Los Mariscos de Sylmar — Restaurant in Los Angeles

I decided to visit Los Mariscos de Sylmar today despite the poor reviews, hoping maybe things had improved—but unfortunately, they haven’t. If anything, the reviews were spot on.

The only thing this place has going for it is the beautiful interior. It’s well-decorated and has a nice aesthetic—but that’s where the positives end. The moment we walked in, we were hit with music so loud it felt like we had accidentally stepped into a nightclub, not a restaurant. It was impossible to hear the waitress, who didn’t even ask how many were in our party properly because of the noise.

After we were seated, we were handed menus and then completely ignored for 12 minutes. No introduction, no drink order, nothing. When she finally returned to ask for drinks, it felt like an afterthought. A few minutes later, she came back to take our food order—but once again, we were left waiting, this time nearly 30 minutes for food in a restaurant that was basically empty except for one other table.

During the wait, we were given chips and salsa. The chips were stale, and the salsa was so aggressively spicy it was hard to enjoy—not because it had good heat, but because it lacked any real flavor behind it.

When the food finally arrived, the disappointment just kept piling on. For something that took half an hour to make, the food was shockingly bland and lacked the flavor you expect from a Mexican seafood spot. It looked nice, but the taste was nowhere near where it needed to be.

To top it off, our waitress only spoke Spanish and made zero effort to communicate with the rest of the table, even after it was clear most of us were English speakers. She directed all communication to the one Spanish speaker in our group and completely ignored everyone else. It felt rude and unprofessional—especially in a customer service role where effort and inclusivity matter.

The only reason this isn’t a one-star review is because of how beautiful the place looks and the fact that the waitress, while not accommodating, was at least polite. But overall, the experience was a letdown. Poor service, terrible food, long wait times, and zero effort to make the customer feel welcomed. I won’t be back—and I wouldn’t recommend this...

On a Friday night our family wanted to go out to dinner to a restaurants we had gone before. When we arrived a gentleman approached my car and said valet only. I was confused, I never had this experience coming to this restaurant before. It wasn't even a fancy restaurant. Reluctantly, I gave them my keys. Once we sat down we realized it was a different restaurant but decided to give it a try. The menu was very limited. I was questioning the sushi price, the imitation crab sushi was so expensive. Our dinners took some time to be served. I was the first one to receive my my dinner and had to wait about 10 minutes for my husband to get his plate, then we had to wait another 5 minutes for my daughter to receive her plate, and then we had to wait some time until my son got his plate. We tried to make the best of it by trying to have a conversation but we weren't able to after a short while because of the live music. When we arrived we saw the band setting up inside the restaurant, so we decided to sit outside in the patio. After a short time the band members decided to open the doors to the patio so the singer could come out to sing to a couple in the corner. Keep in mind the singer was reading the lyrics off his phone the whole entire time. The music was so loud that you couldn't even enjoy the music. So my family was sitting there, staring at each other, not able to have a conversation, waiting for our food. Finally when we all had our food, we tried to eat but at that point I just wanted to go home pop my dinner in the microwave and enjoy a family dinner at home. We didn't even have napkins. The salsa they gave us tasted more like watered-down tomato sauce. My kids look so miserable, my husband was annoyed, and I was hungry and annoyed. Worst experience in a restaurant. We will not...

I ordered the Botana Guisada ($24.99). It came with shrimp, octopus and abalone, accompanied by rice and beans. The braised seafood was not terrible. It was decently seasoned but the texture and consistency appeared to be frozen seafood. The rice was overcooked and lacked seasoning.

My husband had the Camarones Al Ajo ($18.99) -Garlic Shrimp-, which were small, overcooked, and underseasoned. His rice was overcooked as well. The fried were the only redeeming quality of this meal.

He also ordered a shrimp quesadilla ($5.95), which was fine, except that it was rather small.

When we first arrived there was no one there to greet us, so we just awkwardly stood by hoping to get someone's attention. Once we were seated the service was actually relatively quick, that is until it came time for the check. It was so difficult to get the servers attention, but I honesty can't fault them for this one, they did appear to be understaffed.

The atmosphere was odd. They had a live band, which I would normally enjoy except that it was too loud for this type of venue. It was impossible to have a conversation.

Overall, definitely don't recommend.

Note: I would have rated this place a little higher except that my husband and I both ended up with terrible stomach aches afterwards. Nothing...