So, we took the drive down from Santa Barbara to Rosarito back on August 7th, and it was a good drive. The border crossing was a little long, but not bad at all. Our destination was a restaurant called El Nido, they are famous for their steaks, so we wanted to give it a shot. Now, I only went because we recently got our Sentri card, which trust me makes the trip back to the US a lot quicker. Now, I know you are asking yourself, why would I go there especially with Rosarito having the worst cases of the COVID-19. Yes, I later found out that Rosarito has had a large increase in COVID-19 cases, the worst in the area, but it seems they did not care and were having the Rosarito Baja Beach Fest. Now according to their website, they did make it a requirement for all attendees to mask, show proof of vaccination or negative test results 72 hours prior to arriving, so they did do their due diligence, now if they enforced it is another story – not saying they didn’t. By the way it looks like the festival continues this weekend. All we did is go for lunch, and it was not too bad, hopefully, you were able to watch the video I posted. Anyhow, we were extremely careful, the restaurant we went to, everyone happened to have their masks on and of course, we did too, and the place was clean.
I order the Filet Mignon with some crispy shrimp and loaded baked potato. Now, the flavor of the food was out of this world, but the steak was cold and overcooked and the baked potato was cold. The shrimp were on spot, delicious. I had two beers, they only sell in bottles, which are pricey. I also had a glass of Remi Martin which is a cognac. My daughter ordered the rib eye with a baked potato, and both my son and his mom order Sirloin steak, with my son getting scallops and his mom getting garlic shrimp for their sides. My son’s food was perfect, but his mom’s food was cold and the shrimp were not really that good. Got two can drink and two margaritas also very pricey. The total came out to be $197.33 not including the tip for us four; my thought was I could get the same exact dinner at the same price in the states, and most of the time the food comes out right – maybe not all the time. The thing is that I remember back in the days eating in Mexico was cheaper. I do need to keep in mind that I was probably in a tourist area and there seemed to be a festival happening so prices were probably inflated. My overall experience about the restaurant, I would not return, and not because of the rice but what we got for the price, which was overcooked food and cold. I do have to say the experience was fun. Now it is not to say that if you happen to go to El Nido, you might experience better food, but keep in mind that it is a pricey restaurant, so be prepared to pay. We did notice a lot of little off-the-strip restaurants that were cheaper and they seem to have a good turnout of people, so we might be taking another trip down to Rosarito.
Of course, we did not stick around for the festival, which later I saw on social media that it was extremely crowded, it looked a lot of fun, but it was crowded. We did walk around a bit and the streets were crowded at lunchtime, people were out and about, buying things, and doing a lot of drinking. I mean almost every corner had a little pop-up station where they would make you these drinks in a pottery cup, and let me tell you, from what I saw they loaded them with a whole lot of liquor – I am sure they were not cheap. The trip was nice, we crossed the border at the Otay Mesa crossing in about 2 minutes. We use Otay because the Sentri lane is a lot easier to get to than the San Ysidro port of entry. If you decide to head to Rosarito. I recommend checking the Rosarito tourist calendar because there might be a festival or something big going on when you go, so you are prepared to see a large crowd or long border waits.
Once again I thank you for stopping by and I leave you with this thought, “Anytime you visit a town whether in the states or abroad take a look at the town touristic calendar, they usually have one and check out what is going on in their city or town, that way you will be prepared for whatever adventure you might have – safe travels”.