Well; it was about time for my yearly revisit to Fernandez Restaurant, what I consider to be a little treasure in Nestor. I'd gone over the changes in appearance over the years in my last post on Fernandez, so I'll just stick with the food.
It's all about the birria here; but first, some consommé.
Scalding, slightly peppery, it's not very salty and does real well with a good squeeze of lime, some onions and cilantro. And a few spoonfuls go on the Tacos de Birria y Nervio ($2.90); you gotta get that tendon.
And man was that tendon nice and buttery today. The nice and hearty tortillas are dipped in the birria drippings and griddled; giving it a nice slightly crunchy-firmness. The beefy birria, a bit of the salsa de arbol, a few spoons of consommé, a light squeeze of lime…..you get the idea, right? The birria de res on this day was very tender.
The onions and cilantro add a nice pungent-herbaceousness.
On this day; I tried out the Quesataco Extremo ($3.90).
The griddled birria was nice; with a decent crispness and caramelization to it; the cheese added a milkiness and was melted helping the tortilla stay in tact. There was some nice tendon on this as well. But, I thought the cheese really took away from the birria and I missed that messy-tasty griddled tortilla. 
So I'll stick with my favorites here.
The place was totally packed, but turnover is fast. It was about a ten minute wait for a table. Service was friendly and warm. As we were leaving, one of the young men asked me how things was. I told him "excellent". He said, "thank you so much…..and we'll try to make it even better next time." Better than excellent? You gotta love that.
Fernandez Restaurant and Catering
2265 Flower Ave
San Diego, CA 92154
Hours:
Wed – Sunday 7am – 2pm
