La Casa del Waffle

Address:  Carretera Poniente #75
Phone:  376-766-1946
Hours of Operation:  Sunday - Saturday  8am - 2om
Web Page:  www.lacasadelwaffle.com.mx
Facebook:  www.facebook.com/lacasadelwaffle

WIFI Available
Credit Cards not Accepted

Directions:  From Walmart head west on the carretera approximately 2 1/2 miles. Casa del Waffle will be on your right just past the car wash and Roberto's restaurant. There is parking available in front of the restaurant.

First Impressions

La Casa del Waffle is located on the western edge of Ajijic, on the right side of the Carretera, when headed west. There is a small, but adequate parking lot in front of the restaurant.

La Casa del Waffle offers outdoor seating and some indoor seating, with a large open door onto the patio. This is a clean and pleasant little breakfast café. Free wifi is available for customers.

I almost did not review this restaurant because I thought it was a chain. But, turns out that the "chain" started in Ajijic, and this La Casa del Waffle is the original restaurant. The other two restaurants in Guadalajara and Talaquepaque are based on the Ajijic model.

When we arrived at about 10 am on a Friday morning and there were plenty of available tables. Very loud American rock music was playing, almost too loud to carry on a conversation.

Menu  

We have been to La Casa del Waffle several times since we have lived at Lake Chapala. This is as close as you are going to get to Denny's or IHOP in Mexico.

La Casa del Waffle offers a variety of fruit topped Belgian waffles, pancakes and traditional eggs, potatoes and bacon, but also has a few traditional Mexican breakfast specialties.

They also offer a children's menu, so this is definitely a family friendly restaurant. On Sunday mornings, after church, lines form outside Casa del Waffle, waiting for a seat.

This morning we ordered the Good Morning Breakfast - sausage and eggs on toasted English muffins, topped with gravy -  and a plate of scrambled eggs, bacon, and refried beans, accompanied by an a la carte order of biscuits.
 
Our meals were served hot and were good, almost like a real American breakfast. The biscuits were not really biscuits, qua biscuits, but rather breakfast yeast rolls, cut open and toasted.

I was a bit disappointed that they were not real, southern style biscuits but I realize that not every place in the world interprets biscuits like this southerner.

The coffee was very good, and a waiter came by the table to freshen our cups almost as soon as they were empty.

 Service and Price

The service is very good at La Casa del Waffle. We were waited on immediately, and served coffee while we read the menu. When we have visited previously, we were served a small basket of bread, but not this time. I am not sure why.

The waiter kept our coffee cups filled and was a little anxious to remove our plates before we were finished with our meals.

Our meal, without tip, came to $222 pesos,  or about $17US, about what we pay in the US when we visit a breakfast chain restaurant.

Our recommendation ***

La Casa del Waffle is a good place for breakfast if you want traditional, familiar, breakfast food. This is a nice, clean restaurant with a pleasant atmosphere and good food at a fair price.

If you sit in the patio area you can lessen the effects of the blaring music, which will improve your experience significantly.
  

Monte Cristo Restaurant

Address:  Carretera Chapala-Jocotepec #920A
                 Ajijic, Jalisco
Phone:  331-768-1063 (cell)
             376-106-2063
Hours of Operation:  Monday - Saturday 8:30 AM - 9 PM
                                  Sunday 8:30 AM - 2 PM
Facebook Page
WIFI:  Available
Credit Cards not accepted

Directions: From WalMart head west on the carretera towards Jocotepec approximately 3 miles. Monte Cristo is on the left just past the La Huerta Event Center. There is ample parking in front of the restaurant.

Update: Now Serving Breakfast, 8:30am daily. 59 peso special.  

First Impressions

We had heard nothing but good things about the new addition to the Lake Chapala restaurant scene, Monte Cristo Restaurant, so added it to our list of restaurants to review.

We arrived for lunch at about 1pm on a Wednesday afternoon. There were already diners inside the open air restaurant and seated at the umbrella covered tables on the front patio.

There is plenty of room for diners at the Monte Cristo, which also features a large patio dining area located just off the bar. Though the smaller patio is near the main road, the noise was not bothersome on the day we visited. The landscaping is beautiful and designed to block much of the road noise.

We recognized friends dining on the patio  and asked if they had been to Monte Cristo before that afternoon. They assured us that they had, and that Monte Cristo had become one of their go-to places to eat. The patio is dog friendly and wifi is available.

The décor inside the restaurant is fresh and modern, with wooden tables and wrought iron chairs. There was upbeat, Latin music playing softly in the background.

