Miguel's Cocina at 1351 Orange Avenue on Coronado Island is the original location of the San Diego-based Mexican restaurant group, serving Cali-inspired Mexican cuisine in the courtyard of the historic El Cordova Hotel since June 1982. The kitchen makes tortillas, salsas, and chips from scratch, and the signature jalapeño white sauce — a proprietary recipe regulars call "white gold" — distinguishes the flavor profile from the wood-fired Italian program at Garage Buona Forchetta across C Avenue and the other dining concepts along this stretch of Orange Avenue. The El Cordova courtyard setting places the restaurant directly across from Hotel Del Coronado, with a heated patio surrounded by bougainvillea and hand-painted tilework that seats guests in a hacienda-style environment distinct from any other Coronado restaurant. The dinner menu features Sonoran grilled swordfish tacos, sizzling sirloin fajitas, chicken mole, and carne asada taquitos, with weekend brunch adding chilaquiles and coconut-crusted French toast to the rotation — a range best explored alongside the selected wine-flight experience at Coronado Tasting Room before or after dinner. The restaurant group now operates seven locations across San Diego County, including Point Loma and Old Town, but the Coronado original maintains its own menu items and the courtyard atmosphere that launched the brand over four decades ago.