It started out as a trip to Red Lobster but my wife convinced my mother-in-law that a better deal and better food could be found over at the intersection of 24th and Poplar on San An Antonio's near west side. And since I had never been to La Playa, and since I really don't care for Red Lobster, it was on!
They describe the fare as Mexican and Salvadorena seafood. I'm not quite sure what difference it makes when you are frying up some fish and onion rings, but the end result is Yummy!
La Playa is a colorful place with walls painted on the inside to represent the seafood theme. The exterior has a bright look, not uncommon to that part of town, and lots of Go Spurs Go attitude. I especially liked the covered waiting area. Although business was light for Memorial Day, my mother-in-law says it is usually packed during lunch, so maybe people wait outside.
We seated ourselves toward the rear of the place and were immediately greeted with chips and salsa and had our drink orders taken. The chips were fresh, crisp and excellent. The salsa was wonderful!
My wife ordered the lunch special of fish and shrimp. It comes with a single plank of Alaskan Pollock, and two huge shrimp, salad and she substituted onion rings for the fries.
My mother-in-law went with the fish lunch plate which is three pieces of fish and the aforementioned salad and rings.
I should have stuck with the lunch special, but not knowing what to expect in size of the plates, I opted for the number 16, which is the same as the lunch special but with a fourth piece of fish. And since they both substituted the onion rings, I followed suit.
I know in some places you get the fancy dessert tray brought out to you by your waitress when you finish. Here, we had a man come by, I suspect with no actual affiliation to the restaurant selling slices of cake his wife had made earlier.
And we splurged.
Need fish for a really fair price and some awesome onion rings to go along with them? Seriously, give this one a try. You will agree that La Playa Seafood on 24th and Poplar is a seriously Tasty Treat.
She reminded me of how her father would drive all the way from the Lackland area on Sunday's after church to Bedoy on the corner of 24th and Morales to grab all sorts of sweet bread for the family.
These days, the place has new ownership and has modernized. The name is now Panifico. I think the format is very modern and well done. They have each customer pick up what I think is a pizza pan and a set of tongs, then go about collecting the various pastries from the cabinets. At the end, they ring you up and send your tray and tongs to the wash. Pretty modern!
