Villa Azteca
157 Main St., Salinas (831) 256-2669
What do you want from a restaurant? Well, great and creative food, for starters. Chef and owner Susana Alvarez prepares everything from scratch, including drinks like Agua de Jamaica and horchata. But she is also reinventing Mexican cuisine, infusing it with her ideas, stretching dishes beyond expectation. You also want a handsome space, and Villa Azteca looks sophisticated. There are no Tex-Mex reds and golds splashed on the walls. No cartoon cacti. It’s a dining room. Finally, you would prefer the place to be local, to be mom and pop. Guess what? Villa Azteca is a family-run restaurant. That ticks every box, with no hanging chads.