Our Story
How the house became a restaurant.
The original taste of Turlock since 1985. El Jardín was founded by Mary and George Delgado, a young newlywed couple who built it out of a house on E Olive Ave — the dining rooms were rooms of a house first, the patio was the backyard.
Mary and George raised El Jardín out of their shared Mexican-American heritage and a love of gardens and carpentry — you can still see both in the mosaic floors and the patio they built up over the years: bamboo along the fence, roses, umbrellas over the tables, lights strung between them. This Turlock restaurant became the first of a small family of them, now spread across Central California, the Sierra Foothills and Santa Cruz/Capitola.
Mary and George retired from the restaurants in about 2019 to give their time to their ministry in Christ and to family, and stepped back from ownership. The kitchen changed less than the ownership did: the chile verde still cooks down slowly, and the carnitas are made the same way they were in the eighties.
Recognition
Plaques by the front door.
Several local Reader’s Choice awards and a handful of regional newspaper write-ups, framed and hung in the entryway where guests check in.
Then & Now
The recipes stayed the same.
The printed menu has said “Experience the finest in Mexican cuisine” for as long as anyone can remember. Mary and George Delgado founded El Jardín and ran it for over three decades before stepping back; the restaurant has since passed to new ownership, who keep the Delgados’ recipes, their patio and their name exactly as they left it.
Come by.
Dine in among the mosaic floors and gardens Mary and George built, with a drink from our full bar menu and tequila selection.