Spencer Makenzie’s Fish Company

Found this place on accident during a food stop in SLO. Grilled fish & shrimp burrito was pretty good and so were the fish tacos. I saw the blackened salmon salad after I already ordered so I might have to try that next time. I like the fact they have 4 bottles of hot sauce at each table. The sauces are really good and made the meal.

My love for the original Ventura location stands as one of my favorite restaurants anywhere.
But in all fairness and honesty This ‘Yelper’ can only now give the SLO location 3 stars. This is a good restaurant, sometimes fair, sometimes AMAZING. On a good day it’s a fantastic 5 stars, but due to inconsistent results on a day like I had today about 2 ½ stars. The food is fresh and good to great quality. The inconsistency problem is squarely in preparation and ratio of great ingredients on hand in the kitchen, this is a problem with the cooks and local manager oversight. There’s a reason the Ventura location is so loved, consistently great food. What’s missing in SLO is consistency.
What I’m trying to say is try this restaurant. If it’s not great, please try it again and you may find it to be a totally different experience and then maybe even share my same love of several of their dishes. If you ate here based on my previous reviews and a bad experience I’m truly sorry for steering you wrong, they really can do better. When portion ratios and quality preparation are on point it, Spencer Mackinzie’s food equals LOVE, but today was SHAME. More disappointing, the SLO manager and a manager from Ventura location were at end of service counter chatting, and by their presence in my mind they let sub par product be served.
Today’s visit, 2 orders Ahicado, and 1 order ceviche.
Ahicado could have been perfect but ahi tuna in both servings had not been trimmed of sinuous membrane fiber. So we had tasty ahi tuna with chewy membranes that we both spit out. If prep cooks are trimming the ahi themselves train your cooks how to prepare, or if you supplier delivers pre cubed (industry reality) change suppliers. Very distracting too what should have been a great signature dish.
Ceviche — was a wonderful vegi salad of red, yellow, and green bell peppers, and cubed red radish with a little cucumber, cilantro, and hot pepper (jalapeño ?), oh and a tad (as in very small amount) of white fish and shrimp (less than 1 ounce of fish/​shrimp) topped with sliced avocado. Tasty? Yes. Ceviche? No.
Order was take out for simple dinner at home. When the ceviche appeared to be lacking «ceviche» I actually picked out all the fish and shrimp and weight it on a home food scale, then weight the rest so I’m not guessing how little fish, I was actually surprised because cubed radish looks a lot like fish in this mix.
I will continue to eat here, chasing that great food I crave and dream of, but only get part of the time. I can be satisfied with what I got today, but it’s not the food that makes me crave it. I don’t feel ripped off, just let down because they can do better. Today was meh. Based on empty store at early dinner time maybe others have given up, don’t give up, please complain loudly and honestly to the managers. I know that I can eat here again in the future and have a fantastic meal, so I will keep eating here, but I also know some meals will be on the low end of good. If all meals were amazing I’d be eating here weekly or even more frequently, not monthly.

My husband kept telling me I needed to try this place. He was right! Spencers’ does one hell of a fish taco. The central coast is full of places offering fish tacos, but I have to say this place has the best. The ahi tacos are THE BEST! The staff is really great also. always friendly and helpful. Now please do a second location in Pismo Beach. Pretty please?!

I’ve been wanting to write this for a while, just never had the time. SM’s is finally going to make that location on the corner of Marsh and Santa Rosa work for the first time since the Chinese food place left!
The first time I had the fish tacos, excellent.
Next time the ceviche – even better.
Next time ordered the fish tacos, but the f-​ed up and made a fish burrito for me instead – I thought what the heck I’ll give it a go – AWESOME. If you are looking for a Mexi-​style burrito, skip this one, but if you want a yummy treat, and like fish, this is great!
Today, I asked the friendly girl behind the counter what was her favorite – she said the «Parker Burger». This is the best Ahi burger ever! Really good.
The food and service are 5 stars, but two things brought this down to 4 stars–
1. tropical ice tea. if you must ruin ice tea, please leave us normal humans some real tea (which would outsell that crap anyway!).
2. Cold in there! I’m a Cali native, and today was cold for SLO (low 50’s) and they left the door open.

