Fish Taco, Cabin John, Montgomery County, Maryland

What a pleasant surprise!

Our family used to go to the Fish Taco in Cabin John often during the summer. We have belonged to Palisades Swim and Tennis Club for nearly 30 years. It’s a modest place, not at all fancy, and for a while we used it as a sort of summer camp for Liza and Patrick. Drop them off with lunch in a cooler, come back and get them later. There was then no way to spend money, no way to get in much trouble. Liza and Patrick were both on the Palisades swimming team for years, as was Katy Ledecky some years later. Palisades figured prominently in the Summer of the Hot Dog. While staffing the DOJ booth at the close of an NAACP conference, the nearby Southland Corporation folks gave me boxes of coupons for free hot dogs they’d failed to give away. We’d get hot dogs for the neighborhood kids at the 7-11 on River Road on the way home from Palisades. Even today, someone occasionally will say, “That was during the Summer of the Hot Dog.”

Things have changed at Palisades. You can spend money there on sandwiches and snacks, and there’s a formal summer camp which isn’t free. Fish Taco still sits at 7945 MacArthur, right at the intersection of Seven Locks and MacArthur. The food remainss much healthier than hot dogs. As I remember, it used to be pretty good.

Nancy and I went back recently. Fish Taco remains pleasant and unpretentious, with seating inside

and out,

and a large menu.

We perused the menu and ordered at the counter. Nancy chose a blackened fish salad ($15).

She took a couple of bites and exclaimed, ” I love this!” That’s a step above her usual high-positive rating, “This is really good!” The seasoning of the blackened fish, mahi mahi, hit the spot.  The greens were as fresh as that pretty avocado — and isn’t that generous serving of avocado?

I chose their shrimp ceviche ($8.50), which came with a lot of chips,

and two street tacos ($5 each), a barbacoa and a chorizo.

First, lets zoom in on the ceviche.

This was an excellent ceviche. Have I had a better one in DC? I can’t recall one. This one had lots of shrimp, radishes, and jalapeños (seeded and loosely cored) offset by abundant mango, a bit of tomato, and a few stray greens, all in a lime marinade. The ceviche was attractively spicy and tart, and bright with flavor, all at a low price.  

Now for the tacos. First, a closer look at the barbacoa.  

Doesn’t that beef look delicious? It tasted beefy and rich, and was balanced by the mild onions and a flavorful crema. It had almost a birria flavor, that deep, and it tasted better even than I’d hoped.

Here’s the chorizo street taco.  

This one started out slowly. It was pretty good, ordinary, really. The next bite seemed better, more complex, and by the time I’d finished, the flavor was extraordinary. Again, this was a pleasant surprise.

As I said earlier, Fish Taco used to be “pretty good,” more of a convenient place to stop following an afternoon at the pool, but hardly a destination restaurant. It has been transformed, at least based on this visit. Imagine, ceviche and two street tacos for $18.50, which is close to the normal price for the ceviche alone. And such ceviche, and such tacos! As you read, Nancy’s salad with mahi mahi drove her past “really good” all the way to “love.” That’s a big step in a food relationship.

Hurry over to Fish Taco!

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