When you hear about Mexican fish tacos, or Baja fish tacos, the reference is to this, the taco de pescado of Ensenada. (To be fair, the city of San Felipe also claims to be the original home of this taco.) Its components are simple, and unmistakable: a fat hunk of white-fleshed fish, beer-battered and deep-fried to a crisp, tucked into a lightly charred corn tortilla, with essential DIY toppings (pico de gallo, crunchy shredded cabbage, pickled red onions, lime, green and red salsas, chipotle mayo) available as needed. Ensenada’s famous fish tacos are crispy and creamy, salty and tangy, spicy if you wish, and oh so satisfying. It’s no surprise that Baja tacos are an iconic street food of Mexico—and one now found on menus worldwide—and there’s nothing like eating it at the source. Particularly at the cost of a little more than one dollar!
It’s unknown when the first local catch was wrapped into a tortilla, but given that the indigenous people of present-day Mexico have eaten stone-ground corn tortillas for some 12,000 years, we can safely assume they made the first fish tacos. The Baja fish taco in its current form, however, is largely attributed to the arrival of Japanese fishermen and traders in the 1950s and 1960s (if not earlier, as The San Diego Union-Tribune recounts), who are said to have introduced the art of tempura to local Mexicans. Hence, a deep-fried taco de pescado was born, and the Baja toppings following suit.
Good to know: You can’t talk Baja-style fish tacos without mentioning Ralph Rubio, the San Diego native who, after tasting them while spring-breaking in San Felipe in the late 1970s, went home and opened up Rubio’s Fresh Mexican Grill (now called Rubio’s Coastal Grill) a few years later in San Diego, a restaurant that now has scores of locations in the Southwest U.S. Rubio is largely credited with popularizing the fish taco outside of Mexico, particularly in San Diego, where it’s also considered a local dish.
Where: The family-owned Tacos Fénix (Espinoza 451, map) has been celebrated for its fish (and shrimp) tacos since 1970 here in Ensenada. It’s one of the first taco stands to peddle Baja-style fish tacos in the area (if not the first—several taco stands lay claim to this), and it remains an incredible place to pull up for a street taco.
The stand itself is dominated by a large silver comal with a ledge for drying/draining and an oil well for the frying. Look for the gathering crowd!
When: Daily, 8am-8pm
Order: Tacos de pescado (25 p each). Here they use cazón, aka dogfish, a type of shark; it’s a tasty white fish that fries up perfectly. You’ll be handed a fish in a tortilla; it’s up to you to make magic with it. We recommend the pickled onions, the crunchy cabbage, the mildly spicy salsa verde, a little of the fiery red salsa, and some creamy chipotle mayo. And a squeeze of lime, of course. Repeat as needed.
Alternatively: We found the fish tacos across the street at Tacos Corona (Espinoza y Av. Juarez, map), another longtime taco vendor, to be very good too, if a little less salty (we preferred Fenix’s ultimately, but loved the shrimp taco at Corona). You might also try Fénix’s brick-and-mortar location, Tacos Mi Ranchito El Fénix (22830, C Sexta y Espinoza 603, map), which serves the same tacos and is listed in the Michelin Guide. (There’s just something undeniably special about eating this, quick and cheap, while standing up on the street though!)
