La Fiesta is attached to a bar called the Ocean Room in the Gaslamp Quarter in downtown San Diego. Normally, this wouldn't make any difference except that the restaurant shares a bathroom with the bar. Just before our meal arrived, I took Nora and headed for the restroom to change a wet diaper. The bus girl saw me and said there was no changing table in the bathroom, but immediately created one for me by putting a clean table cloth the entire length of a couch in the back of the bar. Most mothers might agree that I could have changed my child in 5 minutes on the corner of the bathroom sink, but I quickly point out that I noticed this above-and-beyond care throughout our entire lunch experience at La Fiesta. Moreover, the food was so good, I'm kinda wanting some of it now.
La Fiesta was the first Mexican restaurant the concierge at the hotel recommended to us as vegetarian-friendly. As we walked down the street, we noticed that it was the only restaurant that had more than one couple sitting at the tables outside in front of the restaurants. Since the weather was amazingly wonderful, it was easy to assume most people would be dining outside and this restaurant must be of the more popular choices.
Our meal started with organic corn chips and homemade roasted tomato salsa. It was positively wonderful, and that same bus girl kept our bowls replenished steadily. If you like warm to hot salsa, this would definitely be one of the recommended sources. Next we ordered a possibly over-decorated, but exceptionally wonderful guacamole. It tasted like small squares of mozzarella cheese were garnishes. Unusual, but tasty. Before our dinners even arrived, Paul shrugged and said we just should have ordered 3 guacamoles for our lunch.
It was easy to order special meals at La Fiesta. I'm pretty sure the refried beans were not vegetarian, but the rice was. We had no troubles asking for the black beans on the side of Paul's burrito and at the bottom of my taco salad. I also asked them to hold the sour cream and serve the chipotle mayo dressing on the side. Both were done without issue.
It's often hard to compare taco salads. But I loved the added vegetables--peas and carrots--to my rice for the extra food value. I did think the shell was a little greasy and the beans really soaked through the bottom of the shell making it mushy. But honestly, it's rare for me to finish the whole large salad and as long as the chips kept coming, I had no need to focus on the greasy corn shell. Paul had a great, spicy, vegetable burrito. It was also very yummy. We'd definitely go again!
But wait! There's more. Save room for dessert. La Fiesta happens to be directly across the street from the Ghirardelli Chocolate Shop. During our lunch break, we enjoyed watching the large load of Dreyer's Ice Cream being delivered to the ice cream shop. We were too full to venture over and experience it ourselves. But it's a nice treat if you aren't used to it. (We have one at Downtown Disney if we want it.)
