Showing 1-22 of 22 results
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Baja Frut
At this locally loved diner, 'los hotcakes' come with real syrup, juices are fresh, tea means two teabags, the coffee is bottomless, and portions are huge. The chilaquiles (a breakfast dish made with fried tortillas and red or green sauce) are outstanding, and the service is tops.
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Birriería La Guadalajara
Birriería La Guadalajara Birria (stewed goat, beef or lamb) is the specialty here, and you can order it made de (lamb), de res (beef) or de chivo (goat). Big steaming bowls (or tacos, if you wish) will land on your table and keep you energized for hours.
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Bronco's Steak House
Bronco's Steak House Vaquero (cowboy) culture is as alive in the décor here as it is in the hearty and humongous mesquite-grilled steaks that many claim are the best in town. Prices are high, but so is the quality. Great breakfasts.
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Casamar
Casamar's extensive and well-loved menu includes lobster salad, creatively doctored fish filets, a variety of shrimp and scampi dishes, fried frog legs, kabobs, seafood gratin, octopus and loads more. Excellent.
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Cenaduría El Parrian
If you want to eat well for cheap, blow off the gringo traps along López Mateos and join the locals at El Parrian. The small menu of enchiladas, tacos, tamales and tostadas is outstanding. Try the pozole (a hearty pork and hominy soup) and polish it off with a hot mug of champurrado (a chocolate corn drink).
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Einstein
The owner didn't intend his restaurant to become downtown's most popular burger pit, but that's what people kept ordering. So the menu grew to include over a dozen types of burgers. Salads and pastas and a couple of seafood plates (his original idea was natural food) are still on the menu.
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El Charro
This is the place for marinated Mexican-style chicken, grilled or roasted over an open flame. Freshly made tortillas, salsa and other condiments accompany all orders.
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El Corralito
This place serves mediocre antojitos but really shines on weekends, when the nighttime crowd arrives for re-fueling sessions between bar visits. It's a great spot for a margarita on the strip.
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El Palmar
Canopied by a giant palapa , El Palmar is another casual place to enjoy the day's catch. There's live banda (raucous brass-band music with vocals) Friday through Monday to help you digest your food (see Live Music).
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El Rey Sol
Supposedly Mexico's oldest French restaurant (opened 1947), the award-winning El Rey Sol is elegant but relaxed, despite a guest list that includes several Mexican presidents. Full dinners start around US$35 , and the drinks are excellent (the Cadillac margarita is sublime).
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El Taco de Huitzilopochtli
It's worth planning your visit to Ensenada around this restaurant's opening hours. For 32 years it has been serving its mouthwatering mixiote, a unique Texcoco-style dish of lamb wrapped in maguey leaves and cooked for 16 hours in mesquite-fired ovens. Other dishes include tlacoyos (thick, stuffed tortillas in green chili sauce), romeritos (nopal cactus, potatoes and shrimp in a bowl of chocolaty, spicy mole ) and huauzontles (a stuffed and battered broccoli-like vegetable in red sauce).
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El Tlaquepaque
Offering similar fare to El Parrian, this is an excellent family-style eatery concerned more with cooking up good, wholesome food than making money off the cruise-ship casualties.
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La Casa Antigua
Occupying one of Ensenada's oldest little houses, this friendly café serves great coffee, croissants, bagels (bagels!), sandwiches and homemade cakes and cookies.
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La Embotelladora Vieja
The La Embotelladora Vieja is set in a dimly lit wine cellar with giant, old French barrels looming over an elegant dining room. The fare is 'Mexi-terranean' and has a formal atmosphere to it.
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La Esquina de Bodegas
La Esquina de Bodegas is worth a look for its décor alone. It metamorphosed from a former brandy distillery, integrating the ancient drums, vats and pipes into a hip industrial environment. The menu is Mediterranean with Mexican inflections and there is a relaxed air to it.
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Manzanilla
With a wonderful staff, outstanding regional and Italian-influenced cuisine and an atmosphere you'll melt into, Manzanilla is simply tops. The server will start you off with Baja-grown manzanilla olives and house-baked bread and explain each of the dishes, from fresh local oysters to lamb shank and exquisitely prepared fish. The rib-eye steaks, which come from a select ranch in Sonora (the state famous for its beef) are no less than orgasmic.
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Mariscos Bahía
Since its opening in 1970 Mariscos Bahía has become a venerated classic. The halibut came out overcooked during our last visit, but the camarones al mojo de ajo (garlic shrimp), the sidewalk terrace and the delicious margaritas made up for it.
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Mariscos El Cheff
This eclectic, eight-table mom-and-pop joint is revered for its seafood. Fish nets, dangling abalone shells and red tablecloths complete the scene. Great little place.
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Mercado de Mariscos
A visit to Ensenada is hardly complete without a visit to the colorful taco and seafood stands adjacent to the fish market. Women coerce passers-by into their stalls, where giant glass goblets of condiments (which you should lather onto fish tacos) make eating a kaleidoscopic experience indeed.
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Plaza del Marisco
Some argue this cluster of seafood taco stands along Blvd Costero has more reliable quality than those adjacent to the market itself. We found the difference negligible. Try 'em and see.
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Tacos Don Zefe
Not only does Don Zefe serve what are arguably the best seafood tacos in town, it's also the perfect combination of taco stand and restaurant: outdoor tables, a stainless steel bar mounted between two palm trees and friendly counter service.
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Tacos El Fenix
A local institution, El Fenix serves outstanding fish and shrimp tacos to a throng of regulars who harmoniously navigate the condiments bar as cash and tacos change hands at full tilt. Tacos this good at these prices are a steal.
Showing 1-22 of 22 results
