El Tejate Restaurant

Escondido, San Diego · Mexican · $$

Tejate is a pre-Hispanic Oaxacan drink of toasted maize, cacao and mamey seed, whipped until it foams, and naming a restaurant after it is a statement of intent. El Tejate on West Mission Avenue is the one kitchen in San Diego County cooking Oaxaca full time: tlayudas on charred tortillas with asiento and quesillo, mole negro built on burnt chiles, tamales in banana leaf. Service runs slow and the room is a tent; the mole makes the case.