La Cocina de Doña Esthela - Valle d Guadalupe

I am spending the day in Ensenada with a Punta Abreojos family and they invited me to go out to breakfast at a restaurant that is quite famous around these parts....I had never heard of it, not surprising since I don't really know much about Ensenada/Valle de Guadalupe at all. Here is the road we took to get there and some signs we saw along the way:











the sign on the far left is restaurant sign:







Here is the outside - the parking lot is huge. When we got there the restaurant was full, 30 min. later it was PACKED. The story is that a novela /soap opera was filmed not too far away and the famous actors all came here to eat ... which put the place on the map for locals:

















When I looked up the place online, it says that it was voted the best breakfast in the world by someone in the UK. And I gotta say: they make their own corn tortillas that are soft and bigger than usual and very tasty. Apparently, the have a special oven and bake a bread (we didn't try it) that is wonderful. One in our group had the

HUEVOS RANCHEROS:







I had SPINACH N MACHACA OMELETTE:





however, the house specialty (which I am not fond of) is the beef birria and the lamb barbacoa:







They make a café de olla that is so tasty! I don't even drink coffee anymore but it was so highly praised that I tried it...ohhhhhhhhhhh if you like coffee, give it a whirl:







I forgot to mention that the first thing they bring you is chips,salsa and fresh homemade cheese. The queso fresco is not as salty or chewy as some are. My mouth drools as I think about it!








and here are some random photos I took today around town:


















and the whole reason I am on this trip is that I went to visit my son who is in the air force and just bought himself a house in Texas. My granddaughter is so cute and somehow convinced me to give her a piggy backride. I was laughing so hard because I knew I should say NO but who the heck can deny a kid who is begging for a ride? Not this grandma! I thought I would be incapacitated but God watches out for us grannies:








and back to the thread, I found this on the internet:


La Cocina De Doňa Esthela
4.7 out of 5
71 Google reviews

Address: Rancho San Marcos el Porvenir, Domicilio Conocido S/N, El Porvenir, B.C.
Phone: 01 646 156 8453

I was told the area is called EL TIGRE



and here is more of what I found:


LONDON, UK – On Sunday, May 31, Valle de Guadalupe restaurant La Cocina de Doña Esthela was awarded “Best Breakfast in the World” by international culinary website and mobile app FoodieHub. The award was presented at the organization’s third annual global awards ceremony held at famed eatery, St. John Bread & Wine in London. Soho chef Martin Morales presented the award, which was accepted on behalf of Doña Esthela by Nicholas Gilman of the website Good Food in Mexico City.

La Cocina de Doña Esthela’s traditional Mexican cooking was “discovered” by the hungry cast and crew of a telenovela (soap opera) filming at the nearby Hacienda la Lomita vineyard a few years ago. Word of her traditional Mexican breakfasts spread and tables have been packed with locals and hungry day-trippers from Baja and Southern California every weekend since…










[Edited on 9-24-2016 by BajaBlanca]

La huh?

Blanca, the beef birria and the lamb barbacoa looks great. Thanks for the review. I will definitely try it our next time through.


La huh huh?

Quote: Originally posted by TMW

The guy in the seventh picture down before the food is on one of the TV cooking channels. He eats a lot of weird stuff usually.

Quote: Originally posted by Whale-ista

Thanks for mentioning Mustafa's. When I lived in San Miguel in the 90s, Mustafa's was one of the few places to eat in GV/San Antonio. They offered a good reason to head out to "el campo" for scenic Sunday drive and meal, along the narrow, winding 2 lane road. How things have changed!

Before Ali and Nellie built Mustafas the place to eat in San Antonio de las Minas was "El Meson."

It was built, owned and operated by Jorge, a retired aerospace engineer from El Segundo and his wife. They were both dual citizens, good looking people and had a very nice place. It was very popular on the weekends with the Ensenada crowd. I remember Jorge played good music, served good food and disdained chilangos.

Chilango bashing was popular in those days as Baja felt disconnected from Mexico and in some ways resented Mexico's treatment of Baja. Jorge's wife passed away much too young and El Meson eventually became employee owned due to a lawsuit settlement. El Meson still operates today in the same spot, first up in the queue on the south side.

Then came Mustafas just up and across the road from El Meson.

Next to open, about a klick up and back on the south side was "Corre Caminos." It was opened by Pancho, proprietor of "Pancho's Llanteria," which conveniently was located next door west.

The joke in el Valle was when they threw nails out on the road at least you got a place to eat while they fixed your tire.

Soon enough Jouquin, who was a regular at the morning liars club meetings at Mustafas, opened his place. Los Naranjos was 2-3 klicks up Hgy 3 and on the north side.

It was after that I noticed they all did a nice business. Noticed too more entrepreneurs were arriving and they had ideas and money.

As the social disorder caused by Salinas de Gotari and currency devaluation began to subside a parallel economy emerged. This parallel economy uses cash. The Valley changed. Adios Valle.

30 years ago I remember being at El Mesons and first noticing the construction beginning on Mustafa's. We were laughing at the thought that anyone could think the area could or would support another restaurant. Oh well, wrong again.