The interior is spacious, with tables placed far enough apart to provide some privacy for conversation. The Monte Cristo also has a full bar.

Menu and Service

Our waiter brought the menus, took our drink orders and informed us of the specials of the day, in English and in Spanish. He was friendly and knowledgeable about the items on the menu.

We ordered two glasses of the house red wine, a good Merlot. The waiter brought out a basket of freshly baked bread with garlic spread and even offered to bring more after we gobbled the first basket down.


The menu offers a number of tempting appetizers that include shrimp and cream cheese spring rolls, salads, seafood chowder, avocado stuffed with shrimp or smoked oysters and fish and chips.


Entrees  included salmon with herbs, Spaghetti Monte Cristo, paella, mahi-mahi Monte Cristo and shish-kabob. A variety of hamburger plates are also available.

We decided to start with the shrimp and cream cheese spring rolls. These did not disappoint, served hot and cooked perfectly with a plum dipping sauce. The simple descriptions in the menu were tantalizing, making it difficult to choose what to order.


Everything about the Monte Cristo communicates the owner's concern for the customer's dining experience. Finally, we decided on the special of the day, which was a seafood, chicken and steak shish-kabob, served with either four or five skewers. We also ordered the pear and goat cheese salad. We did not wait long for our meals. The presentation was lovely, the interpretation of these simple dishes, sophisticated.

Price and Service

The price for our meal was $535pesos, for an appetizer, large shish-kabob plate, huge salad, dessert and five glasses of house wine. That is just a little over $40US.

We returned to Monte Cristo Restaurant recently to meet their chef, Humberto Hernandez. Hernandez brings a new direction to Monte Cristo, including the addition of breakfast served until noon. Hernandez has been in kitchens all across the country and in the USA, from Portland, Oregon to Baja California, Mazatlán and Ajijic.

We ordered from the $59peso breakfast which offers your choice of 2 eggs, bacon and hash browns or eggs, bacon and pancakes, French toast and more. The coffee was hot and freshly made and the waiter kept our cups full.

Our Recommendation ****

Eat at Monte Cristo Restaurant in Ajijic. The food is prepared well and served as if the owners and staff really care about your dining experience. Now you can have breakfast, even if you are a late sleeper. Monte Cristo is one of our go-to restaurants in Ajijic, where service and food are consistently excellent.

La Palapa del Guayabo

Address:  Paseo Ramon Corona #24
                Chapala, Jalisco
Phone:     376 765 4180
Hours of Operation:  Monday - Sunday; 12pm - 9pm
Webpage:  www.lapalapadelguayabo.com

Directions: From Walmart, head east on the Carratera towards Chapala, about 6 1/2 miles. Turn right at the stoplight, heading towards the lakefront. Take the next left, along the malecon. La Palapa del Guayabo is located at the end of the row of restaurants (under the big palapa) at the end of the market. There is limited parking in front of the restaurant, but ample parking along Paseo Ramon Corona.

First Impressions

La Palapa del Guayabo is in a huge, thatched roof building right at the end of the malecon in Chapala. It is the restaurant closest to the lake. Though we have been to Chapala to eat many times, we always preferred smaller, more intimate restaurants so had never tried La Palapa del Guayabo.

However, we were invited by friends who live in Chapala to try it with them, so we met on a Saturday night, before a huge fiesta and walked to the restaurant at the end of the malecon. The restaurant had very few customers, but enough to encourage the mariachis to play loudly and incessantly.

The best feature of La Palapa del Guayabo is the front seat view of the sun setting over Lake Chapala. Otherwise, it has the ambiance of a bus terminal.

Menu

The menu is in Spanish, with no English translation offered. This is okay if you have been in the area for a while, but hard for English speaking newcomers to decipher. This is the first restaurant, in our experience eating at lakeside restaurants, that has not offered a menu in English, or provided some sort of translation.

The menu has the standard dishes available at most of the restaurants in the area - arrachara, fish and seafood and some traditional Mexican plates. The waiter brought our drinks and a small serving of pico de gallo and chips to eat while we studied the menu.

We finally decided on the arrachara, a chilies rellano plate (stuffed with seafood) and molcajete de res (molcajete made with cheese, peppers, and beef) to split for two of us. The prices seemed rather high for a restaurant in working class Chapala, but it appears as though they cater mostly to tourists.

The molcajete arrived at the table bubbling hot and served with corn tortillas. The arrachara was served with french fries and a green salad. The chilies rellano was not breaded, but rather covered in a gritty cornmeal coating and baked. The seafood inside was not warm, and apparently had been prepared much earlier in the day. A small number of corn tortillas accompanied the molcajete, not enough for eating the entire bowl of meat and cheese, but we were not offered additional tortillas and could not get the waiter's attention to ask for more.

