Let’s keep the California reports moving. We were last seen eating out in Greater Los Angeles at Chengdu Taste in Alhambra. A couple of days later we headed north towards San Francisco. We took the scenic route to get there, literally: we went up the 101 to Santa Barbara and then took Highway 1 up the coast to Cambria. We stayed a couple of nights in Cambria, venturing further up the coast on Highway 1, before heading inland, back on the 101 to San Francisco. I’ll have a few meal reports to come from our days in San Francisco but here, first, is the lunch we ate in Santa Barbara, just a few hours after setting out from Seal Beach.

We ate at the popular Taquera El Bajio. This checked two items off our travel list: one, as far as possible, eat only Mexican food on the Central Coast; two, keep the meals on driving days as close to the highway as possible. It was also a good choice as Taqueria El Bajio puts out good food in the Cal-Mex style.

It’s a small but charming restaurant, with more tables outside—on the adjoining patio and in front—than inside. The menu features the classics of the Mexican-American restaurant repertoire: your tacos, burritos, sopes, quesadillas etc. There’s also a small board of daily specials in front of the counter where you order. We grabbed a table on the patio, went in and ordered and in good order had a pretty tasty meal.

What did we get? The missus got the fish tacos from the specials board. Made with red snapper, I believe, these were quite tasty. The younger boy got two tacos: one with carne asada and one with tinga de pollo (it’s just pollo on the menu). He was very happy with his food. The older boy got the Quesadilla Bajio. He’d wanted it with carnitas but they were out and so he got it instead with the adobada. He loved it and from the big bite I took I’d say he had the best dish on the table. I got another dish from the specials board: chicken with mole. This was tasty enough but nothing very special. It came with rice and beans and tortillas. The tacos came with green and red salsas which were both very tasty.

For a look at the restaurant, the menu and what we ate, launch the slideshow below. I apologize for the truly poor quality of the food pics. The table we were at one the patio was under a yellow umbrella and it cast a deeply jaundiced light across the food. I tried to sort this out in post-processing but have rendered the food more than a little sterile-looking as a result. Please believe me when I say that the actual food looked very good.

I did not save the receipt but my credit card statement tells me we paid $85 all-in. Perhaps not the Father’s Day lunch of my dreams but a very nice and quick stop on the way up the coast. Certainly a lot better than our dinner, about which more later.

What’s next on the food front? A Seoul report over the weekend and I’m going to try very hard to knock that last New York report out as well. Let’s see how it goes.