Review: La Playa Brings the Colorful Marisqueria From the Beaches of Mexico to the Shores of Lake Erie

La Playa Fresh Seafood Credit: Photo by Doug Trattner

Just weeks ago, my wife and I were enjoying a late-winter break in Mexico, specifically in a laid-back surfing town that hugged the Pacific Coast. There, seafood in all its glorious forms dominated the menus, with simply prepared items like ceviche, aguachile, seafood cocktails, fish tacos and fried whole fish highlighting the best of the day’s catch.

Mexican cuisine runs so much wider and deeper than the quesadillas, burritos, tacos and enchiladas that seem to dominate the menus of our beloved local restaurants. We have Rafael Ayala to thank for introducing many Cleveland diners to the sunny, simple joys of beachy Mexican seafood cookery.

The Detroit Shoreway dining community has gotten to know and appreciate Ayala since late 2018, when he opened the doors to Blue Habanero. After Boiler 65 closed on the very same block, the operator was invited by the landlord to pitch ideas for a new concept. His thoughts traveled immediately to the fishing villages that dot the Pacific Coast.

“I’m from Jalisco and we have a really large, diverse cooking style for seafood,” Ayala explains. “I love the food down there.”

In 2023, Ayala opened La Playa, a colorful marisquería ripped from the beaches of southwestern Mexico. The menu features a characteristic lineup of classic seafood staples like ceviche, aguachile, mixed seafood cocktails, grilled fish and fried whole fish. The kitchen supplements those items with some tried-and-true Mexican and Tex-Mex combos as well as some creative twists on the same.

Even without the sandy toes and sunset views, La Playa’s ceviche and aguachile are faithful representations of those omnipresent dishes. The shrimp aguachile ($8), artfully stacked atop a crispy tostada, bursts with vivid brightness and freshness. Raw shrimp – marinated in citrus juice – is tossed with diced cucumber, shaved red onion and fresh herbs and arranged on a guacamole-smeared tostada. The tostilocos ($22) casts a wider net, with shrimp, octopus and whitefish getting the ceviche and chip treatment.

Order a shrimp cocktail south of the border and you’ll wonder why we’ve been doing it wrong for all these years. Down there – and up here at La Playa ($20) – the cocktails arrive in a large goblet filled with chopped seafood, onions, jalapeños and avocado swimming in a sweet and spicy tomato-based sauce. Three poached shrimp balance on the rim of the glass.

Along the Mexican coast pretty much every laidback palapa serves fried whole fish, the catch of the day gently lowered into a vat of bubbling oil. Nothing is lost in translation in La Playa’s version, a whole red snapper ($30) scored, flash fried and presented teeth first on a wooden platter. The crisp-skinned fish comes easily off the bone in large, flaky, sweet chunks. Fish taco fans likely will rank the Baja tacos ($20) up there with the best thanks to uber-crispy fried whitefish tucked into cheese-crusted tortillas and topped with red cabbage, pico, pickled red onions and salty cotija cheese.

Not everyone loves fish and seafood the way Ayala does, so he packs the menu with dozens of approachable, delicious Mexican faves. The enchiladas verdes ($14) are filled with tender shredded chicken, drizzled with sour cream and paired with rice. A beefy Burrito Gigante ($18) is loaded with steak, chorizo, peppers and onions and shellacked in chipotle aioli.

Don’t skip the shrimp empanadas appetizer ($15), crispy-fried half moons filled with chopped shrimp, cheese and spices. For something Gram-worthy, snag a Flamin’ Hot Cheetos-dusted street corn ($8) which is exactly like it sounds.

But why stop there? The pina coladas arrive in a hollowed-out pineapple; the Watermelon Volcano Eruption should come with a fire extinguisher; and warm churros are presented in a miniature street cart on wheels.

In fact, after the fish, fun seems to be the guiding force behind La Playa, which feels at times more like a neighborhood block party than a restaurant. Every other table seems to be celebrating a birthday, complete with dazzling sparklers and song. The room is festooned in colorful streamers, nautical murals, flying dolphins and vintage surf boards. Mini palm-thatched palapas at the front of the cavernous space can be booked for small groups.

During both recent visits, the large corner patio was inactive on account of the weather, but one look at it and you can tell that it’s a great place to be in summer. Already I can picture myself sipping fruity frozen drinks or buckets of ice-cold Coronitas beneath the umbrellas and expecting to hear the gentle surf in the distance.

La Playa Fresh Seafood
6410 Detroit Ave., Cleveland
216-331-2757
laplayafreshseafood.com

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