El 7 Mares

The waitress was horrible! Didn’t even get our salads. Plus for a carne asada and shrimp plate, I only got two shrimps!

I went to this place on a day when it wasn’t busy, but the service still managed to be very slow. We were sat down along with some chips and salsa then about 15 minutes later we were asked what we wanted to drink. Along with the drink order we put in our food order which consist of a shrimp cocktail without onions and a combination plate with two beef taquitos and a cheese quesadilla. About 20 minutes later the food comes out and the cocktail has onions and the combination plate has one taquito and its chicken not beef and 1 enchilada… the cocktail was returned and i said F it with the combo plate… the rice and beans were as salty as the ocean, the taquito was ok and enchilada was sauuucy… and not in a good way. After we payed and left we agreed, NEVER AGAIN!

El 7 Mares this is the sit-​down place on Philadelphia. The fast food version on Whittier Blvd. seems to have better quality and less hassles. The only benefit is they have a bar and they have a whole cooked fish on the menu.
The negative is the service is always bad. The plates of food are huge and are priced higher compared to the Whittier blvd location. The Mariachi band is hit or miss and are always loud to interfere with a dinner conversation. It is also a bit out of the way for a few blocks from Whittier Blvd. and from Greenleaf Ave. (the main drag of Uptown)

There’s a few bad reviews on here due to service. Forget all that. All that matters here is: if you need ceviche in Whittier, don’t go anywhere else! It is great here. An entrée order of it will be more than enough for two people. I’ve had it both dining in and taken out. Both ways are great. apparently you might want to lower your expectations with service, but my wife and i had no issues with anything like that. i would recommend it to anybody.

we happened to pop in here on st. valentine’s day after hanging out with my parents who live in whittier… it was almost 10pm, i was starving and this place is open til 11pm~!!
they start you off with a basket of the best chips, a bowl of limes [they are not stingy with the limes either!!] and two kinds of tasty salsa… both with good heat.
i usually order something al mojo de ajo… it’s my favorite way to eat seafood and on this night i went with the pulpo… octo. they chop up the tentacles and cook it up with tons of garlic and butter and serve them in a metal dish with some seasoned white rice and fried potato wedges on the side, and tortillas of your choice [corn for me, plz]…which is all so tasty with a buncha lime and some of their house salsa~! they offer a variety of bottled salsas on the table, but i never mess with those since the home made stuff is so much better.
the food is so reasonably priced, as well as the drinks. our dos equis amber came with a salt rimmed mug and a dash of lime juice in the bottom… i live for those extra little touches: P
the downfall is the service; it’s so inconsistent. on nights when this place is void of all customers the servers ignore you, but on bustling nights with the mariachi band [which was really fun and entertaining~!] and almost a full house, we got the sweetest, most attentive server lady in the place~! i think the food makes up for the sometimes loopy service.
3.75 estrellas :)