Just off the highway en route to the Redmond Municipal Airport, an unassuming strip mall is hardly a place associated with escape or excitement. Yet tucked into this unlikely setting, Xalisco Latin Cuisine transports diners straight to the Mexican state widely regarded as the birthplace of many of the country’s most iconic dishes. Drawing from the Jalisco region’s robust cuisine—where pre-Hispanic traditions meet Spanish influences—the restaurant is centered on family recipes and regional specialties. Many are reimagined with elevated touches that reward diners with creativity and quality, and defy the restaurant’s modest exterior.
The dishes reveal a place built on family, second acts and a deep emotional connection to food. For owner Maria Medina, Xalisco is a culmination of decades of lived experience, migration and resilience—served daily.
Dedication is evident in the food. The carnitas—slow-cooked, tender, richly flavorful pork—is Medina’s mother’s recipe. The fundamentals come into focus in other specialty dishes such as the carne en su jugo (a Jalisco specialty of beef simmered in a savory tomatillo broth with beans and fresh garnishes), arrachera (marinated skirt steak) and tacos de camarón, or shrimp. “If you can do the basics really well, it says a lot about a menu and a place,” said Medina.
One of the lesser-known menu items is torta ahogada, a traditional Guadalajara-style sourdough-bread sandwich of braised pork or pork belly carnitas, in a salsa of dried chiles and tomato with red onion and lime. “That’s a dish that a lot of people have never encountered before, and it’s one of my favorites. It’s just a classic that is delicious,” said Medina. “I always recommend it spicy as well. It gives it a good extra kick.”
For Medina, food has long been a source of comfort and connection, especially when she arrived in Los Angeles from Mexico, “freshly 21 years old and feeling so homesick, and so alone really,” she said. Finding familiar food helped ease that isolation while working as an office administrator for a textile business.
Medina moved to Redmond from Los Angeles about a month before opening Xalisco in May of 2021 in her 50s while navigating a new chapter of life following her divorce. “It’s never too late to start something new,” she said.
Had she known more about the challenges of the restaurant business, she likely wouldn’t have taken the leap, she said, but what made it possible was family. Medina’s brother, sister-in-law, niece, nephews, grandniece and daughter all play roles in the restaurant, from the kitchen to the dining room. “I was never alone,” she said. “Without them, we would not be where we are.”
At the helm of the kitchen is Medina’s nephew, Ángel Buenrostro Medina, who studied gastronomy in Guadalajara. His training shows up in creative renditions of family and traditional recipes—an approach that has helped develop a cadre of devoted regulars. Among them are Dawn and David Haffey of David Haffey Fine Jewelry in Redmond, who have frequented Xalisco at least twice weekly since it opened, after one of their own customers recommended it.
When they first saw the location, they didn’t have high expectations, but their presumptions vanished with the first bite of camarones momia, bacon-wrapped shrimp finished in a rich, creamy sauce. Other standouts soon followed, such as the arrachera. Dawn enjoyed margaritas made with freshly squeezed limes. What struck the couple just as deeply was the atmosphere. “They treat you like family,” said David. “You can feel the love that goes into the food.”
That mix of culinary creativity and authentic hospitality has turned an unlikely spot into a gastronomic destination.
