Mariscos San Pedro — Restaurant in West Chicago Township

Worth the 1-hour drive from Evanston.

The short version: amazing food and service, will be back again.

The service was great: good tempo, well coordinated, and warm but not overwhelming. I wouldn't know if it was their first day open, had I not been waiting for this day for literal months.

For starters, we had the red snapper ceviche and Hokkaido scallops aguachile. Both great. The seafood is fresh and sweet, and that's a constant throughout the meal. We were left wondering why we hadn't had more raw red snapper, because its refreshing sweetness and slight sapidity seemed perfect for such preparations, especially on a hot summer day like today. Deep fried grains (?) in the ceviche adds fun and texture to the dish, while the coconut milk in the sauce and some pulp of some citrus fruit added balance and complexity to the taste. The fatty coconut milk also acted as a means of cohesion, and added body to the otherwise quite lean dish. Edible flowers look great and are always fun, of course. The scallops (no photos sadly) were purple, and had none of the sliminess or notes of overt seafood you might often find in raw scallops dishes. I presume, to accompany its more intense flavors, a spicy salsa verde (presumably again) was used, and to add body to that in avoiding hollow spiciness, pineapples were added as well. And it really worked.

We got the restaurant's namesake whole San Pedro fish for our main course. The first impression was that it was big, and well grilled, like really well grilled. The flavors are quite earthy, as pointed out also by a member of the staff, and that lends itself well to being accompanied by an assortment of amazing salsas without having its flavor masked completely. Of particular note is what I presume to be an elevated version of salsa macha; bigger pieces of peanuts than usual again added crunch and fun, while its nutty notes helped create new flavors when combined with that of the fish. Its general transparency, again, made sure that the fish remained the center of the dish. Corn tortillas were great and evenly toasted as you can see. If I had to pick bones out of an egg, I did not like that the tortillas were harder than the fish, and that I was still chewing on tortillas a while after the fish was gone. But that's just me, my wife had no such complaints. We ate the entire fish, including its quite large head, which was full of tender cheek and gelatinous parts, ever so flavorful.

Blue corn macaron and flan were the desserts of choice today. The flan was quite evil, in that it was adequately salted and accompanied by passion fruit, both of which ensured that the usually overt sweetness was well hidden and that it could be enjoyed in much larger quantities than usual. And it had a brûlée shell at the bottom, what madness! The macaron was quite an experience. Almond flour was presumably swapped for corn flour, and it was CORRRRRRRN. Not for me personally, but I can see people liking it very much.

What a meal! Congratulations on the opening of what is heading towards becoming an...

I booked a reservation for Tuesday, April 22 at 8:30pm for myself and one other person. We were sat around 8:43pm. (This will be relevant later.) This was one of the worst dining experiences that I have ever had, so much so that it took me a month to digest what I thought and had to say about it.

To start, the food is commendable. We ordered the tuna tostada, plantain tacos, snapper ceviche, a whole dorado, and two desserts. The cold courses (tostada and ceviche) were quite good. The ceviche, especially, was a perfectly balanced mix of shrimp and snapper that melts in your mouth without a trace of the stringy, rubbery texture that badly prepared shrimp can have.

The trouble started with the (hot) tacos, which arrived before we had the chance to finish either of the cold appetizer courses and while one of us was still in the bathroom. The whole fish came out not more than 10 minutes after that. By the time we finished these first three plates, the fish was cold, having sat out on the table for 20 minutes, and the tortillas were wet and mushy inside their towels. The desserts, lava-cake-and-ice-cream and a paleta, were out after we had finished, at best, a third of the fish. Every time a server brought our food out, they looked more guilty than the last. I'm sure the fish would have tasted great if it was brought out at the right time.

I am aware that MSP had received complaints from guests who had to wait for their food prior to our dinner. I am not sure if the service we received was an overly heavyhanded correction of those complaints, but the result was that we had to stuff our gullets with food that had gone cold and stale, which (to me) is a much worse sin than waiting an extra half hour.

That being said, I do think the fault is neither the kitchen's nor the front of house's (for the most part), but that of management. After we sat down and ordered drinks, our server informed us that last call was soon, which we took to mean that the entire menu was available at that moment. Had we been informed that the fish would have needed to come out early, we would not have ordered it. If last call is at 9 and the kitchen is done sending out food at 9:15, the last reservation of the day should certainly not be 8:30. This schedule, coupled with a lack of communication between FOH & BOH and inattentiveness to diners, means that we paid a great amount of money to feel rushed, to eat cold food, and to be swept out of the restaurant.

I hope that in the intervening month, things have improved when it comes to coursing and general hospitality. Until then, I can find better tuna tostadas with absolutely stellar service...

I was so excited to try this place and it did not disappoint! It is definitely more elevated/modernized version of your typical mariscos joint. Lovely decor as we walked in and I thought all the staff were very friendly and helpful. Our service was timely, dirty plates and utensils were cleared promptly and water was always available.

For cocktails we tried the margarita (one of the best balanced I’ve ever had, not too tart or sweet but not too strong), Paloma’s (a bit on the strong side) and the Verdita Swizzle was lovely if you like a spicy drink! All were great.

We ordered both aguachiles (Hokkaido scallop and Kampachi) which came out first with tostadas on the side. The Hokkaido was so fresh and with a really bright tasting citrus-y green sauce, probably my favorite! The Kampachi also came with amazing citrus-y sauce, the fish was so fresh and light. Great start to the meal.

We ordered the coctel which was the most traditional ceviche dish with the red sauce and mix of seafood, came with the saltines and two salsas on the side. Incredibly fresh and delicious.

We additionally ordered the mussels which I thought were quite fresh, large and juicy! The sauce was also fantastic, I don’t always go for mussels at restaurants but I’m really glad we ordered this, definitely better than your average mussels dish, and I felt the mussels actually picked up quite a bit of flavor.

The star of the show was the whole fish red snapper. It was so lightly fried, beautifully crispy skin and moist and fresh fish meat. It came with corn tortillas so you could put a piece of fish, avocado, cilantro, pickled red onion, roasted jalapeño and multiple lovely salsas on top. The salsas that came with this dish were my favorite of the night, absolutely fantastic.

We had to try a couple desserts and these did not disappoint. Probably the best flan I have ever had as far as taste and texture. It jiggled like jello and wasn’t too firm or cheese-cakey. It had notes of citrus and salt and really surprised you with flavor! The lava cake was absolutely fantastic, also sort of a sweet and salty mix and the mole flavor came through so nicely.

I will definitely be back, this was just a sample of the menu but I can’t wait to try...