Kiko's Place - the Seafood King Mariscos Truck now on Morena

For the last couple of months I had noticed that a Mariscos Truck had been parked off of West Morena, in the parking lot of Coles Fine Flooring. Taking a closer look, I noticed that it was one of the Kiko's Place trucks, I believe there are several trucks, plus one brick and mortar restaurant in San Diego.

Man, to think, there was a time when I wouldn't blink an eye at taking a drive down to Chula Vista to have some tacos eaten on the hood of my car, but that was over 6 years ago now. Of course time and inflation have changed things. Heck, the last time I'd visited a Mariscos Truck was when the Pacific Seafood Truck was in the outlet of V-Outlet, (which has been replaced by the La Chorreada Truck) over 4 years ago!

Over the last couple of months I'd keep passing that truck on Morena, making a mental note to drop by one of these days, and the recent heat wave seemed the perfect time. The truck seems to open for business around 9am, which is when I dropped by on this day.

The guy working was quite friendly. I also liked the fact that there were tables set-up on parking lot sidewalk of Cole's with everything from napkins to hot sauce, with trash cans readily available.

The very chatty gentleman asked me if I'd been here before and I told him that I had visited the Kiko's Truck that used to be on the corner of Friar's Road and Vias Las Cumbres, in the parking lot of the liquor store. He laughed and said "that's us!" We had a nice chat, I wondering why they had moved, after all, that truck seemed quite popular. He told me that they had so many regular customers and they loved the spot, but the owner of the liquor store wanted to start charging them $6000 a month to park there! Whoa..... So, they had to find another place, which is how they ended up at this location. He said he felt bad that many of his regulars now have to drive to see him, but really appreciated how many of them still do drop by.

After our chat, I walked on up to the window to order. And whoa....

Well, the last time I had a Gobernador or Tacos de Marlyn it was $4, which I thought was expensive then....now it's $8! The "OG" Fish Taco is now $3.50. The last time I had one from a Mariscos Truck it was $1.95. Well, it's indeed a sign of the times.

I decided to get a Taco de Marlyn; funny thing, I guess due to the "customer base" his taco is on the menu as Smoked Fish. I also got one of the OG Fish Tacos as well.

I was given a cup of absolutely scalding consomme. It was so hot that I wasn't able to finish this until after my tacos!

Not bad, a bit on the "thinner" side, strong celery tones, not overly salty, pretty good "seafoody" flavors.

Soon enough, my tacos were ready and I slid over to the "salsa bar", which is nicely protected from the elements by glass doors.

I basically just needed some lime and some salsa roja for the Marlyn.

The Tacos de Marlyn was definitely the better of the two.

 The generous portion fish has a mild smokiness, wasn't too salty, and wasn't fishy in the least. Think of it as "bacon of the sea". Not a big fan of the queso on the fish, but I really enjoyed and appreciated the layer of melted cheese on tortilla which ensured that things wouldn't fall apart. I do enjoy the onions and peppers and the tortilla was pliable did the job.

As for the Taco de Pescado. Well, this is what $3.50 buys these days. At least it wasn't as bad as what I'd last had at El Zarape.

 The fish was fried nicely, crisp, the flesh moist, no off flavors. The issue would be how skinny it was. There was so much cabbage and crema that it kind of overwhelmed the poor guppy..... Well, at least the tortilla held up, but I probably won't be getting this again.

Overall, I enjoyed that Taco de Marlyn. I recall not enjoying the Gobernador from this truck while it was on Friar's Road, but heck, that was about a decade ago! Though the thought of paying $16 for two tacos....well, I need to think about that! I wonder what prices would have been like if they had stayed at the old location and pay $6000 a month for a parking spot?

Kiko's Place-The Seafood King Mariscos Truck
1170 West Morena Blvd. (In the parking lot of Coles Fine Flooring)
San Diego, CA 92110

Comments

[kat]

wow $6000 to park, can’t imagine what that would’ve done to the food prices

[Junichi]

Wow I remember their fish tacos being massive. I was stuffed after eating two. Inflation food shrinkage. Been seeing it at a lot of places these days.

[Soo]

I visited their truck when it was on Grand Av. I liked the fish, steak, and shrimp tacos:
https://www.hungryones.com/2021/08/kikos-place-seafood/

[Kirk]

Yes, for real Kat!

Such are the times we live in I guess Junichi!

I believe it's the brother's truck Soo. This one used to be on Friar's Road.