La Especial Norte

I love this place, I’ve been coming here for decades.
A quintessential «locals only» type joint.
They specialize in soups. I refer to their chicken soup as «Mexican penicillin», and get a large bowl EVERY time I catch a cold. Seriously, I’m having a bowl right now!
They’ve got parking on an otherwise treacherous road, the interior is really cute & festive, and, their Mexican beers are only $ 4.75 each!!!

What a great find this place is. My brother-​in-​law stumbled upon it while on a camping trip. They know we love Mexican food and couldn’t wait to take us there. They’re known for their great soups. I had the chicken soup, my brother-​in-​law had the tortilla soup, both were outstanding. My husband had a machaca burrito, he said it was great and very filling. It’s the real deal, definitely the best Mexican food we’ve found since moving to Oceanside in June of this year.
Unilocal shows that they’re open from 10 AM to 9 PM. I’m a little confused by that. We were there for lunch on Dec. 30^th & they closed at 2:30 PM. I asked if they’re open for dinner and they said no they close at 2:30 PM EVERY DAY. We went back for lunch on Jan. 4^th & they were closed. The sign said they were on vacation from Jan. 1^st thru 15^th. I would highly recommend La Especial Norte’s but I’d suggest calling ahead to make sure they’re open. I think that Unilocal should check their hours. This website show they’re open now. I know they’re closed for two weeks because we were just there two days ago. I’d be VERY unhappy if I drove 35 mins. only to find them closed. If Unilocal shows that a restaurant is open, I trust that they truly are open. This is the first time I’ve ran into this problem on Unilocal.I’d give them 5 stars if there wasn’t a problem with the hours being inaccurate on Unilocal