Finca Altozano — Restaurant in Baja California

Situated in the middle of a vineyard, it's a scenic location and would be especially nice on a warm summer evening. But it seems to be a victim of its own success. It's crowded on a Saturday evening and the food, while good, is really overrated.

We had reservations at 6:30pm on Saturday the 25th and arrived a bit early. The place was full, mostly of very large parties. The tables turned at least once, with other large parties, during our meal. It was crowded to the point where service really suffered. We were seated immediately, but had a very long wait to be noticed. Then the food was served immediately and things just felt very rushed.

We had the tabla de queso and chistorra y chorizo for appetizers. While good, they were not great. Several pieces of the cheese were the rind sections. Really? By the way, the baked-on-site bread is very, very good.

For mains, my GF had the brisket dish, which was braised in a lovely sauce. The closest American equivalent I can think of would be pot roast. It was quite good.

The menu lists two New York strips - the larger, 28-day aged one, and the "Ranchero" one. I asked for the former, but there was some sort of miscommunication and I got the latter. I told the mesero that I received the wrong steak. He then proceeded to argue with me. I said that there were TWO on the menu, and that this was NOT my fault. He then started this tap dance about how the steak was already here, it was already prepared, etc., etc., Clearly he did NOT want to return it. Now I expect this kind of treatment at a local joint. But I've eaten at most of Grupo Plascencia's places in TJ (Casa Plascencia, Caesar's, Mision 19) and never had an issue with service. On the VERY rare occasions where there is a problem, it's always Yes, sir. I'll fix it. So, now I'm really angry and wondering if I should call over the manager and really make an issue, or not. I decided not, and just held up my palm and waved him away. He came back later and tried to explain that, since I had ordered my steak medium-rare he naturally assumed I wanted the other, because the aged steaks always came out of the kitchen more "well-done." BS.

Anyway, about the steak itself. Mexican's tend to cut their steak much thinner than Americans. This was no exception. It was properly cooked, and was just slightly on the rare side of mid-rare. The grill is actually a large sort of fire pit with huge flames, so kudos to the grill masters. Now Mexicans tend to season things on the salty side. Again, the steak was no exception. It was well seasoned, but really salty for the American palate. I had my GF sample it and she said it was fine, confirming my theory. She says that Mexicans may like salty foods, but Americans prefer foods that are far too sweet. True. Different strokes, and all that.

My GF's daughter was in the mood for pasta. Unfortunately, listed in the pasta section, was their version of polenta. Now it was very good polenta. Very rich, creamy, with some sort of arugula and a poached egg. But hardly an entree. I thought she knew what she was doing. However, towards the end I noticed she didn't eat too much of it. I asked and found she didn't like it much. She'd never had polenta, thought it was some sort of different past she'd like to try, and was disappointed. A good waiter would have noticed this immediately and offered something else. Not our guy. I asked but she declined. I'm not sure why it was listed in such a way, unless all the pastas were considered side dishes. The menu was not clear on that point.

Concerning the wine, I have always had good luck with the Grupo Plascencia "House Wine" selection at their restaurants, and was not disappointed this time.

Mid-way through the entrees, GF asked for water. You guessed it, the water never materialized. She reminded him of that fact when we asked for the bill. The water showed up. The bill for 3, including wine, was $79. I left a VERY small 150 peso tip, 50 more than GF said I should.

Nice place to see once, but...

Unfortunate second bad experience at this place. We usually come down at least once a year and it’s really gone downhill as the prices have gone uphill. Also, the dogs roaming the property can be cute until they start mauling one another next to your table and the waiters just sit and watch them until one finally decides to break them up after about 30 seconds of growling, snarling, and biting.