The restaurant offers a full bar, though we all drank soft drinks this evening. We inquired about dessert and the waiter told us that there was no chocolate cake, but seemed reluctant to bring the dessert menu, so we asked for the bill and had dessert at a local gelato stand. We were also not offered a way to take home the remaining molcajete.

Ambiance and Service

The best feature of La Palapa del Guayabo is its proximity to Lake Chapala. This is probably one of the best locations in Chapala for watching the sun set over the lake. The night we visited the restaurant, there were a small number of diners, but a large group of competing mariachis, who gathered around one table close to us and played all night.

They never came to our table, which seemed very odd. After a while, we felt like we had crashed someone's private party. It was so loud, that we were unable to carry on a conversation at our table.

We asked for a dessert menu, and the waiter informed us of a few choices, but he did not seem anxious for us to order anything more. I noticed that the waiters had begun to strip the tablecloths off the tables in the front of the restaurant. Our waiter was ready to go home. There was a festival in Chapala that evening and it seemed that everyone was anxious to leave work.

I did not check the restrooms at this restaurant. I have read other reviewers who commented, en espanol, that they are not in good shape, but I cannot verify that claim. It wouldn't surprise me to find that these writers are right. A place that does not care about its customers rarely bothers to keep the facilities clean.

Price

The bill arrived with a 10% propina already added and a charge for IVA (tax). This is the first time, since we have been living at Lake Chapala, that we have seen a bill with these charges added - especially for a table of four people. Our final bill, without alcohol or dessert and with two of us sharing the molcajete was
$663p, an outrageous sum, considering the quality of the food and the service that we received.

 

Our Recommendation **

Seriously? You can't find anyplace else in Chapala to eat?

Okay, we did not get sick from eating at this restaurant, and that is our standard for completely panning a place. You can eat here and not die. The view is very good. If, in the end, you must eat here as a sort of punishment to your guests whom you never care to see again, at least order the molcajete. Ask for extra tortillas, even if the waiter glares and grinds his teeth at you. Otherwise, there are many, many nicer places to eat along the malecon in Chapala, where you will be treated well by the wait staff, can eat great food, and pay much less for the experience.

Mariscos el Carnal

Address:  Carratera Oriente #1352
                San Juan Cosala, Jalisco
Phone:  387 761 1010
Hours:  Monday - Sunday 12pm - 7PM
Webpage: www.elcarnalmariscos.com

Directions:  From Walmart, head west on the Carratera towards Jocotepec, for approximately 7 miles. Mariscos El Carnal is the second restaurant on the left (lakeside, with the shark hanging at the entrance), in the line of restaurants in the Piedra Barrenada. There are some topes (speed bumps) just before the restaurant and flaggers trying to get you to come to their restaurant. Valet parking is available for about 30 pesos.

First Impressions

Mariscos el Carnal is located in what is known as the Piedra Barrenada, a tourist zone between Ajijic and San Juan Cosala, lined with lake front restaurants.

You can't miss the entrance to Mariscos el Carnal. There are large topes (speed bumps) at the beginning of the restaurant zone that slows traffic down to a crawl. Then, there are hoards of young, extremely energetic men waving frantically at every passing car, urging them to park and dine at one of the  restaurants.

And, if the flag-wavers and the topes don't alert you to the entrance of Mariscos el Carnal, just watch to your right for the giant replica of a shark that hangs out front.

On this stretch of Lake Chapala, the water comes very close to the road, so all the restaurants offer a view of the lake. Marsicos el Carnal has about the best view of them all from their open-air dining rooms.

Use the valet parking, or just pull into the parking lot across the street from the restaurant. The crazy, flag-waving hoard will make sure you cross the road safely.

Menu

The menu at Mariscos el Carnal is about the size of a small novel, offering an impressive variety of fish and seafood dishes, steaks and traditional Mexican plates served in interesting and unique ways.

For instance, you can choose a hot cheesy molcajete or a mixed platter of seafood or  meat served on a table top grill.

Package deals are available for groups who like to share. Be careful, because some of these deals include a bottle of tequila which will raise the price of the meal significantly.



When we arrived one early Sunday afternoon, we were seated by the hostess without having to wait. The waiter took our drink order while we read the menu.

Our drinks arrived quickly, accompanied  by an interesting starter that included a tasty pico de gallo and a mixed fresh vegetable dish served with crackers and packaged tostada chips.

