El Sabor de la Baja
Oklahoma City’s hottest spot for seafood is a tiny stretch of NW 10th St. between North May Ave. and North Miller Blvd. Two blocks apart on the north side of the street, just across from the state fairgrounds, stand Sedalia’s Oyster & Seafood and El Sabor de la Baja.
Nestled next to a neighborhood long gasping for air, these two seafood emporiums might be just the oxygen needed to fend off gentrification in the old stomping grounds Glen’s Hik’ry Inn called home for more than 50 years.
Both places opened in 2022. At Sedalia’s, chef Zach Walters and his wife Silvana have built the back side of the Rex Playground equipment company into a member of Bon Appetit’s current 24 Best New Restaurants in America. They did it with extraordinary seafood curation, precision technique and a program of natural wines second to none.
At El Sabor de la Baja, the Banuelos family took over the former Egg Roll Queen space and were such a hit they quickly took over the space next door. Despite serving Mexican food that doesn’t include a crumb of Tex-Mex, El Sabor de la Baja has quietly become the talk of the 405 dining space within the industry and out.
The Baja-style menu has been a hit in this Tex-Mex oasis. Owner/chef Gerardo Banuelos describes his menu as “the food of TJ.” TJ is short for Tijuana, the Mexican border town near San Diego, California. That’s the area where Banuelos, 34, began cooking professionally when he was 19.
“I think TJ has the best food in Mexico,” Banuelos says. “It’s because people come there from all over Mexico. It’s a port city, so all the cultures come there. That’s what makes the food so special.”
Working in Baja, Banuelos developed relationships with fishermen and clocked the kitchen time to know how to properly discern, prepare, and serve seafood. He uses a seafood purveyor from Mazatlan he met in Baja to ensure fresh seafood daily. Marlin, white fish, octopus, and shrimp in every conceivable iteration make up the seafood. It is served in ceviche, tacos, burritos, tostadas, and molcajetes. It arrives on wooden boards — potentially formed into a tower. One particular pro tip: When it comes to shareable platters, double the number of people the menu implies it will serve.
Despite leaning on seafood, neither Baja California nor El Sabor de la Baja lives on fish alone. It so happens, Banuelos and his family serve some of the absolute best tacos in the city. Arriving on wooden boards, the brawny tacos can be stuffed with birria, carne asada, or chicken besides a dozen seafood varieties.
The birria also comes by the bowl, and it’s outstanding. A little spicier than what you might be used to at the spectacular Birrieria Diaz, which is one of the places Banuelos says he goes to when he takes the family out for a meal.
Beverage service is as irreverent as the atmosphere. Clamatos are available in four iterations, and cocktails include micheladas, margaritas, palomas, and pina coladas. Don’t be surprised when your drink arrives in a terra cotta mug. Buckets of cerveza are also available, along with non-alcoholic aguas frescas, bottled water, and soda.
There is nothing delicate about the dining experience at El Sabor de la Baja other than the texture of the octopus. It’s a 10-Hour Energy Drink of a time, fueled by spicy food and loud music you wouldn’t dream of having any quieter.
Banuelos, who changes his menu a couple of times a year, was born in Chicago. His family moved to Oklahoma City when he was a boy. He attended Western Heights schools for three years before they moved to Mexico. Baja California is where he finished high school and started cooking.
The family owned and operated food trucks and restaurants on both sides of the border where Tijuana meets San Diego. Through an interpreter, Banuelos said he and his wife, Alina, got restless after having three children. Horrific traffic and the prohibitive cost of living had him dreaming in California about a return to Oklahoma.
One good return visit was all it took to move the whole family here. Banuelos shares kitchen duties with his wife, but his brothers Alejandro and Cesar also work at the restaurants, as does his father, another Alejandro. Alina’s father, Arturo Garcia, is also part of the team.
But just because they work together doesn’t mean they all live in the same neighborhood: Gerardo, Alina, and their children live in Nichols Hills, while the rest of the family are scattered between there and Yukon.
“We see each other plenty at work,” he laughed.
That family bond (and number) will come in handy as they open a second location in Midwest City.
Whether world-class seafood is possible in this landlocked state is fodder for another day’s hash, but El Sabor de la Baja and its neighbor, Sedalia’s, make a compelling case.
> El Sabor de la Baja, 2815 NW 10th St. Suite A, Oklahoma City, (405) 900-5649, instagram.com/elsabordelabajaokc/
