Midtown Lunch

Lord knows I am not about giving up any kind of food in the name of religion (after all I am jewish with a lower case “j”)  but I won’t hesitate to use a religious holiday as an excuse to stuff my fat face… especially when fried seafood is involved. So when my buddy Sam told me about Louisiana Pico Seafood, a take out dive on Pico just East of Crenshaw where you can score fried fish, shrimp, hush puppies, salad, fries and a soda all for $5.50,  it didn’t take a sign from Jeebus to get me in my car heading towards Mid City.

Not to be confused with Louisiana Fried Chicken, Louisiana Pico Seafood is a combination seafood market/take out window that’s been open since 1978 (according to the sign). It may not be the cleanest looking place in the world, but the seafood gets dredged and fried to order- no pre-breaded frozen and shipped in a box garbage here!

They’ve got a fairly wide selection of fish (red snapper, sand dabs, sole, catfish, whitiing) all of which can been seen raw behind the glass.  They also have shrimp, scallops and jarred oysters if shellfish is your thing.  There are any number of different combos available, but the Lunch Special is without a doubt the best value.

2 pieces of any fish (except orange roughy), a handful of medium shrimp, plus french fries, hush puppies, soda and “salad” (macaroni, potato, or cole slaw) for just $5.50.  Don’t like fish or shrimp?  You can get the same deal with just fish (4 pcs) or just shrimp (12 pcs).  Seafood is the one thing that I usually don’t love getting cheap with, but this is about as good as it gets for the price.  The breading is well seasoned, none of the fish had a bad flavor, and the shrimp, despite being sliced in half to make you feel like you got more, were very tasty.  Squeeze some lemon juice over the top, dip in the tartar with a splash of hot sauce, and you’re in business.  The fries are your standard frozen fries, but the hush puppies were surprisingly decent.  (Not great, but definitely decent.)

Sustainable?  Not likely.  Never frozen?  Wouldn’t bet on it.  Cheap and delicious?  Definitely.  There is plenty of crappy fried seafood in this city (Reddi Chick I’m looking at you) so it’s nice to find a cheap place that does it up right… and it’s especially nice if you’re Catholic.

THE + (What people who like this place would say)

• They dredge and fry the raw seafood to order, just like it should be
• You get a ton of food for $5.50
• It comes with a giant lemon wedge, tartar sauce, and hot sauce.  What more could you want?
• It’s not just whiting… you get your choice of a ton of different kind of fish.
• You can see all the fish in behind the glass on the “market” side
• Really well seasoned
• If they don’t have the combo you want, you can add any piece of fish to any platter for $1 a piece.
• Hush puppies FTW!
• Fried seafood places affiliated with a fresh seafood market is always comforting

THE – (What people who don’t like this place would say)

• I don’t care how good you say it is, I don’t like cheap seafood. It’s cheap for a reason!
• I don’t like fried fish
• That place is so dirty looking!  And it has flies in the seating area…
• You call that a seafood “market”?
• You couldn’t get me to try that potato salad if you paid me
• Fisherman’s Wharf downtown is better and way more convenient for me

Louisiana Pico Seafood, 3601 W. Pico Blvd, 90019