Valle is easily the nicest restaurant in Oceanside, and probably all of North County, San Diego. It’s new, it’s Michelin recommended, and if you’re into elevated, true Mexican cuisine, I wouldn’t skip trying out Valle. Honestly, I knew nothing about the place before coming here with my family this month, but we had really great servers who told us about the owner’s culinary and winemaking history in the Valle de Guadalupe in Northwestern Mexico. This is where most of Mexico’s wine comes from, and there are definitely some bottles you’ll want to try!

The restaurant is located in the new, Mission Pacific Hotel, right on the coast. The ambiance here is hip and modern, but with a lot of nice, soft touches. The lighting here is especially cool, and I took a lot of photos of the light fixtures all around the bar and restaurant.

I also loved all the lush greenery all over the restaurant. Honestly, it was impossible to tell if it was all live or faux, but I’m guessing it’s a mix of both.

The food here was extremely good. You have a choice to eat from a four or eight course menu. We chose the four course, and we were able to choose one out of about three to four choices in each category. You also have a choice of wine pairings and I did the basic pairing at $50. The rest of my family opted for cocktails. All of the wines were from the Valle de Guadeloupe which was so fun, since I don’t know if I’ve ever had a wine from that region.

Prior to the four-course meal proper, they brought out a few bite-sized snacks, and I’m really going to have to do a better job writing down what all of these things are. Suffice to say, it was a nice way to start the meal with a few little bright bites that were pretty to look at, and delicious to eat.

For the first course, I chose the crab tostada, and I’m pretty sure this was my favorite course of the evening. Not that anything else was bad, but the flavor combos as well as the textures of this dish were truly perfect. The tostadas are house made and crunchy, with a unique flavor, and there was a ton of crab on this tostada. They used a crab chintextle paste, which is a smoked chili paste to hold it all together. Seriously amazing. The 322 claret-style wine was a perfect pairing, with some cool fruit notes and a ton of acid to balance out the rich crab and chintextle paste.

For the second course, I had the lobster taco. This was literally an enormous piece of lobster sitting on a tortilla, served with a few sauces. They didn’t provide utensils for this, but I requested them, since it was nearly impossible to eat with your hands. The lobster was delicious and it was a LOT. If you are looking for “bang for your buck” with this prix-fixe meal, definitely go for the enormous lobster taco. The wine pairing was a slightly buttery (but not overly oaky) chardonnay from Chateau Camou. Without the food I thought the wine was a bit blousy, but then, paired with the buttery lobster, it was actually a superb pairing.

Next, they brought out some black bean bread, which was super delicious, though by now, I was really starting to get pretty full, so I only had a little bit. The salted butter served with it was creamy and delicious. I’m also glad they brought out the bread in the middle of the service, which is something I’ve been noticing at nicer places lately. This allows you to enjoy your meal and not fill up on bread right at the beginning. I’m loving this shift in service!

I ordered the grilled mushroom for my main course, and it really was one of the best choices. It was served with a beautiful chocolaty mole sauce and you were supposed to eat it with tortillas which were house made and fresh. I really can’t express how good this mole sauce was – easily the best I’ve ever had (take that, Rick Bayless!). The wine pairing was a Chateau Domecq bordeau blend which went really well with the mushroom and mole sauce. I loved the richness of this wine, and it was a great choice.

Finally, it was really tough to choose a dessert. I went with the unusual choice of apple strudel, which was flaky, sweet, and gussied up with a blown-sugar bright green apple. It was pretty, and good, but my mom ordered the Jamaica Panna Cotta which really was the clear winner of the evening. The wine pairing was a pet nat Sauvignon Blanc from Vena Cava winery. Honestly, I didn’t like it at all, though that is really more my preference than it being a bad wine. It tasted like a really sour cider, which makes sense considering the pairing with the apple strudel, but it just wasn’t my bag.

After dessert, as if we weren’t full enough already, we were served a small plate of different kinds of chocolates. Chocolate is not really my thing, but my brother luckily gobbled a lot of it up.

The service here was stellar, and I learned a ton about the Valle de Guadalupe, Mexico, a food and wine region I had zero clue about before this dinner. Our server was knowledgable about the food and the wines and super enthusiastic about the service. We were also brought back into the kitchen following our meal to check it out, and were served little tiny sorbet cones as a final palate cleanser. It was a lovely way to end the evening, and I think it’s always really cool to be able to check out the kitchen.

Valle is not inexpensive, with the four course menu running about $110 per person, however considering all of the extras you get (snacks, bread, chocolate, and tiny sorbet cones) beyond the four extremely filling courses, I think it ends up being a very good value, especially factoring the excellent service, cool ambiance, and the knowledge that you gain about a particular food and wine region while you’re there. This type of elevated cuisine is a bit of a loner and stand out in Oceanside. I hope it stays a long time, and leads the way for more fine dining in the area!

Update! As of July 18, 2023, Valle has been awarded a Michelin Star! A very well deserved recognition for this unique and delicious restaurant! A diamond in the rough!