Caguama (turtle stew) is one of Baja’s many gastronomic inheritances from the states of Sinaloa and Sonora. The dish is prohibited due to the endangered reptile’s protected status and has mostly been replaced by caguamanta (manta ray stew). But a street cart in El Sauzal serves a magnificent stew of smoked opah that local star chef Diego Hernandez swears is “closer to the real caguama” than any manta ray stew you’ll find on Mexico’s Pacific Coast. The cart, parked in a home garage, combines gelatinous fin, belly, top loin, and breast, all garnished with a sauce of mustard, red wine, and habanero. El Güero offers the stew along with tostadas of ground opah pate, a style of ceviche typically found in Ensenada. [$]

Ask any Baja chef where to go for Ensenada’s world-famous tempura-battered fish and shrimp tacos, and they’ll send you to El Nuevo Jalisciense. It’s where the chefs go when entertaining their chef friends visiting the region. The restaurant, along a lonesome strip of businesses on the way to the tourist zone, consists of two plastic benches and a half dozen seats in an L around a convex comal. Cooks deep-fry dogfish and local shrimp in a light, mustard-colored batter before wrapping them in white corn tortillas and handing them over the counter. Complete them yourself with Mexican cream or mayo, pico de gallo, cilantro dressing, and red or green salsa, but use just enough to appreciate the fine seafood and well-seasoned breading. [$]

Take a break from the best seafood in Mexico for one of the country’s greatest breakfast institutions. In a remote residential neighborhood, hungry locals pay their respects to the patron deity of Tenochtitlan at Ensenada’s weekend-only specialist in Texcoco-style barbacoa (pit-roasted lamb). Come for consommé made from lamb drippings, a variety of lamb cuts, and lamb skulls steamed in an earthen pit, which one of the owners jokes is “our natural microwave” for making tacos in the central Mexican style. The menu also includes traditional quesadillas filled with huitlacoche, squash blossoms, and chicharron prensado (pressed, stewed pork rinds), as well as tlacoyos, a pre-Hispanic masa diamond filled with beans. For a quick bite, order the lamb flautas, a pair of long, deep-fried tacos covered with salsa, lettuce, and cream. [$]

After closing Pacifico, chefs Miguel Bahena and Carolina Verdugo evolved their kitchen from a purely Baja California approach to a menu based generally on northeastern Mexico. Plus, their cozy, new dining room feels like home. Ceviches with Persian cucumber and cherry tomatoes, tiraditos marinated in algaes and chile morita, and local oysters flavored by fire-roasted chiles satisfy the Ensenadan fundamentals. Meanwhile dry fideos (noodles) are topped with hearty beef head stew, and seasonal grilled vegetables evoke scenes of families gathered around smoky backyard grills in Chihuahua and Sonora — and, of course, Baja California. [$$]

Javier Martinez’s inviting patio, located next to Revolution Park, is a brilliant choice for a glass of Mexican wine — there’s even a Contra wine shop attached — paired with modern Baja surf and turf delights. Order local shellfish, Baja-style ceviches dressed with a touch of soy sauce, creamy seafood risottos, and steaks cooked over an open flame. Share your feast with friends, along with several bottles of Mexican wine, and you’ll feel like you’re throwing a party on your own deck at home. If you’re any good at petanque (boules), grab your wineglass and head to the court for a toss. Maybe you can join the Mexican national team, because this is their headquarters. [$$]

As opposed to niche specialists, you’ll find an unusually wide variety of local clams, mussels, and oysters in this contemporary shellfish bar located near the jello shots end of the tourist zone. One of Ensenada’s elevated seafood eateries, La Concheria also features a short list of craft beers (and national beers), and young, acidic, mineral white wines and light rosés. Try the delightfully salty oysters, chocolate and Pismo clams, and Manila clams or mussels steamed in local wine and herbs. Round out your order with a cool, crisp ceviche dressed with Persian cucumber, cherry tomatoes, and purple onions. [$$]

For a decade, chef Diego Hernandez earned accolades for his daily tasting menus at the acclaimed Valle de Guadalupe restaurant Corazon de Tierra, including a spot on Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants. Now he just wants to jam. La Bête Noir is the place to chill, drink, and enjoy a menu of rotating bar bites made with local ingredients. The motto here is, ironically, “keep Ensenada boring.” Inhale powerful, ferocious background tunes from Miles Davis’s revolutionary Bitches Brew album while sipping on inspired cocktails created by Alexandra Pucaru and snacking on local yellowfin tuna crudo with harissa, rich spider crab salad, or beef tongue spiced with Yemeni hot sauce. [$$]

Beer and peanuts aren’t exactly a gastronomic experience worth seeking out. Still, you’ll never forget you left your footprint in sawdust and peanut shells on these hallowed saloon floors. Not much has changed since German immigrant John Hussong took over this bar in 1892. Hussong’s is one of the bars claiming to have invented the margarita, though you’d never know it after ordering one. The margaritas are okay, the beer is cold, and the bandera — a trio of lime juice, sangrita, and tequila — helps the mass-produced tequila go down. But once the bassist in the ranchera band snaps his noisy, nylon strings to kick off Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” or the Eagles’ “Hotel California,” you can’t help but smile while sipping the night away. [$]

