George's Mexican Food

It was 2:00 pm and I hadn’t had lunch. I was running around trying to get my two year old son a Thomas the Train crossing arm that he desperately wanted and that took me far from Irvine to the mean streets of Westminster (and incidentally, if you need ANY model train paraphernalia, go to http://www.arniestrains.com/). On my way back to the freeway along Edinger, I saw the bright sombrero of a grinning man beckoning me to come in to George’s. Despite it having a drive-through, I parked and walked inside to better feel the ambiance and enjoy the fish taco as George would have me do it.

I walked into the empty restaurant (although there were several cars in the drive through) and perused the menu. I have to admit that there were so many good looking menu options that I wanted to order a torta or a carnitas burrito, but, this is the year of the fish taco, so I soldiered on and ordered the 2 item combo with two fish tacos and rice and beans for $5.49. I inquired from the less-than-friendly lady behind the counter what type of fish was used in the tacos and she informed me that it was Tilapia. For those that don’t know, Tilapia is a freshwater, tropical, white fish that is a bottom-feeder like a catfish, however, most are farm-raised and good for you since they are low in fat and high in Omega 3 and 6’s.

I watched as the cook took a Styrofoam, 3-part “picnic” plate and piled up refried pintos in one part, Spanish rice in another part, and prepared four corn tortillas on a steam press. She waited for a cook in the back room to produce two 5 inch fried filets of fish through a pass which she then placed into the double tortillas and added a white crème freche (or Crema) sauce, a shredded cabbage mix, and pico de gallo. She added two lime sections and a handful of chips and handed me the plate.

Upon inspection of the fish, I found that it had a thick, bright orange breading that appeared to feature several spices and that the fish inside was somewhat slimy and had shrunk from the crispy outer shell. The tortillas were larger than most and the filet of fish in each taco was much larger than most.



The overall flavor was ok. Nothing special. I found the consistency of the fish within the breading (the sliminess) a tiny bit off-putting, but overall, it was a mediocre fish taco. The chips were above-average and the rice was one of the few Mexican rices which I actually ate and found to be tasty (no doubt from the overall fat content since it appeared to be completely covered in oil). Overall, it was a passable lunch and well priced, but left me thinking that I should have ordered a carnitas burrito…

I checked out their website and it says that they have been doing it for 25 years. I found their website to be pretty impressive for a drive-through Mexican food place. My only criticism is the opening video where a clearly Caucasian voice says, “Our food is Bueno and picante!” with no attempt to add any sort of accent and with a funny way of saying “bueno.” They should have told her to roll like the newscasters who speak perfect English until they pronounce a Spanish word and roll their r’s into oblivion. They even have a twitter feed and online coupons. Now if they could only improve their fish tacos…

George’s Mexican Food
6581 Edinger Avenue
Huntington Beach, CA
http://www.georgesmexicanfood.net/index.php