If there is one cuisine I can’t say no to, it’s Mexican. Let’s just say, I’ve been known to drive several hours for a tamale festival. And we once wandered through dark alleyways in LA — armed only with iPhones as flashlights — in search of a street stall serving up tacos al pastor. Clearly, our love goes deep for a foodie adventure.

But what could be better than a Mexican restaurant in LA? Well, going to Mexico itself! Kevin and I were recently invited by Juan More Taco to join its “Juan and only” food walking tour in Ensenada. You’ll taste street food as well as eat at the best restaurants in Ensenada. They truly take the guesswork out of the equation. But it’s so much more than your typical city tour. By the end of the 3-hour journey, you’ll have a deeper understanding of Mexico’s history as well as a local perspective on living there. Oh and you’ll definitely eat a lot. And the food is just as delicious as it looks. Check out our journey —

How Long Does it Take to Get to Ensenada From California?

Many of our friends are shocked to hear that we drive to Mexico on our vacation. The trick is to leave outside peak rush hour traffic. The drive from Los Angeles to Ensenada takes about 4 hours. And from San Diego, it is just a little over 2 hours. We typically break up the trip with an overnight in San Diego. Once you cross into Tijuana, Mexico, be sure to stick with the toll roads. Look for the highway labeled “cuota” (or “fee” in English) towards Rosarito. Bring US dollars (in small denominations) to pay the tolls. You can never have too many $1 or $5 bills. We also recommend timing your drive during the day. You won’t want to miss the views along the coast. Or, if you’re Kevin, you’ll use that valuable time to get in a good nap!

Arrival in Ensenada: Meeting Our Guide

Finding the start of the tour was super easy. We met our guide Jazmin at “Fuente Ventana al Mar” (a fountain) just off the boardwalk in downtown Ensenada. If you’re arriving by a cruise ship or staying at one of Ensenada’s downtown hotels, you’re just steps away. The meeting point is in the main port. Be warned, the fountain doesn’t run all the time. But occasionally shoots up with water. So avoid the sidewalk wherever you see puddles. Unless, you know, you’re looking to take a second shower for the day! Jazmin arrived early and was easy to spot since she held up a sign with the company’s logo.

After a brief introduction, Jazmin told us about her background and her true passion for food. She explained that food is an extension of culture. And she was drawn to give food tours to share her love and connection to Mexican dishes such as mole. What is also so great about the tour is that it is different every time. Jazmin customizes it based off each group’s personal preferences. On our walking tour, we’d be making several stops and eating at 5 different places. We were ready!

Stop #1: Tacos at One of the Best Restaurants in Ensenada

The first stop is at one of Ensenada’s most famous eateries, La Guerrerense. The late celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain first visited La Guerrerense in 2012 when it was just a street stall selling fresh seafood on tostada. It was so tasty that he proclaimed it as the “best in the world,” comparing the food to top-end Michelin star restaurants. Since then, owner Sabina Bandera has expanded her food empire and opened up a sit down restaurant just steps away from the original stall.

We were excited to try one of the restaurant’s famed dishes — the seafood tacos. Ensenada fish tacos are legendary. Typically the restaurant gets packed later in the day, but Jazmin timed it perfectly without any wait. At her recommendation, we ordered one fish taco and one with octopus. From here, we followed her to the topping bar. She explained that a topping should match the type of taco you ordered. For example, the octopus taco should stay simple with just a twist of lime. While the fish taco typically is topped with peanuts, green salsa, pico de gallo and mayonnaise. We eat a lot of tacos. Typically, we just slap on whatever we feel like. But our minds were blown with pairing the right flavors. It was the perfect balance.

One dish down, several more to go. We’ve visited Ensenada many times over the past 5 years, and yet somehow we managed to miss some of its gorgeous side streets. As we walked to our next food stop, we passed buildings that were absolutely stunning.

Stop #2: Enjoying Birria, a Popular Stew

This next stop was super popular with large groups and families. But we felt VIP with Jazmin — walking inside and to our table within minutes. At each stop, Jazmin showed us a map of Mexico and the state most famous for each of the dishes we’d be trying. Now, I love a good visual display. But beyond that, it really helps to get a sense of the variety you can find in Mexico. And the importance of food to a person’s heritage and location.

La Guadalajara specializes in birria, a stew that is popular in the states of Jalisco and Michoacán. It’s a special occasion dish that is made with stewed meat, typically lamb and goat. But it also can be made with beef and pork. This was our favorite spot on the tour for the atmosphere alone. Families sat together at long tables while a band blasted in the background. It was the kind of spot we could spend an afternoon just people watching.

And of course, we can’t ever turn down a basket of chips with salsa. So that also earned extra points. We ordered the lamb and goat birria. Then, inhaled 2 baskets of chips!

