Coni'Seafood - Los Angeles

They had me at the salsa. A sharp, spicy green of tomatillo fire, covering the best fresh-fried tortilla chips I've had to date. And they give you all that for free. 

The rest of the menu will cost you, but inflation hasn't touched their value or worth, and the ceviche is absolutely worth it. The Cevisushi is a plateful of octopus, fish, and shrimp, perfectly fresh and tender as silk. A contrast to the crunchy cubes of jicama that coax the sweetness from the seafood. Dip or drench in mango habanero to make it singe and sing.

It's all good here, but the Pescado Zarandeado is the reason you come. Takes some time to make, 30 minutes to bake so place your order early. It's sold at market price, and they'll sell out pretty quick. It's a whopper of a snook, thick meat, filleted open, simply seasoned, sauced to perfection. The house sauce is savory, with notes of salt and a tiny bit of sugar, dripping with the juices. It makes a good taco with caramelized onions, which were a bit heavy on the soy sauce, IMO, and is best when supplemented with any salsa. And don't be put off by the fish head - dig deep for the sweetmeat inside those cheeks. 

Despite the changing landscape of LA, Coni stays true to her roots. They excite and they thrill, they inspire and impress. Their seafood will sizzle, their salsa will sear, and it is with this unapologetic authenticity that I am in love.

Coni' Seafood - Inglewood

Bucket list restaurant, check! It only took three years to make it up to Inglewood for this one... 

I don’t know how I feel about Coni, mostly I’m a bit confused. They have signature items that are undeniably fantastic, but deviating from the recommendations has dire consequences. We skipped the grilled snook, for example, which is their signature dish because it takes forever to make and we didn’t have forever to wait. But if I’d known how the Campechana would turn out, I would have waited. Tomato-water, oysters that taste like not-so-fresh snot, shrimp in desperate need of salt and so many other things. 

Not inspiring, not understanding what Jonathan Gold saw in this place, though the Camarones al Mojo de Ajo are pretty darn tasty. Head-on jumbo prawns smothered in a gooey sauce of smashed garlic and a little spice make you want to suck on the heads like they’re lollipops. The rice is there for scraping every last drop of this butter-bliss off the bottom of the plate.

The Aguachiles. Wow. Yes, you could build an empire on this dish alone. The shrimp are raw, and they’re fileted and splayed in a way that can be intimidating, but face your unfounded fears and scoop one up. The acid from the lemon juice softens the spice of the green sauce, and it’s a soft, salivating burn that soaks through every supple shrimp.  

I get it. The dishes that the food critics recommend are legit, and Coni Seafood makes what they make well very well. I would definitely come back for more Aguachiles, hoping for a glimpse of wherever that genius came from, but I would order cautiously - not all dishes are created equal.