador Taco. I've found these tacos to be less popular here up north, so I was delighted that Los Compadres' version was different than what I'm used to, here gooey and greasy, but not inferior. The lime-marinated shrimp in the tacos are excellent, and the unrestrained amount of cheese used takes this to the level of "guilty pleasure," because you can't eat like this everyday. The tacos are accompanied by a sour cream sauce and a grilled chile güero. Ask that they bring out the spicy "Salsa Casera," a chunky green jalapeño-based salsa that you can scoop on these tacos.

Despite their popularity in Mexico and Southern California, Gobernador Tacos are a fairly recent invention. The original Gobernador Taco was created by Los Arcos Restaurant in Mazatlán for Francisco Labastida Ochoa in the 1990s, then the governor of the Mexican state of Sinaloa. Los Arcos learned that Ochoa was obsessed with his wife's shrimp tacos and they wanted to not only match them, but beat them. They became a permanent fixture on the menu when Ochoa declared them better...

Over Father’s Day weekend, my family and I decided to have brunch at Los Compadres on Anaheim Street. We arrived around 11:45 a.m., right during the rush. There were five of us, and when the host, Arie, greeted us, she offered a booth. We politely declined since booths are tight for a group of five—especially when one person would need to sit in a chair at the end, and we knew we’d be ordering several dishes and drinks. It would’ve been too cramped.

Arie told us the wait for a regular table would be an additional 30 minutes, which was fine since we had already waited about 20 minutes. We agreed and decided to grab some drinks at the bar while waiting.

But then we started noticing that other groups—families of five, six, even eight—were being seated right away. After the third group went in, we started to feel uneasy. Had they forgotten about us?

Finally, after nearly 50 minutes of waiting, we went up to check. Sure enough, Arie had seated three families who arrived after us. I asked her why that happened, and her only response was, “You’re going to get your table.” She was dismissive and didn’t offer a real explanation. The manager wasn’t even aware we’d been waiting that long.

When we were finally seated, I asked if they could do anything to make up for the delay. All we were offered were two complimentary pastries, worth about \$10 each. Honestly, after waiting nearly an hour and being overlooked multiple times, that felt like a minimal gesture.

The food was good, but the experience left a lot to be desired. Poor communication and a lack of accountability really soured what should’ve been a nice...

I was in the area for a conference and wanted a place where I could go enjoy a Mexican shrimp cocktail and micheladas while watching the Liga mx quarter finals. This place seemed to have good reviews so I went on over thinking I could casually go in and get a quick seat at the bar to enjoy my last night in long Beach. I now know this place gets packed on Thursdays. There was a long wait for people wanting a table but it seemed like the staff had a handle on clearing tables to accommodate people asap - but people would not stop coming in. In the bar area there is not much room to enjoy a game, i.e., if you don't get a stool as you would be standing in the way of the servers (who were all so friendly and awesome). When a bar Seat finally opened, I was attended to quickly by the staff and immediately my Michelada was brought to me - it was great. Their chips were freshly made and although their salsa only had a soft kick it was still delicious. When my coctel came out I immediately noticed how huge the shrimp were and how they were carefully placed in the plate with a large amount of sliced avocado for a nice presentation. While it tasted so fresh, the only thing I didn't like was the huge amount of cucumber in my coctel; as I have never had it like that before and I feel it took away from the coctel other flavors. I would order the coctel again but without the cucumber and i would definitely return here if I'm ever in town as the staff was excellent (just...