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Dueling Cantinas

Julie Cohen - Senior Reporter and Writer 168 Comments

If you’ve ever watched a dueling piano performance, two charismatic entertainers, each at a piano, battle back and forth playing audience-requested songs. They are both talented, hilarious, and excellent musicians, making it near impossible to declare a “winner”. 

It’s a familiar story with Tony’s Jacal & Fidel’s Little Mexico in Solana Beach. The Mexican restaurants are less than a stone’s throw away from each other – in fact, they share a parking lot and nearly share a wall. From the music and decor to the guacamole, salsa, margaritas, and carnitas, it’s a battle of the senses, and stomachs, from start to finish. 

For many San Diego locals, picking a favorite is easy. But for those of us who didn’t grow up with a family favorite, it’s quite the delicious task to crown a winner. 

We recently visited both restaurants to try and answer the age-old question of which restaurant is better: Is it Tony’s Jacal or Fidel’s Little Mexico? 

Ambiance

Fidel's outdoor patio
Fidel’s outdoor patio

One of the best parts about Mexican restaurants is the ambiance – from the brightly colored decor to the traditional Mexican music, it’s an unmistakable atmosphere. Both Tony’s Jacal and Fidel’s Little Mexico have outdoor patios with string lights (and heat lamps). Couple that with mariachi tunes and it’s a match made in dining heaven. Both restaurants have been expanded over the years, offering ample seating in multiple dining rooms – even with this there is usually a wait at both locations.

Fidel’s patio has white wrought iron furnishings with brightly colored, comfortable, cushions. There are colorful flag banners adorning the ceiling and plenty of shade from the overhead canopies. The patio is set a few steps down from street level with an abundance of greenery flanking the fencing. We visited on a warm day and it definitely felt like we were on a tropical vacation! Inside, Fidel’s offers multiple dining rooms with various seating from tables to booths and high tops. The entrance includes a small bridge walkway with fun flashing lights.

Tony's Jacal Patio Garden
Tony’s Jacal Patio Garden

Tony’s Jacal has a lush and magical patio. There is a beautiful water feature with overflowing flower, plants, and painted wooden sculptures of tropical birds.

There are patio tables with brightly colored table cloths and umbrellas, and a beautiful Mexican tile floor. There are vines growing up the fencing and it feels very private from the street. Overall, the patio feels majestic and very much on-brand for a Mexican restaurant.

For the inside dining space, Tony’s offers decorative art, colorful Mexican flags and, similar to Fidel’s, an abundance of seating in multiple rooms.

Like all good authentic Mexican restaurants, both Tony’s Jacal and Fidel’s Little Mexico have the perfect balance of traditional Mexican decor and comfort. We’ll call the indoor ambiance an even draw, but Tony’s Jacal pulls ahead slightly for their outdoor seating space. 

Chips & Salsa

Chips and Salsa Tony's Jacal
Chips and Salsa at Tony’s Jacal

Let it be known that we like our salsa spicy. Not too spicy to eat, but spicy enough that after 3-4 chip dips your tongue starts to tingle and you keep coming back for more. And no Mexican dining experience is complete without two (or three) bowls of chips to start the meal.

The salsa at Tony’s Jacal is incredibly fresh with deep notes of tomato. The consistency is smooth, not too thick, and the spice level is perfect (we’ll call it a 6/10 on the spice-ometer). The chips are warm, salty, and crisp, making them the perfect vessel to scoop large quantities of salsa. 

Chips and Salsa Fidel's Little Mexico
Chips and Salsa Fidel’s Little Mexico

It’s a familiar scene at Fidel’s Little Mexico – perfectly crisp and salty chips with bright red salsa. While the spice levels are pretty evenly matched between the two players, the tomato notes are more prominent at Fidel’s and the salsa is smoother, which inches their salsa into the “winner” category for our taste test extravaganza. 

Margaritas

Tony's Jacal Margarita
Tony’s Jacal Margarita

We haven’t met many margaritas we didn’t like. We’re a sucker for a good spicy margarita and house margarita, both with salt, of course. At Tony’s Jacal, the house margarita was very evenly balanced.

The house made margarita mix to tequila to lime ratio was on point. And the salted rim held up to many licks in between sips. In fact it was so good, we ordered another (and maybe another). The spicy margarita was also delicious, although we think it could have been a tad bit spicier. 

Fidel's Little Mexico Margarita
Fidel’s Little Mexico Margarita

At Fidel’s, the house margarita is also extremely well balanced. A tad sweeter, the tequila notes still come through and coupled with the salted rim, make the perfect combination to drink alongside the chips and salsa. As compared to Tony’s Jacal, the spicy margarita at Fidel’s was definitely spicier, hitting notes deeper into the nasal cavity.

In this category, Tony’s Jacal had the better house margarita while Fidel’s Little Mexico inched them out in the spicy marg category. 

Carnitas

Now, on to the main event: the meat. I guess you can say we’re Mexican food enthusiasts as there’s not much more we love more than a good chips, salsa, marg and carnitas plate session. Needless to say we had the carnitas plate at both restaurants (with corn tortillas).

Carnitas Plate at Fidel's Little Mexico
Carnitas Plate at Fidel’s Little Mexico

At Fidel’s Little Mexico, the carnitas was cooked tender, juicy and had a perfect crispy crust on the outside. If you’re going to do carnitas, they must have a crust. And this crust was just the right thickness! The plate came with delicious pinto beans, refried beans and cheese, a side of guacamole, and salsa fresca. There were also a ton of cilantro and raw onions – another must for a carnitas plate. The tortillas were warm and wrapped in foil which kept them warm throughout the entire meal. Delicious would be an understatement!

Carnitas Plate at Tony's Jacal
Carnitas Plate at Tony’s Jacal

Now let’s explore the carnitas at Tony’s Jacal. Tony’s meat was also super moist and tender, barely needing a fork to even pull it apart. It was crisp and shredded finer than Fidel’s and was accompanied by delicious refried beans, rice, a side of guacamole, corn tortillas, and pickled onions and carrots – a very nice touch to help cleanse and cool the palette. Again, truly delicious and we can’t complain about anything.

The noticeable difference between the two restaurants was that the carnitas at Tony’s Jacal did not have the same extra crispy exterior as that of Fidel’s. Now, it’s completely a personal opinion, but in this case we prefer carnitas with an extra crunch, so Fidel’s inched out the win here. Both restaurants offer huge portions and we took a box home for breakfast tacos the next morning.

The Highlight

While elements of one restaurant slightly edged out the other, the answer is clear: you cannot go wrong with either restaurant and we highly recommend you try them both! Perhaps in the same day – one for lunch, one for dinner.

Tony’s Jacal
621 Valley Ave
Solana Beach, CA 92075
858.755.2274
https://tonysjacalsd.com/

Fidel’s Little Mexico
607 Valley Ave
Solana Beach, CA 92075
858.755.5292
https://www.fidelslittlemexico.com/

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