Baja California

La Encomienda Gets the Hype Right but Not the Food or Price

Their high prices don't guarantee good times or even good food for that matter.

[rating]1[/rating]

Since the Baja culinary boom in the last couple of years, we've seen more and more restaurants popping out of nowhere and trying to make a buck out of it instead of serving quality food.

It's sometimes hard to tell the good ones from the bad ones since most of them only try to offer a good atmosphere. But let's not lose sight of what's important: The diner's experience is in the food. In La Encomienda's case, who've failed in taking care of all the details because of their lack of passion.

In my past experiences, this place has never actually been good, however, I decided to give it another try, so let's do this:

Photo: José Sánchez/SanDiegoRed

Everything started well with the bread, it looked and tasted good, and it didn't take long either.

Good eating and good drinking go hand in hand, something that was difficult for us since the wine menu was somewhat confusing. It's organized by wineries in alphabetical order regardless of its grape variety. You would assume that they only have wines from the region, but you actually find Chilean and Spanish wines mixed in a seemingly random way. Again, if you're located in a region that is rich in wine production, why not make the most of it?

But oh well, let's move on to the food.

They brought us fried gizzard which looked delicious, smelled good but… they were undercooked. Bordering on raw. We asked for it to be redone. They did and came back with better results.

The fried gizzard. Photo: José Sánchez/SanDiegoRed.com

We followed it with tuna. I wasn't sure how fresh it was but it was well done. However, it came with a salsa that just didn't pair well with the meal. Served over a bed of vegetables roughly sliced and shyly seasoned, it just wasn't worth it's ridiculous high price.

The sealed tuna wasn't that bad. Photo: SanDiegoRed.com

The tortillas were done right there, something they could do to better its ambiance would be to highlight that fact since it would add to the place's charm. The tortillas are thick, which made them hard to eat and where wrapped in a napkin which meant cold tortillas. As a result, the diners end up asking for them to reheat them or even better, just invest in a basic tortilla holder.

I do want to take a moment to highlight the waiters' kind and courteous attitude but they lack knowledge regarding the restaurant's menu, both their drinks and food and this is a frequent scene, nice waiters but with little to no knowledge when it comes to how the food is made.

For our appetizer, we ordered the parrillada (grilled assortment of meats), but they ended up forgetting the temperature that we asked for it, and they brought us a well done when we had asked for a medium temperature.

The parrillada. Photo: SanDiegoRed.com

The prime cut wasn't a clean one, the fillet cuts were more like steak cuts. The salsas for the meat came to the dish's rescue by adding flavor to the parrillada, which they state to be their specialty. Definitely something that needs improvement.

They also had a "local" Uruguayan chorizo (spicy pork sausage), which gives away the place's confusion, because when you say "local" it means from Baja California, not Uruguay. A failed attempt in trying to make this eastern dish a local one.

We had a salad as a side dish, prepared by the waiter although without much reason for it, except for show,

I suppose. The salad ended up being a poor-man's version of a typical Argentinian or Uruguayan salad, a shame compared to the high-end restaurant level that I was expecting.

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The salad. Photo: SanDiegoRed.com

The flamed Quince cheese confirmed my theory about this restaurant. While it is located in Tijuana, it still needs to get on board with the concept of consuming local products, in this case, the cheese. A small detail which could've truly turned this dish around.

The flamed Quince cheese. Photo: SanDiegoRed.com

The price we paid doesn't reflect the experience we received. A lot of restaurant chains depend on a main restaurant in order to make changes to their menu, I hope it's not La Encomienda's case and makes the corresponding improvements to it. So based on the price to quality ratio, we give it one star.

Want to find try out La Encomienda for yourself?

Here's their website.

And their location Calle Diego Rivera #2479, on the corner of Paseo de los Héroes, Tijuana, B.C.:

Facebook and phone number: (664) 634 3545

More news at SanDiegoRed.com

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editorial@sandiegored.com

Translated by: edgar.martinez@sandiegored.com

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