finally made it to this old Encinitas roadhouse for an early lunch warming caldo.

When you enter you grab a menu and seat yourself. There are some booths up front and a larger dining room in the back. As you pass the hallway you can see for yourself the huge stockpots and steam rising there from.

They have a pretty extensive menu with quite a few rarely seen authentic dishes but I stuck with the caldo page. A chowhound, rworange I belive recommended the eggplant soup -- which stuck out in my mind because of the inclusion of chile relleno 'puffs' which I love and seemed intriguing. So I ordered this with corn tortillas.

Chips and a nice salsa were brought promptly out. The waitresses were really pleasant kind people. While I was waiting I stood up to read the media posted on the wall praising the restaurant.

It is truly a unique place, I have never heard of a Mexican restaurant specializing in caldos.

I took note especially of the Saveur write up, pretty impressive.

WHile I was reading I overheard the lady up front talking to some potential customers about the restaurant. She mentioned how one of the cooks has been there for 29 years. Talk about dedication.

I used this tidbit of information to begin a conversation with her. I found out she is the Salazar's (owner's) daughter Lorena. Really nice and I could tell she enjoyed to talk - which was good for me as I had a ton of questions.