If you’re a fan of excellent Mexican food in the Los Angeles area, go check out Sausal in the city of El Segundo. Between its delicious food and excellent service, it seems to be a popular place to go.

We’ve been trying to have a date night each month this year (and post about it on the first Friday of every month). While we were able to have an intimate night out last time, we weren’t quite so lucky this time. But that’s fine by us–the kids are more than welcome to tag along if they want.

Sausal is in El Segundo, California not too far away from LAX. I wouldn’t suggest it’s walkable from the airport, but if you happen to be south of LAX and want a good Mexican restaurant, this is a good option. The restaurant also participates with Resy, which is good for those of us with Resy credits. We had made a reservation for a Sunday evening and it seemed required given how crowded the restaurant was even at 5PM.

The Menu

When we were seated at our table, we were handed quite a few menus, including the standard dinner menu, the happy hour menu, the Dine LA menu, and the kids menu. I’m a fan of restaurants having happy hour everyday, which is how Sausal handles it each day from 3PM to 6PM.

We were also around for Dine LA week. Normally we don’t visit too many restaurants during this promotion as I feel like many places offer mediocre value. It’s not fun when you get a “deal” but need to eat items that you normally wouldn’t want. However, I felt like Sausal had a good menu for this promotion, which included a margarita.

Not listed on their website, but it’s also nice to see that there is a small kids menu available. Kids get a choice of a mini quesadilla or a single kid’s taco. The price isn’t listed, but it’s $8.50 for a kids entree and $1.50 for a kids drink.

Our table was in the corner near the kitchen. However, we didn’t get a chance to check out the kitchen via the big window behind the table.

The Food

While we were asked if we wanted to break up the courses with appetizers first, followed by the main courses, we decided instead to just have the kitchen send everything at once. That is our usual method if the kids are present to help prevent grumpiness on their end.

Drinks

Shortly after ordering, the first to arrive were the perfectly-concocted rancho margaritas. Someone over at the bar must have loved us as they came out on the stronger side. Maybe we should have winked at the bartender a bit more as a result.

Kids meal

The first food to arrive included Char’s kids meal, which was a quesadilla and rice. We loved it because the tortilla used is quite fresh and the rice is rich and buttery with bits of corn in it.

Appetizers

We ordered two meals off the Dine LA week. The first came with the Fresh Ceviche Tostada with Coconut Leche de Tigre appetizer. We found the dish light and very flavorful. If we were to compare it to the ceviche we had at Baha Mar, we preferred this one a bit more due to all the extra flavor. It also was accompanied by their massive tortilla chips, which were every bit as fresh and crunchy as you would want them to be.

For the other Dine LA meal, we ordered a Caramelized Onion & Manchego Cheese Empanada. If you’re a fan of empanadas, I think this one stacks up pretty well. Of course, it only came with one so it left us wanting a little more at the time.

Next, we ordered a bowl of pozole for the table. If you’ve never tried, you can think of pozole as a yummier chicken noodle soup (just replace the noodles with hominy). This one hits the spot if you’re looking for something warm and comforting.

The last appetizer we ordered were some nachos. I feel like every time we order nachos, we end up feeling overly stuffed. This one wasn’t quite as massive as nachos we’ve had at other places, but you can definitely taste the freshness here. Given everything else we ordered, I’d say it probably wasn’t necessary and I found it the weakest item here. But it’s still a good guilty pleasure.

Entrees

For our entrees, we only ordered the two main courses from the Dine LA menu. First up is the grilled salmon, which had a strong flavor. Of course, that’s typical of salmon, but the glaze that covered it added a bit more flavor to it. The fish paired nicely with the succotash underneath it. I liked this dish and made me feel a little less guilty about the other choices I made.

Lastly, if you’re in for a heavier main course, the carne asada is never a bad option. This was the dish that Alex was looking forward to and he gobbled it up quite quickly. The steak came alongside some of that rich butter rice, beans, guacamole, and a couple of fresh, warm tortillas. This is a pretty safe option if you’re a fan of red meat.

Dessert

We always do the dangerous thing of agreeing to check out the dessert menu regardless of how full we feel. There was only one thing on the menu that appealed to us: Chocolate Tres Leches cake. Naturally, we ordered one for the table.

The Chocolate Tres Leches cake was certainly moist and it had plenty of chocolate in it. Personally, it reminded me more of a brownie than it did tres leches. Perhaps that’s the effect chocolate can have on a dish. I liked it, though it was pretty filling after a heavy dinner.

The kids actually received free cookies and cream ice cream. It’s supposed to come with the kids meal, but our server went ahead and gave it for free to Alex as well. That was nice of her!

Recommendation: Yes

Overall we enjoyed our meal here at Sausal and would consider coming back here again. The service was excellent and the food was quite delicious. It helps when the restaurant also counts for those Resy credits, but that’s just an extra bonus. Even if we didn’t have a card that would earn us those credits, I could see us still wanting to come back. Moreover, we certainly enjoyed the fact that the restaurant is quite kid-friendly, which made our decision to bring the kids even better. Thus, if you’re ever in the mood for some excellent Mexican food like we were, and you happen to be in the LAX area, I’d recommend checking this spot out.

While you’re in Los Angeles, check out our other reviews of local restaurants, including Bestia, Kato, and Baltaire.