San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Mariscos Costa Alegre
Mariscos Costa Alegre in San Jose is a restaurant specializing in nautical, coastal food. You’ll find everything from shrimp tacos to marisco cocktails to ceviches and aquatic-themed soups. But more importantly, it’s one of the places you can get aguachile tostadas. The aguachile verde ($10) starts with raw shrimp marinated in a mixture of lime juice, green chiles and cilantro along with sliced cucumber, avocado and onions for textural variety. It’s a spicy, acidic journey into the ocean guided by snappy fried corn. The mixta aguachile ($18), on the other hand, has more seafood components, like octopus, abalone and scallops, as well as mangos and red onions. Any of the aguachiles can be ordered with different sauces, color-coordinated to match the chiles and ingredients: red uses chile de arbol, green uses serrano peppers, and black uses several chiles and gets its color from soy-based Salsa Maggi. Like most mariscos restaurants, the menu options are overwhelming, but the tostadas are an easy way to sample the various ceviches and aguachiles without having to commit to an entire order. The mariscos operation has two other locations in San Jose.
855 N. 13th St., San Jose. 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Thursday; 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday; 9 a.m.-10 p.m. Saturday; 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Sunday. mariscoscostaalegre.com