After spending the morning exploring Las Playas de Tijuana with a few friends, we headed about 20 minutes south to Rosarito Beach for lunch. It’s been years since I’ve visited the seaside town once known as the spot for a wild spring break.
My memories of Rosarito include some of those wild spring break adventures during my days at San Diego State. Other memories of Rosarito are from when I lived in Los Angeles and a yearly road trip with friends with a stop in Rosarito on our way to Puerto Nuevo for a lobster lunch.
Arriving in Rosarito, the one thing that stood out was the recently renovated Rosarito Beach Hotel. The once small hotel, has expanded and a new tower offers a lot more rooms. The main street in town, which runs parallel with the beach has the same combination of shops, restaurants and bars I remember. We headed to Pueblo Plaza, about two blocks from the Rosarito Beach hotel. The entrance to Pueblo Plaza is made of rock waterfalls and inside the plaza is a spa, coffee shop and Sussana’s Restaurant.
The restaurant is named after the owner, Susanne Stehr. She is a expat from the Los Angeles area who has owned the restaurant for 11 years.
The restaurant has an open kitchen and several options for seating including near the kitchen, an outdoor patio and the main dining room. The main dining room has a rustic homey feel and is decorated with the handmade furniture Rosarito is famous for.
The food is California cuisine and all made from scratch. Our lunch began with a round of scratch margarita’s and a jalapeño and cream cheese won-ton topped with a jalapeno honey glaze. Imagine a very elevated jalapeño popper!
Jalapeño Cream Cheese Empanadas
Next course was tortilla soup or a choice of salad. I opted for asparagus salad. It was a delicious bed of mixed greens tossed in homemade balsamic mustard vinaigrette with sliced strawberries, pear, tomato and topped with grilled asparagus, feta cheese and pine nuts.
Asparagus Salad
For our second course we had a choice of strawberry salmon, cilantro shrimp pesto, blue cheese fettucini alfredo, grilled pork chop or what I opted for; lemon dill poached sole in a dill butter sauce. If you didn’t know it, you’d think it was lobster. This sole was so good, I have been telling friends and family about it and craving it! I can’t wait to head back and have it again!
Lemon Dill Poached Sole
We ended our meal sharing Susanne’s famous chocolate cake served with van ice cream and homemade flan.
Chocolate Fudge Cake
Orange Flan
Okay – the best meal I’ve ever had in Rosarito (and if you know how many times I visited there in my college days) you’ll know this actually means something. This is a restaurant worth taking a journey for! Live in Southern California or plan to visit? My recommendation = Go!!
And if you are ever in Rosarito and in the mood for a murder mystery dinner – Sussana’ hosts one in the cellar of the restaurant.
For more information about Sussana’s visit their website: www.susannasinrosarito.com or visit them on Facebook.
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For more great Baja cuisine check out this review on Palacio Azteca’s Restaurante Ixchel in Tijuana and Malva Restaurant in Valle de Guadalupe.
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A huge thank you to Sussana’s for their generous hospitality. I was their guest for lunch, but as always, all opinions are my own, regardless of who’s footing the bill.