Founded in Costa Mesa in 1988, Wahoo's Fish Taco brings its Chinese-Brazilian-Mexican fusion menu to Encinitas's New Encinitas district on El Camino Real. The kitchen grills fish rather than frying it and prepares beans without lard or bacon fat, applying a health-conscious approach to Baja-style tacos that parallels the cold-pressed philosophy at Nekter Juice Bar in the same corridor. A proprietary Chinese chili paste blends garlic, ginger, traditional Chinese paste, and sesame oil into what the chain calls Mr. Lee's secret sauce, an Asian-taco fusion profile the brothers introduced at their 1988 launch, roughly twenty years before the Kogi truck popularized the crossover genre. Surf-culture branding runs deep: the founding Lee brothers attended San Diego State University, and the sticker-covered walls and surfboard displays at each location reflect sponsorships of surf competitions and partnerships with Vans and Quiksilver that distinguish it from the organic-taco concept at Haggo's Organic Taco. Signature builds layer charbroiled wahoo or mahi mahi with citrus slaw, white sauce, and the house chili paste inside a stone-ground corn tortilla pressed to six inches.