Mauricio's Review in the Dining Out Guide
When you enter Mauricio´s the first thing you will notice is at least 40 white plastic chairs, lined up as if they were inside a movie theater. This is just the waiting area for the ultra-busy seafood restaurant, for inside, they have seating for about 240 people. If you have to wait for a table, the restaurant will happily serve you a drink and a tostada with marlin or a tuna salad while you wait.
Mauricio’s is located right along the highway, and the style is typical of the area. The restaurant is large, but simple, with a palapa roof, no walls, and plastic chairs adorned with a soft drink logo, and the simplest of decor.
Completely unpretentious, Mauricio’s is the type of place to go to when you want to enjoy great company and huge portions of wonderful food. You can enjoy a beer for 15 pesos request a song or two from a musical group (50-100 pesos per song) while you wait for the first round of food to be brought to the table. Before you even order your dinner, the waiter will bring a tostada with marlin and a little later, a cup of shrimp broth to savor.
The menu is simple, with most entrees priced at 99 pesos. For the most part, the menu is comprised of seafood, but there is a surf and turf special for 99 pesos, and BBQ ribs for the same price. There are five combination platters with three basic ingredients, shrimp, fish and a half grilled lobster. When we visited Mauricio’s, we ordered the combination #3 which is all shrimp, but three ways; diabla (spicy), butter and garlic and breaded and we ordered the seafood cazulea (big bowl of seafood) with a hot broth, both were 99 pesos and had at least 25 medium to large sized shrimp per entree. The portions are large, the shrimp are wonderful, and they come served with rice and a salad. Also on the table are the traditional bottles of hot sauces plus they serve two more homemade sauces, one similar to Thousand Island dressing, the other, a BBQ sauce with a kick.
The only disadvantage about this place is the location. On the highway to Las Palmas, (past the airport), it is easy to get here, but sometimes difficult to find a taxi for the ride back. None-the-less, the annoyance of getting a taxi is a small price to pay for abundant and scrumptious seafood at a bargain price.
Details: informal and popular restaurant, great for families, with portions that will satisfy anyone’s appetite. In the afternoon and on Sunday’s there are usually mariachis bands or trios brightening up the place with their music. Their signage says; “Closed on Monday’s, Gone Fishing” but, from the amount of people that had been showing up when they were closed, they have decided to be open seven days a week.
One item not on the menu is “cuchi-cuchi” shrimp, be sure to ask your waiter about them.
