Food

Eat from the water

Loreto is a Sea of Cortez fishing town, so the rule is simple: eat what came off the boats that morning. This is food at its most direct, and the best meals here are rarely the fanciest ones.

The dishes worth planning around:

• Chocolate clams (almejas chocolatas). The local signature, a big brown-shelled clam pulled from the shallows and served grilled on the half shell with lime, salsa and sometimes cheese, or raw with lime for the brave. When a stand or mariscos spot has them fresh, order them. This is the one dish to make sure you eat in Loreto.
• Fish and shrimp tacos. Battered (capeado) or grilled (a la plancha), dressed with cabbage, crema and salsa. The town’s everyday lunch, cheap and fresh, roughly 30 to 60 MXN each (approximate).
• Machaca de pescado and marlin. Marlin smoked and shredded into tacos, tostadas and burritos, a Baja staple that keeps well and turns up everywhere. Order it on a tostada with plenty of lime.
• Almejas tatemadas and mixed mariscos. Clams roasted over open flame, plus ceviches, aguachile and cocteles de camarón when the shrimp is running.
• Catch of the day. At the sit-down places, the local snapper (huachinango) or whatever came in that morning, grilled al mojo de ajo or à la talla.

Where to eat each thing

The taco and mariscos stands a few streets off Plaza Cívica are where the value and the locals are. A plate of fish tacos or a clam order runs cheap here, well under 150 MXN for a full lunch (approximate), and it is the real everyday meal. The marlin and fish-taco carts open around midday and sell until they run out, so go for lunch, not a late dinner.

The market and neighborhood tiendas inland are where to grab fruit, agua fresca, snacks and water at normal prices instead of malecón markups, and where you will find fresh clams and fish if you want to cook.

The sit-down restaurants along Calle Salvatierra and the malecón are the evening option, good for a full seafood dinner with a cold beer or a Baja wine from the Valle de Guadalupe. Expect to pay more here, roughly 300 to 600 MXN per person for a full meal (approximate), partly for the setting and the sunset over the water.

Meal timing

Tacos and mariscos are a midday thing, the stands are freshest at lunch and many close in the afternoon. Sit-down dinners run from the evening once it cools. Coffee and pan dulce in the small center cafés are the local morning routine. If you want chocolate clams at their best, catch them at lunch when the day’s catch is in.

Order this, not that

Order the chocolate clams and the fish tacos from a busy stand where the fishermen and locals are lined up, not the generic “seafood platter” on a tourist patio, which is often frozen, oversized and overpriced. In a fishing town, freshness beats presentation every time. Follow the crowd of locals a couple of blocks inland, covered in where locals go, and you will eat better for less.