We ordered the fried shrimp plate and seafood stuffed flautas. Frankly, I am addicted to the flautas at Mariscos el Carnal. They are so light and delicious that I could eat a dozen at one setting.

Fortunately, they only bring three, accompanied by a guacamole sauce .
There were three on the  plate, above, but I couldn't help eating one before taking the picture.

We ordered a nice Merlot to accompany our meal and ended the feast by splitting a piece of rich chocolate cake. Mariscos el Carnal has a full bar available and the menu suggests some unique cocktails and mixed drinks.

The last time we dined at Mariscos el Carnal,  we ordered the mixed shrimp grill. The waiter brought a clay, grill to the table, filled with shrimp prepared in every way imaginable - fried, diablo, garlic and butter and cheese stuffed, bacon wrapped, to name some.  The meal was accompanied by a plate of rice and salad.

This is a fun way to taste a little bit of every shrimp dish.

Service and Ambiance 

The flag wavers and the guy on stilts, yelling and motioning drivers into their establishments, are obnoxious. But, once you enter the restaurant you encounter a less frenetic environment. There are roaming mariachis and a live band plays for guests after 3 pm on weekends. There is a long pier that stretches from the restaurant into the lake.
 


The view from our table at Mariscos el Carnal

The service from wait staff is good, and I have never felt rushed when eating at Mariscos el Carnal, though we may sit and sip wine and stare across the lake long after we have finished our meal.

The view from the dining room is superb. We watched the vaqueros and their horses on the beach, speed boats pulling skiers, and jet skiers enjoying beautiful Lake Chapala on a recent Sunday afternoon.

Oddly, we are usually the only gringo diners in the restaurant and I cannot understand why, since the food is excellent and the view of the lake is unsurpassed.

The dining room is covered by a huge palapa, with an expansive view of Lake Chapala from every table. If it is breezy when you go, sit one table back from the lake's edge and avoid being chilled.

 

Price

Mariscos el Carnal is pricier than most restaurants lakeside by about 25%, not a lot when you consider the setting. It is nice to sit by the water as you enjoy an excellent meal. Dinner for two, four glasses of wine and dessert will run about $600p, or $45US at today's exchange rate.

Recommendation ****

Eat here. Excellent food. Wide variety of dishes and presentations. Full bar. Good service. The music can get loud, so if this bothers you, do as we do and come in the early on a Sunday afternoon.

La Casita del Molcajete

Address:  Paseo Ramon Corona  #132
                Chapala, Jalisco
Phone:  376 765 4906
Hours: Monday - Sunday,  9am - 11pm
Credit Cards Accepted

Directions: From Walmart, head east on the Carratera towards Chapala, about 6 1/2 miles. Turn right at the stoplight, heading towards the lakefront. Take the next left, along the malecon. La Casita del Molcajete is located in the row of restaurants at the end of the market. There is limited parking in front of the restaurant, but ample parking along Paseo Ramon Corona.

 

First Impressions

La Casita del Molcajete is in the middle of a strip of restaurants at the eastern end of the Chapala malecon. In this area, it is sometimes hard to tell where one café ends and another begins.

Perhaps that is why it took us nearly a year to get around to trying this pleasant little restaurant.




The interior is spotless, one of the cleanest restaurants I have seen lakeside. We were early and there was only one other table of diners when we arrived so we had our choice of tables covered in bright green, blue and orange tablecloths.

Menu

The maître de greeted us and introduced us to our young waiter, who immediately took our drink order and brought out pico de gallo and salsa  to enjoy while we looked over the menu.



In addition to the cafe's namesake dish, a bubbling volcanic cauldron of cheese, peppers and seafood or steak called molcajete, the menu also offered a variety of appetizers, fish and seafood cooked to order, steak, soup, salads, and a few traditional Mexican dishes. 

La Casita del Mocajete has a full bar, wine and beer as well as non-alcohol beverages.

We ordered fried shrimp and my companion said that it was some of the best he has tasted anywhere. The plate held a generous number of shrimp, steamed squash, a green salad and bread. The shrimp was lightly breaded and served hot, but not overcooked.

We also ordered chicken fajitas. The chicken was well seasoned and accompanied by refried beans, guacamole and a green salad and served with warm, thin corn tortillas. It was fresh, authentic and delicious.

Ambiance and Service

La Casita del Molcajete is a clean and pleasant café, though it appears rather dull on the outside. There is traditional music playing quietly in the background, so we were able to talk while we dined.

The young staff was courteous and paid attention to our table, attending to our needs without any prompting and without making us feel as if we were rushed.