Drove from Santa Maria to see if this place was all it was Unilocaled to be and we were disappointed. I can’t say the food was not good but it wasn’t anything special I had the fish and shrimp burrito and it wasn’t what I was looking for in a burrito it was made with white sticky rice and was not too warm my first thought was this reminds me of a spicy tempura roll especially with the sweet chili fire sauce the clam chowder was also good but not great it was more of a chicken chowder then clam chowder if I wanted chowder I’d definitely rather spend my money at splash. The fish and chips were slightly undercooked and had a doughy flavor from the batter. The place wasn’t horrible but it was not great considering the food, prices and mediocre customer service. I probably won’t be back there are too many better restaurants in slo.

I have eaten here a few times and the shrimp/​fish burrito has been a hit or miss. Sometimes you get a lot of shrimp/​fish and sometimes it’s mostly filled with rice. Either way the burrito is really good, make sure you get it brooklyn style. The Ahi pocket and Wontons are also a must to try when you are there.

Stopped in for a beer and lunch about 12:30 on Halloween Saturday. Sat at counter. Good choices for draft beer if you like IPA. And I do. Ordered the street tacos. Two carne asada and one shredded chicken. Let me just say fabulous. There was so much meat, it fell out of the corn tortilla. Sure the shells are small. They are street tacos after all. Anyway great tacos.
Updating. 12÷7÷15. Came in for the 2 for 1 fish tacos. Once again they were great! Was greeted as I walked in even though she was busy and was only front staff working. Enough taco stuffing to fill each of the two shells that came with each taco.

Mediocre at best. Read the positive Unilocal reviews and decided to grab some tacos during our road trip. The tacos are fine, not great. We had the ‘world famous’ fish tacos and shrimp tempura tacos. The tacos were bigger than I expected, but fairly bland and served with odd taco toppings (red and yellow bell peppers?).

The service was fantastic! The staff was incredibly friendly and helpful– and answered all of our questions. I ordered the fish & chips, but didn’t read where it said the batter is a tempura batter. Still delicious, but has a different flavor and texture. The tartar sauce was pretty good too! The fries are quite tasty and perfectly cooked. Slightly crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. My fiancée thought they were slightly undercooked on the inside– but my preference is a bit more firm.
We lucked out and it wasn’t busy when we went. Our food was hot and delicious.
It’s reasonably priced as well!
I’m excited to try more menu items the next time we’re in town!

After reading all the «rave» reviews about this place, we could not wait to give it a try. Who doesn’t love fish tacos?! And claiming to be the «worlds best» made us even more eager to try this place.
The presentation of the food is beautiful just like in the pictures posted on Unilocal but that’s the only reason I would even give this place a star rating. The food was below mediocre. Boring, bland, nothing special, nothing that would get me in the door again. Claiming to have the worlds best fish tacos is a title they should not claim and for anyone who thinks they have the best, well, you’ve never had yourself a fresh fish taco bursting with flavor. Fresh being the key word.
We were overall very disappointed and won’t be recommending or returning.

Didn’t expect too much from this place because both times I drove by it, it wasnt crowded. Togoed food from here to eat on the train for dinner. So ended up eating it 2 hours after we ordered/​bought and it still tasted great. The the ahi pocket, fish & shrimp burrito, and grilled fish (east coast haddock) were shared between me, my mom, and sis. If I were to go back, I would order the fish & shrimp burrito.
Everything tasted goood. Make sure to try their homemade hot sauces. They are amazeballs! This restaurant is almost a fushion of asian, mexican, seafood. Hahah

I visited this spot while in SLO on a business trip and decided to stop in for some fish tacos and an ice cold brew. The place is very spacious and open located right in downtown. It was about 330pm on a Wednesday afternoon, which might have been during happy hour. I ordered 2 battered fish tacos and a Sculpin IPA. All came out to about $ 11.
After sitting at the bar area for about 7 minutes or so, my food came out. Spencer’s has 2 sauces for the tacos, a sweet chili sauce and a pretty spicy sauce (yikes, I forget the names) all I can say is that both sauces on the freshly fried fish tacos were AMAZING. It’s a nice touch that they add bell peppers on their tacos along with the cabbage.
The tacos were pretty big so I think anyone would be satisfied by two. I was full by just one and took the second back to my hotel. I would definitely recommend this place if you’re craving a fish taco and amazing hot sauce. Plus, they play great music.

