El agave - old town SD

Old town in San Diego has a number of Mexican places. Streets filled with eateries, cantinas and plenty of tourists. The problem is that many of them are California Mexican, offering the typical combo platter of refried beans, overly tortilla l wrapped options covered in a mild red sauce and not truly capturing the flavors of traditional Mexican dishes.

One restaurant that stands out is El Agave.. A bit down from the mainstream bar hopping marguerita and tequila shooing crowd, it's old wood interior and wall compose of backlit collection of tequila bottles gives it a more classic rustic feel:









Chips and salsa are not the norm.. Light crispy chips are served with a black bean sauce:


A spicy hearty dipping bean sauce.

The Ensalada de mariscos, is a seafood based salad served with grilled calamari, mussels, lobster and avocado topped with a cilantro orange and hint of chipotle dressing..


The carnitas tacos topped with chopped onion and cilantro, were soft tender roasted pork wrapped in a light corn tortilla.. Simple and straighfortward:


A special of the day was a halibut fish, baked and served on a brown rice, cooked with a tomatoe chipotle sauce.. A fantastic portion for $12:



With 100s of tequilas to taste, el agave has a good mixture of California influenced Mexican food with traditional roots. Don't forget to try the tamarind margueritas.. A sweet and mildly paper kick of a drink:


- Posted from my iPhone