Kevin felt tempted to order another basket of chips but realized we still had a lot more food to go. So we headed outside and followed Jazmin to check out the Aztec calendar on the side of the restaurant. We would have never spotted this on our own.

It’s here that we learned how deeply-rooted food is in Mexico, where the Aztec god of the sun is also the god of food. Corn tortillas, a staple of Mexican diet, represents the sun (both in color and shape). Going even deeper, each color of the corn represents the time of day — with yellow as dawn, white as the day, red as dusk and blue or black as night. So basically after eating 2 baskets of chips, we were just paying homage to the gods. Or that’s at least what we’ll tell ourselves!

Between Food Stops: Getting a Sense of Everyday Mexican Life

Before the next food stop, Jazmin took us to the spots that locals in Ensenada frequent. It felt worlds away from the cruise port, the Starbucks and tequila bars that line the tourist strip. One of our favorite things to do while traveling internationally is visiting grocery stores. So Jazmin took us inside one that she regularly shops at.

We love seeing something so seemingly common as a grocery store — where food staples in one culture may be completely foreign to another. Avocados, which are plentiful in Mexico, cost just cents in Ensenada. I don’t even want to admit how much I’ve paid for one at the Whole Foods in West Hollywood. Or in Alaska, where avocados are rare, and can cost $10 each. From here, we went to the next shop which specialized in Santeria candles and incense.

These spirt shops are known as a botanica. It’s all about the concept of energy. Looking for some love? Or have some bad vibes around you? They got a candle for that. I’ve seen these candles around LA. But rather than inside a cramped store front, it’s typically inside some trendy yogi shop (with candles priced at $25 if you’re lucky!).

Stop #3: Tasty Tamales 

For the longest time, Kevin and I never ate tamles. Why? Well, we had some pretty bad ones — dried out and flavorless. We managed to get over our tamale fear. In fact, we now eat tamales every weekend. So we’re quite the tamale connoisseurs at this point and have a high bar. The street stall that Jazmin took us to did not disappoint. We never had a tamale as fresh as this — as the woman making the tamale cut the corn off the cob right before our eyes.

Stop #4: Time for More Tacos

We were starting to get pretty full at this point. But it was all so good that we definitely could make the room for more. La Comadre is a tiny spot that serves up one of the best tacos we’ve ever had. In fact, this was our favorite food on the entire tour. At Jazmin’s recommendation we ordered the cochinita (slow roasted pork) and chicken mole tacos.

While both tacos were delicious, the cochinita blew our mind. The meat was flavorful and perfectly balanced with the toppings recommended by Jazmin (cilantro, green salsa and red onions). We will definitely be returning here on our next visit to Ensenada.

Final Stop: Dessert. Trying Rico Pan De Cafe

It was hard to believe our tour was coming to an end. It felt like it just started, which is always a good sign. The dessert stop was a few blocks away, which we were happy about to help pace out all the food we just ate. Along the way, we passed several unique spots like the fish market.

Then, made a quick detour to see some typical Mexican sweets. Jazmin explained each one. Pretty much, a common ingredient (besides sugar) is coconut as well as dates and even pumpkin and nopales (cactus). Another common topping is chili. It’s on just about everything. We’re not big into spicy foods. But it looked pretty!

We finally reached our final stop where we had a dessert that I’ve never heard of prior to the tour called rico pan de cafe. It’s basically a bun that you can customize with fillings such as caramel, condensed milk, jelly and many other combos. Kevin went for the strawberry jelly with cream cheese while I went for straight up Nutella. Think of it as a customizable donut. It was the perfect ending to the tour.

And like magic, we returned back to where it all started. After trying all these spots, we can clearly say that these are some of the best restaurants in Ensenada. In fact, we are already thinking about our next trip back. We’d 100% do this tour again to uncover even more hidden gems and delve deeper into Mexico’s fascinating history and culture.

THE LOW DOWN:

• Juan More Taco food and culture walking tours have been designed to last 3-4 hours (in English, French or Spanish).
• All tours are kept small, allowing plenty of interaction with your guide.
• Don’t worry about getting sick. All restaurants and street stalls are selected based on cleanliness, hygienic standards and quality of food.
• The Ensenada food walking tour departs daily at 10:30 AM and is incredibly convenient, with a starting/ending point in downtown Ensenada.
• Cost: Adults are $59 USD; children (between 7- to 14-years-old) are $39 USD; and infants (6 and under) are free.
• To book your tour, go directly to Juan More Taco’s website.

Heading to Mexico and looking for more ideas? Check out our 3 day action packed itinerary traveling from Ensenada to Valle De Guadalupe. Planning to spend more time in Ensenada and looking for more ideas? We also recommend zipping through the streets of Ensenada on an ATV tour. And be sure to check out all our Mexico stories — and unique travel ideas like diving with crocodiles in Cabo San Lucas (and not losing any limbs in the process!).