Do not order the organic chicken. For 30 bucks, it is described as, and you would expect an entire chicken. What you get is for tiny pieces, none of which are breast, and all of which have bone. You get four tiny round potatoes, three or four peppers, and two long green onions. if you were to get an entire chicken, that would be a $120 chicken. I guess if it’s organic and really good, it may be worth it to some people, but it was not edible. They must brine it in an incredibly concentrated salt solution. It was so incredibly salty, rendered completely edible. A group of four waiters just stood about 10 feet from us, staring at us for literally 20 minutes as we looked at each other, waiting for someone to come over.

After my wife finally got so upset, she just left to get away from the table, our waiter finally approached and asked if we wanted it to be heated up. I said it wasn’t That it wasn’t hot, it is inedible because it’s so salty. He didn’t ask if we wanted anything else. He just said that he asked the kitchen if they could make us another one, but that would be the same since they are all brined or marinated in the same solution. He didn’t ask if we wanted anything else to eat. All we had was a small salad that was incredibly good and that we shared. He asked us if we wanted a dessert. We asked if it would be on the house because of the problem. He said, no, he was removing the chicken from the bill and that’s it. Then he walked away for another 15 to 20 minutes. We didn’t know what was taking so long and then he went back with the other guys 10 feet from our table and started staring at us. I didn’t know if our meal was free at that point so I walked out to him and asked for the bill and then he went and got it. We wasted like 45 minutes Literally doing nothing.

On a separate note, my wife went to buy some bread to take home since it is really good. It’s advertised as 100 pesos, or five dollars for a large 800 g loaf. The girl tried charging her 200 pesos or $10 which she thought sounded like too much another woman corrected her and told her it was only 100 pesos. What was given us was a tiny Loaf, nowhere near 800 g. I decided to go over to the coffee shop to have them check it on their scale. I know it seems petty, but we were pissed because we had already been ripped off once. It weighed 500 g. I returned that and they tried telling me that it was sold by the piece, not by weight. I pointed out to them on their menu where it is clearly advertised as an 800 g loaf.he went away for about another 15 minutes and just came back with a loaf. No apologies,. There were 15 employees last night, three tables. 12 of the employees were just standing around....

You will definitely want to visit here while you are visiting Valle de Guadalupe! The entire estate is set up beautifully from the amazing views on top of the large wine barrels to the actual restaurant itself.

We made a reservation the day before we went which is the best way to ensure you get a table. We were greeted by a friendly hostess we promptly sat us upon arrival. We were then greeted fairly quickly by our serve and then a few minutes later a manager stopped by to make sure that someone has checked in on us. We were given a wooden paddle that contained a large QR code that brings up the menu and other info such as the wifi password. Speaking of that, the wifi was very spotty- sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn’t. And being that we have our main cell phone service in the US, it actually took me a few minutes to get the menus pulled up.

We were able to get our drink orders in and also requested a cheese plate. Once the drinks arrived we had a great conversation, so much so that we had forgot that we ordered the cheese plate. We actually had to remind the server that we ordered it because it was taking longer then normal, once it arrived it was a nice start thats the meal. The cheese selection was excellent- basically a creamy Brie/double cream, a parm cheese and a slightly smoke cheddar I believe. There was about a half an apple and some walnuts as well, along with an excellent chayote/raisin marmalade.

We all ordered different things: from spaghetti and elote for the kids(excellent flavors), to the shrimp dish, tacos de lengua, a perfectly grilled ribeye and panzenella salad. The star of the shot left was the ribeye- a high quality piece of meat perfectly grilled and served with chimmichuri sauce and roasted potatoes. I enjoyed the panzenella salad- my only suggestion here is to toast the bread longer a large they because soggy in the large amount of dressing used in the salad.

We finished the meal with an order of churros, 4 small-crunchy- supper hot delights served with a small scoop of ice cream and the perfect dulce de leche dipping sauce.

We grabbed a coffee on the way out- prefect end to a very enjoyable experience.

Make sure to get your reservations the day ahead and prepare to spend at least a few hours. This is definitely a “can’t miss” spot in Valle de Guadalupe you will...