Making fresh tortillas at Las Quatro Milpas. Photo, Mario A. Cortez, courtesy La Prensa San Diego
Las Cuatro Milpas (1933-✔) is San Diego’s oldest Mexican restaurant, with homestyle Mexican cooking served continuously since 1933 by the Natividad and Petra Estudillo family.
Petra and Nati named their small restaurant Las Cuatro Milpas (‘the four fields’).
La Prensa newspaper proclaims La Milpa is ‘hands down, the most authentic Mexican restaurant in San Diego.’
Hard to argue with a line of patiently waiting customers down the block. There are no handout menus, just a menu board above the counter where you order. Pork tacos topped with cotija. Chorizo con huevos. Burritos. Beef tamales. Rolled tacos. Chorizo, rice, and beans. Sodas. The best handmade flour tortillas. And menudo on Saturdays. That’s it. All are good — order tacos for breakfast! Cash-only establishment.
Barrio Logan
1857 Logan Avenue
San Diego, CA 92113
Notes
Citation: Martin S. Lindsay. ‘Las Cuatro Milpas.’ Classic San Diego: tasty bites from the history of America’s finest city. Web. < https://classicsandiego.com/restaurants/las-cuatro-milpas/>
“San Diego’s oldest Mexican restaurant” Although La Piñata restaurant in Old Town opened in 1933 as Ramona’s Spanish Kitchen, it had a succession of owners and only became La Pinata after 1969.