So this was a tough to review to write. If I would have known a couple things about the place before going in it may of been a better experience. This is my bad for not checking out the Unilocal info and reviews. But I was in a pinch and this place was one of the only places open that looked good. But anyway lets talk about it shall we?
So as I was looking at the menu I was just thinking how expensive the tacos were. We are talking $ 5 – 6.00 a taco depending on the type of fish. Now I am usually expecting a average size taco so I order a few for myself and a few for my wife. We get the order to go and when I get home I realized that I would of been fine with just two tacos. These are monsters! Packed with a nice veggie slaw and fish. I felt maybe even one and a half was enough.
They have all kinds of different hot sauces which be warned they do get hot if you are an amateur. I liked the tacos quite a bit, the ahi was great and the fish felt like it was fresh. The salsas I grabbed were all fantastic, they were hot but very good. Just keep in mind you dont need three tacos here and they place is a little pricey. If you are an out of towner I would give this spot a try for lunch. CHEERS!!!

I came across this place after reading good reviews on Unilocal (but of course). Not quite a hole in the wall, but it’s not a franchise, it’s unique to San Luis Obispo. We decided to go here after seeing the line at Splash Café. Plus, we wanted something different.
It’s main motif are the tacos, especially the fish tacos. I will admit that I didn’t have them, because being from Los Angeles, I’ve had my share of great fish tacos right within my city. They have classic favorites like fish and chips, clam chowder, calamari, and the like. I got the fish and chips, and the portion was plenty. Lots of fries and 3 big pieces of fried fish. It was very fresh and their tartar sauce was amazing! On the tables, they have an array of hot sauces that they make themselves. My favorite was the spicy tropical one. There are also a couple of mild ones thrown in too, for those with a milder liking. Fries were seasoned very well and their coleslaw tasty and not saturated with mayo like most places.
Another thing I love about it is that it’s a sit down restaurant with no waiter. You walk up the counter, order your food and they bring it to you, which I think is great, because sometimes you want the quickness of fast food, but the quality of a great restaurant.
Will be back again…

I have to echo Luke W’s sentiments about Spencer’s. After seeing the rave reviews and lavish praise on Unilocal (and seeing «world famous best taco» and «America’s best burrito» splashed on their menu), I thought I was going to be in for some game-​changing fish tacos and burritos.
The Fish & Shrimp Burrito looked tasty but when I bite into it all I tasted was white flavorless rice and lettuce. The fish was bland and I could barely find any shrimp. I tried putting all the house sauces (4 variations offered on every table) on it to awaken the flavors but I still couldn’t find the flavor I was looking for.
The fish taco fared much better for me. It’s garnished with colorful cabbage, mango salsa, cilantro, lime and cheese. You can get it grilled or fried or anointed with Brooklyn sauce (a sweet and spicy house sauce). The Brooklyn sauce helped ramp up the flavors and the lime imparts a bright refreshing acidity. I would definitely go Brooklyn style if you like a little creamy kick.
The surf theme is nice with surfboard-​lined walls and pictures of colorful surf scenes. It’s clean and spacious and there is plenty of indoor and outdoor seating with large flat screens and some bar seating. They serve beer and wine too.
Spencer’s would be a good option for Happy Hour 2-​for-​1 tacos Monday through Thursday, 3 – 5 p.m. If I’m craving some fish tacos while in town, I might be back to Spencer’s. SLO is home to many of my favorite seafood joints, so it might be hard for me to find my way back in the near future.

Totally agree with Luke’s comments below (6/25/15)…shrimp burrito was bland, couldn’t even find any shrimp, way too much flavoredless rice (and we LOVE rice). Some kind of flavor was definitely needed. I tried each of the bottles on the table but couldn’t seem to fix it.
The fish tacos were large and pretty good («world famous» hmmmmm?); I kept biting into something chewy (dried out fish?) I know this restaurant is fairly new, so I might try it again on another visit to SLO, maybe try something different on the menu.
(Note: Something unusual happened while we were eating… a fairly large wall art suddently fell off the wall and onto a table. Luckily, people were seated at surrounding tables but not there. No earthquake or ruckus or anything causing it, it just suddenly came downl… weird.)

Greasy tempura veggies with a state fair batter sprinkled with grated white cheese:
One time deal
Tempura fish taco with hardly any fish; mostly shredded cabbage and red and yellow peppers: Not recommended
The ran out of fresh ahi tuna…
Not coming back!
Better choice for fish tacos:
Taco Roco on Broad St
Cabo San Luis on Santa Rosa
Taco Temple in Morro Bay
Rose’s Landing in Morro Bay

