El Bajio takes its name from the fertile highland plateau of central Mexico — the Bajio region that spans Guanajuato, Queretaro, and parts of Jalisco — and the kitchen takes that origin seriously. Located at 74 Fall Street in the heart of Seneca Falls, the restaurant goes beyond the standard Tex-Mex formula that dominates most small-town Mexican restaurants in upstate New York. The slow-braised meats have the depth that comes from time and proper technique, the salsas are made in-house with real heat and complexity, and the moles — the dish that separates a Mexican restaurant that cares from one that does not — show the kind of layered, from-scratch preparation that takes hours to build.

The dining room is colorful and welcoming without veering into kitschy, and the margaritas are strong enough to remind you that this is a bar as well as a restaurant. El Bajio has earned FLX Finest Silver for Best Mexican Restaurant three years running (2023, 2024, and 2025), which in a category where competition is thin could be dismissed — except the food genuinely earns it. Seneca Falls is a town that most visitors pass through on the way to the wine trail or the Women's Rights National Historical Park, and El Bajio is a strong reason to slow down and eat. The prices are reasonable, the portions are generous, and for anyone who has been drinking Riesling all day on the Seneca Lake trail, a plate of carnitas with rice and beans and a cold margarita is exactly the right course correction.