Every seafood cart in Ensenada has a specialty. At this tiny stand, you’ll never go wrong with an order of campechana (mixed seafood cocktail) or local fish ceviche made from ground tuna. But in Mexico’s seafood capital, it’s all about luxurious shellfish from nearby waters. Find Mariscos El Gordito on a quiet corner at the edge of the tourist zone, then order a prepared clam, dressed with diced tomato, cucumber, and purple onion, topped with sliced avocado. Whether you get a white, Pismo, reyna, or chocolate clam, ask for it without ketchup (a common local topping) to enjoy the delicate flavors of the exquisite shellfish. [$]

Get your Puerto Nuevo-style lobster fix away from the barkers and touristic town where the dish gets its name. One of a pair of hidden gems in the Black Market (along with Muelle Tres), La Cocedora de Langosta only serves the dish when the lobster is fresh and in season. You’ll also find modern Baja-style ceviches, aguachiles (seafood in spicy lime juice), and soy-sauce-dressed sashimi and tiraditos (Peruvian-style raw seafood in spicy lime juice) made with fine seafood like abalone, geoduck, or Pismo clams sourced from local estuaries, farms, and divers. [$$]

The beers are superb, notably the saison called Hann Zomer, the lighter Baja-style IPA titled Perro del Mar, and the personal favorite of chef Krista Velasco, Vaquita Marina — an American pale ale named after the endangered porpoise. The chef’s playful gastropub menu includes fine versions of American fast-food snacks like onion rings, deep-fried pickles, and a variety of chicken wings, as well as Baja-style ceviche, seafood tostadas, and tempura-battered oysters. Order some LA-style Korean tacos and wash it down with a glass of Harry Polanco, a red ale full of herbs and citrus. [$$]

Sabina Bandera’s first brick-and-mortar spot isn’t just a sit-down version of her tostada, shellfish, and seafood cocktail stand. Here you’ll find an expanded menu of barra caliente (hot bar) classics like shrimp albondigas, seafood pozole from the cook’s home state of Guerrero, and a smoked oyster-stuffed chile guero taco. Slide along the counter cafeteria-style, order some ceviche tostadas, a Baja fish taco made with Bandera’s family recipe, and a bowl of clam chowder brewed with local mollusks. Pair your meal with local craft beer from Wendlandt or house wines made by the Mexican wine master Hugo D’ Acosta. [$]

After a walk through the Black Market (Ensenada’s fish market), turn the corner for a delightful lunch of contemporary Baja cuisine paired with local wines, Mexican craft beers, and fine mezcal. The tuna ceviche highlights the kitchen’s regional approach to seafood with quality local fish, citrus, ginger, and soy sauce — one of several Asian condiments used in Baja California cuisine. Enjoy the quiet retreat from the nearby tourist throng as you snack on seafood rice, pescadillas (fish quesadillas), and local mussels steamed in a mix of green chiles, along with one of the tasty white wines sold by the glass. [$$]

When his cannery business began to wane, thick-mustached Marco Antonio transformed his industrial plant into a restaurant. This unique Baja seafood taco destination is now known for its variety of seafood stew tacos and creative salsas. There are almost 20 different tacos, including a shrimp chile relleno taco, shrimp in chipotle, tuna machaca, salmon belly, and of course, very fine versions of regional beer-battered fish and shrimp tacos. Make haste and head to the condiment bar to finish your tacos with tempting salsas, including fiery toasted chiles in vegetable oil, creamy cilantro and chipotle dressings, cured habaneros and onions, and simple, colorful salsas of pureed chiles with touches of salt and water. [$]

Slide along the antique wooden bar at this former warehouse tucked away across from Ensenada’s shipyard, and order one of the best gin and tonics you’ll ever have, made with citrus, Japanese cucumber, wild fennel, and Hendrick’s gin. Then ask for locally farmed Kumamoto oysters, both fresh, and grilled with Ramonetti cheese and tarragon, followed by fried abalone and seaweed, an ode to fish and chips. Either pairs well with a glass of local white wine selected by chef Benito Molina, who’s a pioneer of modern Mexican food, a visionary of contemporary Baja California cuisine, and a damned good sommelier. Once you make your way to a table, continue to imbibe with iconic dishes: a taco of the day, which might consist of octopus, chicharron, and refried black beans; fish of the day, that Baja classic, made with rockfish; or Molina’s riffs on traditional Baja California quail, a plate of tender breasts with poached quail eggs. [$$$]

Alan Pasiano is one of Ensenada’s ceviche masters. He’s a former skin diver and seafood purveyor, and he worked the sea urchin market at the old Tsukiji market in Tokyo for a Japanese seafood exporter based in Ensenada. No one does a better geoduck ceviche in the area, but don’t miss the restaurant’s masterpiece, a plate of raw yellowtail topped with a strip of sea urchin, flash-cooked in lime and dressed with squirts of yellow mustard. Pasiano, a natural storyteller, prepares dishes slowly, allowing himself enough time to share tales of the Tsukiji market or diving adventures. As he nonchalantly dices vegetables and exotic seafood, he might even provide waiting customers with a snack of cooked and cooled sea urchin ceviche spread on a tostada. [$]