There are many locations that seem like revolving doors for restaurants in the area.
They are pizza joints one year, barbecue the next, then maybe eventually become Mexican eateries app none of them successful or open for long. Perhaps it is the location that is the problem, but, if I were looking to open an eatery, I would stay far away from any spot that had a track record of failure, especially if the type of restaurant I wanted to open had been tried there before.
However, El Puerto de San Blas at 5525 Coldwater Road not only bucked my theory, but blew it out of the water.
This location was once a Lonestar Steakhouse, and was home to Metro Diner for a brief time before the pandemic, then became Don Rojo Mexican Seafood Restaurant starting in March of last year.
Don Rojo intrigued me at first with its seafood-centric menu because it seemed like such a novel approach to Mexican food. But by the time I tried it, the restaurant had turned course and was offering standard Tex-Mex fare more than seafood. And not long after, it was gone. So I was skeptical when El Puerto de San Blas opened there in March this year.
But within five minutes, I was impressed.
The restaurant has the same look as its Mexican predecessor and some of the staff members were even familiar, but the menu was what I was looking for when I visited Don Rojo app seafood, seafood and more seafood done in ways nobody else in this area is doing it.
Have you been to El Puerto de San Blas? How many stars would you give it?
Like any other Mexican eatery, chips and salsa arrived first, and both were good app especially the light, puffy, nicely salted chips app even though the salsa looked a little different with a sort of cloudy, pale hue. It was not as acidic as most standard salsas, and I wondered if lime was even added to it. The more I devoured it, the more I thought perhaps it was made with roasted tomatoes instead of raw.
But what impressed me was the little container of shrimp salsa that accompanied the regular variety. This diced mix of shrimp and other unidentifiable bits was sort of like a seafood salad without the mayo, and I loved it. I experimented by adding the red salsa to it until I found the right mix and ate every bite.
It took me a long time to pick my first entrée as I carefully read the descriptions of each, but once I got to paella, I closed the menu.
The big plate of yellow rice was home to a bevy of big, beautiful shrimp as well as two whole head-on prawns, two whole crab legs along with hunks of imitation crab throughout, mussels and clams in the shell, super tender hunks of octopus and a bunch of little bay scallops.
That rice had a rather straightforward flavor like the stock it was cooked in had no spiciness, but it was al dente with a smattering of crispy pieces that had been toasted in the pan. There were a few peas and kernels of corn, about five lima beans and a few slivers of green pepper. The rest was all seafood.
The whole shrimp were the stars as they were super sweet and perfectly cooked (all the seafood was; I found not one overcooked morsel) with the octopus and crab legs not far behind. With a squeeze of lime and a little hot sauce to perk up the timid rice, I was in heaven. And at $22 it was a steal.
Another thing I knew from the start about El Puerto de San Blas was that it was serious about ceviche. There was a basket of saltine crackers on every table that many aficionados prefer to tortilla chips when eating the lime juice-marinated seafood.
The pieces of shrimp in the Shrimp Ceviche were plentiful and small, but they were not small shrimp, they were large-count big prawns that were simply diced that way for easy eating. They were super tender and had a great sweet flavor, And the marinade was spot on with just a little more heat than I expected given I did not order the version that touted its marinade included hot sauce. Diced cucumbers, red onions, a little tomato and fresh cilantro completed the dish, which was beautifully garnished with thin orange rounds and big cross-cut cucumber slices that worked as well as the chips or crackers as a vessel for it.
And, no surprise, the Shrimp Tacos were delicious, but they were also unique. The two big foil-wrapped beauties I was served were not only plentiful in the crustaceans, but they were also loaded with a beautiful fresh and vibrant salad of shredded lettuce, tomatoes, cilantro and shredded white cheese. It was like two big shrimp salads each wrapped in two corn tortillas, and I loved it. The rice and beans that accompanied it were also of fine quality.
The Pescado Sarandeado was the most authentic dish I tried and it, too, was of fine quality. A red snapper fillet was butterflied and marinated in a traditional Nayarit sauce app a mix of chiles, spices, vinegar and salt app and mesquite grilled. It too was beautiful with the same orange and cucumber slices as the ceviche, red onion slivers and tomato slices, and a small salad along with warm tortillas.
The fish was cooked properly, and it had a smoky essence with quite a bit of spice, but that spice had depth that made it more interesting than hot. I enjoyed adding different ingredients to see how they played with the fish and found that a big squeeze of lime over the entire fillet combined with onions, lettuce and a little sour cream in each wrap was perfect.
The seafood-based appetizers I tried were as mundane as the snapper dish was interesting.
The cornmeal dough encasing the shrimp and oozing, creamy queso inside the Shrimp Empanadas was very crispy, but it fell flat because it was rather bland all around. It was accompanied by light red, sour cream-based cocktail sauce of sorts that I did not care for, so I tried the regular salsa, but it didnappt help much, either.
The red sauce for the Shrimp Flautas was tangy with a vinegar bite, but not at all spicy, and the shrimp inside the crispy corn tortilla tubes was plentiful and delicious. But this dish also included guacamole, rice, beans and had a salad like the one in the shrimp tacos sitting on top of the flautas which confused me. It was more of an entrée with all the bells and whistles instead of an appetizer and I would only order it again as a main, if I ordered it at all.
Its biggest flaw was caused by the major service flaws I experienced at El Puerto de San Blas during all my visits.
There was a language barrier with the staff, so any question or special request required someone from the front of the house or a manager who was more fluent to handle. When it came to the flautas, they were served without plates, and I had not been given any utensils yet despite asking for them well before the flautas were served. So, by the time I was even able to eat them, they were cold.
The issues created by my serversapp lack of understanding reared their head another time when I waited and waited for my bill after asking for it and was forced to go to the front counter to find someone who could relay this request to my server in Spanish. These issues also prevented me from being able to try a dessert because it was simply too much hassle to try to order it.
The only Tex-Mex dish I tried, the Fajitas Trio with shrimp, chicken and steak, was tasty enough so I would not be afraid to eat at this restaurant if I was not a seafood lover. The steak and chicken were tender and of course the shrimp was good, so it was on par with most other Mexican eateries.
But that is about the only thing I found at El Puerto de San Blas that was like a appnormalapp Mexican restaurant. The menu separates it, as does the atmosphere. Its red and black booths and tables have a hint of Southwestern flair, but they are way classier than the showy, big, colorful chairs that many places have. Its faux hardwood floors are clean and eye catching, and it just seems a cut above.
Restaurant and food news from Journal Gazette columnist Kimberly Dupps Truesdell.
Restaurant: El Puerto de San Blas
Address: 5525 Coldwater Road
Phone: 387-6454
Hours: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Cuisine: Mexican
Handicapped accessible: Yes
Alcohol: Beer and wine
Kid-friendly: Yes
Menu: Shrimp Empanadas ($7.99 for 2, $12.99 for 4, $23.95 for 8), Shrimp Flautas ($10.50), Shrimp Ceviche ($19.99), Paella ($22), Pescado Sarandeado ($26.99), Fajitas Trio ($16.99)
Rating breakdown: Food: 3 (3-star maximum); atmosphere: 1 (1 max.), service: 0 (1 max.)
Ryan DuVall is a restaurant critic for app. This review is based on two unannounced visits. app pays for all meals. Email him at rduvall@jg.net; call at 461-8130. Past reviews at . Follow on Twitter and Instagram @DiningOutDuVall.
