EQUINOCCIO: VALLE DE GUADALUPE’S HOTTEST NEW RESTAURANT BOASTS INCREDIBLE VIEWS AND WONDERFUL FOOD
The Cost -$65 per person
The Atmosphere – With quite possibly the best views in the entire valley, Equinoccio wows you from the moment you arrive. Located on the property of the Viñedos Lafarga, the restaurant has huge windows that allow you to enjoy the view even while you are inside of its large, modern interior with warehouse-high ceilings. The restaurant is the perfect place to enjoy a romantic dinner or a dinner with friends or family, whether you have been out tasting wine all day or are coming in from a day in Ensenada. Reservations are the best way to go and while there is no need to dress formally, you don’t want to show up to Equinoccio in athletic wear.
Valle de Guadalupe in Baja California, Mexico, is the country’s most well-known wine region. However, the area’s gastronomy has been just as big of a draw as it is home to some of the best chefs in the country. One of them, Rafael Magaña Tinoco, formerly of Laja, left to become Head Chef at Equinoccio where he and his team deliver a true farm-to-table dining experience in the form of a four or eight-course tasting menu. While there are only eight dishes available (two per course) on any given day, the menu rotates frequently based on the available produce in the restaurant’s very large garden, which is located on premises among the grape vines.
The Order – Two 4-course tasting menus and a Carajillo.
The Fantastic - The best food item of the night was definitely the Octopus with Polenta. Hiding under greens is an excellently cooked piece of octopus sitting atop a bed of polenta. The homemade polenta was a bit sweet and combined so nicely with the octopus and the pieces of duck cracklings that were sprinkled on top. The dish’s sherry sauce brings all of its flavors together. The octopus is an excellent dish that should absolutely be chosen if it is an option on your four-course menu.
While Equinoccio is located on a vineyard in the middle of a wonderful wine region, it doesn’t mean that wine is the only drink available on the menu or that wine is the only beverage you should order. In fact, we would say that Equinoccio’s Carajillo is a must-try. If you are unfamiliar with carajillos, you are missing out. Equinoccio’s version of the typically post-dinner Spanish cocktail combines espresso with Licor 43, a liqueur made from 43 different ingredients including citrus fruits and vanilla. Equinoccio’s version has a fantastic foamy layer on top and is garnished with three coffee beans and a raw cinnamon stick which is lit on fire. You don’t taste much of the alcohol in this drink making it dangerously good, and the cinnamon stick gives off an incredible aroma which enhances the experience of drinking it. Overall, this was a top-notch carajillo and a drink you should definitely try, whether before or after the meal.
The Great – On the four-course menu, the two starter course choices were a Peach Salad with Roasted Pine Nuts and a Scallops Tiradito, and both were light and delightful. The salad was made up of greens from the restaurant’s garden, a variety of peaches native to the region, freshly grated parmesan, and a superb red wine vinaigrette made with local wine. To top it all off, the salad had some nicely roasted pine nuts that gave the salad some added texture and a smoky, earthy flavor.
The scallops were prepared tiradito style, sliced raw like a carpaccio. They were accompanied by a scorched cucumber and green apple sauce with pieces of watermelon radish and fresh cherry tomatoes. The dish was extremely light and fresh and was not spicy. The scallops were of great quality and the acidity in the dish was spot on. Both plates really got this meal started off on the right foot.
For the second course of the four-course menu, we had the choice between Ravioli with Vegetable Pâté and Creamy Rice with Seasonal Vegetables. The better of these two options was the ravioli. The dish consisted of four vegetable pâté stuffed ravioli with butternut squash and cherry tomato sauce topped with pea leaves and some parmesan. While I did wish there was more filling in the ravioli, it was mostly because the filling was quite good - but it was the sauce that really made this pasta stand out.
The octopus certainly was the standout dish of the night but the Catch of the Day was the other main course option and it was also very tasty. The catch was rockfish, and it was prepared in a white mole sauce made without dairy and served under some fried kale and over spinach. While the fish and greens from the garden were good, the star of the show was the mole – a unique, delicate sauce that does not really resemble any of the more traditional moles except maybe with respect to texture. It was a perfect sauce for the fish and should be bottled and sold.
The last Great dish of the evening was one of the two dessert options, the Sweet Potato Ice Cream. Served with candied butternut squash and a crumble, the sweet potato ice cream was scooped in an oval shape and was delicious. The candied butternut squash and the crumble added additional textures to the dish and the ice cream and candied butternut squash had the right amount of sweetness to them – something that is not easy to do when using vegetables in desserts. Chef Rafa, as he is known, did a nice job creating a unique dessert out of his vegetable garden.
The Good – The other dessert option was a Blood Orange Sorbet with a radish gel and fennel. The sorbet had a lovely flavor and I appreciated how the radish and fennel cut the sweetness of the blood orange but I couldn’t help but feel that this sorbet was more of a palate cleanser than a dessert and that the small portion helped to bring about that thought. I think this would have been a perfect palate cleanser that leads up to a dessert, but I did not love it as a final course.
The Creamy Rice was my least favorite dish of the evening because of its lack of bolder flavors but there was nothing wrong with its preparation. A risotto-like dish with sliced zucchini and squash blossoms, the risotto itself was good and the vegetables fresh, but it was the dill oil that stood out. The oil had an herby, fresh flavor and I could have gladly eaten it with bread all night. I also appreciated how multiple parts of the zucchini plant were used, but at the end of the day it didn’t satisfy me in the way that the other dishes did.
The Verdict – The entire dining experience at Equinoccio from the arrival at the vineyard and the fantastic views all the way through the desserts and the Carajillo that capped the night off, was incredible. Chef Rafa is a master in the kitchen and dinner at Equinoccio is hands down one of the top meals that you are going to get in Valle de Guadalupe – and at $60 per person for the four-course tasting menu, it is a great value as well.