It’s tough to give a place a low rating, but I had been wanting to come here for some time, and finally made it in the other day.
After looking through the menu, the obvious item that jumps out at you is the FIveThirtyEight Top 20 Burrito. How could you NOT try this?!
Well, I have never heard of FiveThirtyEight and now I see why…
Don’t get me wrong, I love burritos with rice and all kinds of fillings, but this was a big disappointment.
The burrito was bland, the rice to protein ratio, and the accompanying sauce was just way off. Far far too much rice, and the fish inside was bland and dry. The ‘spicy’ sauce inside was not spicy and it just lacked any kind of character or reminder of taste.
The 5 accompanying sauce bottles were a nice touch but I see that they have so many to choose from because obviously you’d need to add something… anything, really, to get some flavor injected into this burrito. So sad. As I wanted to be over the moon about it.
We had to ask 2 – 3 times for cocktail sauce, tarter sauce, spicy sauce, and other items that I was surprised were not more readily available.
The cashier was friendly!
I still think this place might be secretly good (except for the burrito) as I tried some of their ahi at Firestone Walker Beerfest, and it was fantastic, but this review is not for that…
Needless to say, I will come back and try something different, and update my review. But as it stands on the burrito and my first experience… it’s a pass.

Let me start off by saying that growing up in California allows for some serious experience with thousands, yes thousands, of fish taco variations. From Tijuana street style to tempura teriyaki and everything in between you’re never more than 10 minutes away from some restaurant that is slaying that fish taco goodness.
Upon my discovery of a new fish taco spot here in SLO my interest was pure, natural and unadulterated. As young child who discovers a new toy in the TV commercial between cartoons and has to have it. So naturally I waited a few months before indulging in my fantasy to ensure the business had sufficient time to get nestled into their new spot and fine tune the execution of such a highly prized food celebrity that is the Ca fish taco.
We went stopped on week day early evening and appreciated the clean and contemporary design and execution of the interior of the restaurant. The front counter girl was pleasant and incredibly patient answering all of my 20 questions about the restaurant, the food, and happy to give personal recommendations.
The famous fish taco is basically non-​negotiable when they advertise it as top rated and world renowned. Don’t quote me there but it was in that realm of claims. Needless to say they were DAMN good and quite customizable which is a big plus. Especially for those more particular people.
Multiple house made sauces all at your fingertips at each table only adds to the experience and allows for an additional level of flavor and enjoyment to anything you order.
I am almost done, promise! All in all this is a SOLID addition to our ever growing food scene here in SLO and we will definitely be going back for more.
Not so much as a criticism but a personal choice is that they ease up a bit on the white sauce, maybe they called it the spencer sauce, can’t remember. It was great but that’s only my personal taste preference.
Check it out if you’re looking for some damn good and actually quite creative seafood options in a casual modern setting in downtown. Oh yeah they also have been and wine to wash it all down!

Num Num fish tacos and burritos! I’ve wanted to try this place for a while and finally did. We didn’t see the Two for One taco deal that are Monday — Thursday between 3 – 5, but will definitely be back to have that. The service was very friendly and fast, no complaints there (though it did seem that there was more cashiers in the front than registers, a few of them just stood around).
When ordering, the cashiers would ask if you want Brooklyn sauce with that but I’d like it if there was an explanation somewhere on the sign that was stuck on the cash register. We ordered a Ahi Taco and a Fish and Shrimp Burrito. I forgot to ask what kind of fish was in the burrito but it was pretty good. The place itself looks pretty welcoming, good for bigger groups and such. The open kitchen is nice since you can have a bar seat and watch the meals be made. I’m not surprised by the flies… since it was a big open door entrance, but they could probably do something that’ll prevent the flies from coming in. It’s not that appetizing to have to eat with flies buzzing near by. My only other complaint about the cleanliness is that the tables are really sticky. It feels like they just wiped things off with a cloth when cleaning the tables.
Food came fairly and was delivered to our table. The burrito looked a little lonely by itself in the basket but boy was it delicious. I was a bit surprised that the rice in it was plain white rice (no flavored rice? or even a simple cilantro rice?). At least the excessive amount of sauce made up for the plain rice in flavor. The sauce did overpower everything else and leaked to the bottom (sad soggy bottom). It kind of made me want to dissect this burrito and eat it with a fork and knife. As for the taco that had the Brooklyn sauce, it shows in the menu picture that the Ahi to have a just a sear on the outside of the fish but it was completely cooked for ours. The taco was delicious but the spiciness did linger with us a bit after the meal. I’d probably just ask for less sauce next time.
Final Thoughts: Will definitely be back here to have the Two for One taco deal. The prices are fairly reasonable too. Everything tastes pretty fresh so I’m happy for that :]