PRICE:
Frommer's Very Highly Recommended

The last time I had Mexican food this good I was living on the shores of Lake Chapala near Guadalajara. Made from recipes handed down by the owner's ancestors, the Mexican cuisine at Frida is as traditional and authentic as it gets on this side of the border. It's the kind of food you find when you're so far south of Tijuana that the culture appears more Maya than Mexican. Both the friendly owner and waiters are justly proud of the dishes they present as patrons eagerly tuck into handmade soft tacos brimming with sautéed shrimp bathed in a dark, tangy pasilla-orange sauce (fantastic), or generous portions of carnitas in an annatto-seed sauce topped with onion-habañero relish and served over fresh corn tortillas. And we've only started. Seviches, sopas, ensaladas, moles, pescados, carnes -- there are so many choices of dishes you've probably never heard of that it helps to enlist the advice of the waitstaff. Trust me on a couple, though: the dark, rich chicken mole simmered in ground pumpkin-seed sauce; and the Filete Tentacion, charbroiled filet mignon on a bed of dry chile and Mexican truffle sauce (cuitlacoche), topped with goat cheese and jalapeño sauce, and served with a side of grilled chayote squash. The wide selection of superb margaritas is the perfect accompaniment to the spicy dishes. Even the velvety refried beans were the best I've ever had. If you like authentic Mexican cuisine, Achiwawa! will you love Frida's.

Copyright: Excerpted from Frommer's Los Angeles 2008, (c) 2008, Wiley Publishing, Inc.

Find Hotel Deals on Yahoo Travel»