El Patio, Chula Vista, San Diego, CA

 There are few Mexican restaurants so good that I go there and don't feel the need to order meat.  Strike that, there is only one.  My wife introduced it to me when we first started dating, and told me it was a place that her parents went to in their youth.  In the middle of Chula Vista there is a place that looks like a bomb shelter on the outside and an authentic Mexican restaurant on the inside.  It is a place of sweet aromas, and kind faces, and people who start off speaking Spanish to me, but quickly realize I am a gringo, and switch back to English.  It is one of my favorite places to grab Mexican food, and the only place I order Chile Relleno.  That place is El Patio.

Now my wife does not like the fact I mention this, but El Patio is a hole in the wall, and if you have ever been inside of it the lack of a view might turn you off, but the inside is decorated with beautiful paintings that take the eye away from the small windows looking out (if you were to stand on a bar stool) to the street.  Recently they have updated the restaurant with new booths, and a new menu.  Thankfully the menu only looks new, it still has the favorites that lured my parents-in-law there so many years ago.


So my wife and I were free on a Friday night and felt like something special so we headed down to Chula Vista for a bit.  We were greeted at the door, and quickly shown to a booth were we proceeded to snack on chip and salsa with a side of hot carrots (small bowels of pickled slices carrots, onion, and jalapenos).  My wife and I ordered while I sipped on ice tea.  Before I'd even gotten to my third ice tea (I was pretty thirsty after running right before we came) they'd brought out our food.


I had a number ten, two cheese stuffed Chile Rellenos with a side of rice and beans and a single gigantic tortilla (usually one is enough to fill me up, but I was pretty hungry that night). My wife went with her usual, the Guacamole Enchilada with rice and beans, which I just realized is also Vegetarian, go figure.  As usual my Chile Rellenos were perfect.  Scrumptious chilies stuffed with cheese.  I usually stack it with the rice and beans on a strip of still steaming hot tortilla and shovel it all into my mouth.  My wife, meanwhile, managed to finish one and a half Guacamole Enchiladas before calling it quits, but not without a big smile on her face.  I should add to this day my wife compares every Enchilada, Guacamole or not, to the ones at El Patio, and they almost always come up short in comparison.


So a smile on our faces, and a bulge in our bellies my wife and I exited El Patio.  Who knows when we will return.  Judging from my wife's expression I'd guess sometime next week.

El Patio Restaurant
410 Broadway Street
Chula Vista, CA 91910
(619) 422-9745
http://www.elpatiomexicanfood.com/