Sort of Legal

I’ve lived in San Diego, California for about 4.5 years now and have never had a strong desire to visit Tijuana, Mexico…until recently.  There has been an increasing buzz about the city’s craft beer and food scene.  Articles like these have been popping up:

• Through a Tijuana Turnstile and Into Tacos and Tortas, Sarah Khan, The New York Times.
• Tijuana’s culinary revolucion, Meagan Drillinger, Travel Weekly
• Tijuana reinventing itself through food, Brian Shlonsky,, Marie Estrada, KGTV

I initially became interested in doing a craft beer tour in “TJ,” as Tijuana is often referred to.  But then I heard about Telefónica Gastro Park, a food truck venue.  First, from someone on the Maneadero, Mexico House Build Trip, last month.  Then again, last week, from my close friend, Kim, who has never led me wrong when it comes to food or beer.  I love food trucks, marketplace layouts (my fav. Bangkok one here), and craft beer so visiting it quickly rose to the top of my travel to do list.

Soooo…I floated the idea to a guy I’d been hanging out with for two weeks and he said yes to leaving the country with me on our third date.  We ventured down to Tijuana two days later.  A train, a trolley, a cab, and a few life stories later, we were at Telefónica Gastro Park.  It did not disappoint.

Telefónica Gastro Park has food truck park roots.  Its former location was more of a food truck park with only outdoor seating.  At its current location, food trucks are still the main source of food but to describe it as a “food truck park” would not do it justice.  It is more of a community food and beer marketplace.

There’s indoor and outdoor community seating.  The décor is hip with a sense of humor – among other amusing details, there’s an oversized table and chairs that looks like they are from the set of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and “you look fine,” scrawled on the mirror outside the clean bathrooms.  There is an impressive variety of food.  Staples like tacos are readily available from multiple vendors at Telefónica but you will also find a vegetarian truck, ramen from a Top Chef Mexico contestant, and decadent desserts like bread pudding.

We sampled from a number of trucks and there are a number that we did not get to because stomach space is limited, particularly when you throw craft brews into the mix.  Otto’s Grill was a stand-out.  Per Kim’s recommendation, we ordered Aguachiles, verde, at level five heat.  I had not had it before.  It looks like raw shrimp and cucumbers.  It tastes…delicious!  Five turned out to be the perfect level of heat, a few quite spicy bites but otherwise, just a comfortable burn.   If you want to play it a little safer and avoid raw seafood, the tacos from Otto’s were fantastic as well. 

How to Get to Telefónica Gastro Park from San Diego by Public Transportation (and one cab):

• Coaster train south to Santa Fe Depot. Save a few dollars by buying a RegionPlus Day Pass on a Compass Card or the Compass Card mobile phone app, which gets you a round trip coaster ride and trolley rides for the day.
• Blue Line Trolley south from America Plaza to San Ysidro. America Plaza is across the street from the Santa Fe Depot train stop.  There are other trolleys that run through Santa Fe Depot but not the Blue Line.
• Walk Across Border. Unlike driving across the border, you will need to go through immigration and present your passport to get into Mexico.
• Hail a cab to Telefónica Gastro Park (about 3 miles, about $5 USD / 100 MXN pesos). There were numerous cabs just across the border. Helpful to have the address and map readily accessible to show the dab driver rather than having to fumble with phones to find it when asked by the cab driver.  Make sure you give the new address of the park (below), not the old address.

Telefónica Gastro Park
Boulevard Aguacaliente #8924
Tijuana, Baja California 22000
Phone: +52 664 684 8782
Facebook: @telefonicagastropark
Instagram: @telelefonica_tj

You can check-out the full list of trucks and vendors at Telefónica here.

P.S.  The date went well too.  Thanks for asking. 😉