Caesar's Restaurante Bar
Fine dining restaurant · Tijuana ·
Birthplace of Caesar salad, iconic 1920s dining, tableside prep
![Caesar's Restaurante Bar by Caesar’s [Official Photo]](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/67768689/caesars_restaurant_tijuana_ensalada_cesar_salad.0.png "Caesar's Restaurante Bar by Caesar’s [Official Photo]")
Birthplace of Caesar salad, iconic 1920s dining, tableside prep
"It’s hard not to get excited as the tableside cart arrives and you watch as a uniformed waiter whisks up a garlicky, umami-rich dressing in a wide wooden bowl before gently tossing the mixture with fresh leaves of romaine. After all, this is where the Caesar salad was invented a century ago, and since then, Caesar’s zesty, simple recipe has gone on to grace menus globally. Opened in 1923, and later acquired in 2010 by the Plasencia Group, the legendary restaurant has reclaimed its Prohibition-era splendor. The roaring 1920s-style menu includes period classics like oysters Rockefeller, sole meuniere, and beef Wellington, as well as local Mexican trends born in recent decades like savory tamarind martinis." - Bill Esparza
"If you like being the center of attention, order Pappasito’s Cantina’s caesar salad. It arrives crowned with a sculptural wave of seasoned tortilla chips clouded in shredded soft cheese, like what Houstonians imagine fresh, Hallmark-styled snowfall looks like. This unexpected Tex-Mex creation—complete with a refreshing acid tang, red pepper-spiced chicken breast, and a blanket-like sheaf of corn kernels drenched in sweet sauce—will make everyone at the table wish they ordered a salad instead." - chelsea thomas
"Seeing its furniture and iconic rolling salad carts out on the sidewalk in 2010, I watched Grupo Plascencia step in to save this Tijuana institution that originally opened in 1923 and is credited with popularizing the Caesar’s salad. After signing the lease, the family restored the dark wood interior and black-and-white checkerboard floors to their roaring-twenties look and reopened on July 24, 2010 with Javier Plascencia as executive chef. Working with longtime waiter Efrain Montoya, they restored the salad toward its roots—sourcing extra-crisp romaine and Italian Parmigiano-Reggiano from Southern California, using anchovies from Roland Foods, and blending extra-virgin olive oil (a 50/50 mix from Casa Magon or L.A. Cetto and regular olive oil); Javier also substituted limes for the original lemons. The restaurant now celebrates the salad’s layered history (including the disputed July 4, 1924 origin story), showcases donated memorabilia and photos on the walls, and draws locals and tourists alike for a tableside Caesar, especially when Montoya is on duty." - Bill Esparza
"At the height of Tijuana’s Prohibition-era decadence, Caesar Cardini first created his eponymous Caesar salad as a tableside specialty that became a favorite of Americans and Hollywood’s A-list. After a decline that led to the original restaurant closing in the late aughts because of strict border restrictions and organized crime, the Plascencia family revived the restaurant at its original Avenida Revolución location in 2010 as part of the city's shift toward a bona fide culinary and arts destination. Longtime waiter Efrain Montoya has mixed the signature salad tableside for more than a decade, sharing its storied past while preparing roughly 100 salads a day (about 4,500 per month); the Caesar remains the restaurant’s best-selling item and the kitchen goes through daily amounts such as 150 eggs, 3 kg anchovies, 5 kg limes, 1 kg garlic, 1 kg mustard, 20 L olive oil, and 75 heads of romaine. The restaurant shut for about three months during the COVID-19 pandemic but has reopened at limited capacity, and besides the Caesar salad the bone marrow sopes (four sopes with bone marrow, gravy, habanero salsa, and coarse salt) are noted as the second-best-selling item. A retro menu collected by owner Juan José Plascencia also includes chateaubriand, beef Wellington, and the Victor’s steak and Victor’s salad to keep historic Tijuana dishes alive." - Mario A. Cortez
"The original Tijuana restaurant credited with inventing the Caesar salad; it also has a familial link to the chef discussed here, whose grandfather worked there and whose father later purchased and still owns the establishment." - Susan Stapleton