The restaurant started to fill up just about the time we were ready to leave, and it is apparent that this is a favorite with local diners.

I stopped in the ladies' room before leaving and was pleasantly surprised. This is one of the nicest, and cleanest, public restrooms I have encountered in Mexico. I always feel good about eating at a restaurant that pays such close attention to these details.

Price

Prices are  reasonable, aligned with the cost of dinner at the surrounding restaurants on the malecon. We were happy to see that La Casita del Molcajete takes credit cards, except for American Express, though we had our pesos ready just in case.

Entrees, 4 glasses of wine and tip came to $500 pesos, less than $40US.

 

Our Recommendation ****

Put La Casita del Molcajete on your list of lakeside restaurants to try. The food is very well prepared and delicious, the service attentive and courteous and the prices will not make a hole in your budget.

El Arbol de Cafe

Address: Calle Hidalgo #236-4
               Chapala, Jalisco
Phone:    376 765 3908
Hours:    Monday - Saturday, 8am - 3pm

Directions: From Walmart head east on the Carratera approximately 4 1/2 miles. El Arbol de Cafe is on the right (lakeside) of the road, across from the murals and next to the entrance of El Quetzal Restaurant. Parking along the road is limited, but El Arbol de Cafe is a short walk from the malecon where parking is plentiful.

First Impressions

El Arbol de Café is a neighborhood coffee shop with a limited breakfast menu. I have driven by here many times without paying attention to this art-filled shop when on the way to Chapala from Ajijic.

One day we were walking up the sidewalk from Chapala and spotted a friend coming out of the shop with a bag of coffee beans.

 "Best coffee lakeside," he said. Instead of taking his word for it, we stopped in to try it for ourselves and it is, indeed, very good coffee. There are tables inside the café and outside. The café has a lot of original art displayed on the walls and also for sale.

Menu

El Arbol de Café is mainly a coffee shop. You can order your cup of java and sit at an outdoor table to take in some people watching, order a bag of whole beans to take home, or have it ground as you wait. There is also a limited breakfast menu available and a few sweet treats offered to accompany your cup of coffee.

Ambiance and Service  

This is the kind of place you can come to linger over a cup of coffee and read the newspaper, or check your email.

We ordered our coffee at the counter, but the barrista brought it to our table and checked back later to make sure that we were satisfied.

El Arbol de Café has the air of a small, independent coffee shop in the states - cool, serene and just a little bit funky.

Price  

Prices are reasonable at El Arbol de Café.  Coffee to take home is $130/kilo, or about $10 for 2.2 pounds and worth every penny.

Our Recommendation ***

Only three stars because this is not a full restaurant, but rather a coffee shop. However, we know that visitors for the weekend, or longer, like to know where to get a good cup of coffee and a decent internet connection. If you are in Chapala, El Arbol de Café is the place to go for both.

Los Telares

Address: Morelos #6, Ajijic
Phone:  376-766-0428
Hours: Tuesday - Saturday 12:00 pm - 9:00 pm; Sunday 12:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Credit cards accepted: Visa, MasterCard, American Express
Reaervations accepted

Directions: Travel towards lake on Morelos in Ajijic. Restaurant is on left before getting to lake. Parking is on the street and very limited. Drive all the way to the lakefront and park on the left or right of the pier.

First Impressions

Los Telares' rather ordinary entrance opens onto a beautiful outdoor dining room surrounded by trees and tropical bushes. Tables are shaded by brightly colored umbrellas. Soft instrumentals play in the background, it is exactly the kind of place you want to linger over lunch on a sunny late spring afternoon.



Outdoor dining at Los Telares

The high season has past in Ajijc, so we were one of only two couples having lunch on Wednesday afternoon. I often worry about the really good restaurants, like Los Telares.  How can they manage to stay in business once the snow birds and tourists are gone for the season?

The Menu

Los Telares menu offers a nice selection of appetizers and entrees, fish and shellfish cooked to order and Mexican specialties.

There is a full bar and wine and beer are  available. The waiter brought out an interesting starter, totopos with braised mushrooms and potatoes. It was very good and different from the salsa and chips served at most area restaurants.

Roasted Garlic Appetizer

We ordered the roasted garlic and bread as an appetizer. The plate came from the kitchen with three huge heads of soft, fragrant garlic. The garlic easily squeezed from the heads onto the toasted bread. This is a large appetizer and we took most of it home with us.

After perusing the large menu, we decided on chicken mole and a Cesar salad with shrimp. The chicken mole was served with roasted bananas.  The chicken was moist and tender, the mole sauce dark and just spicy enough.

The Cesar salad is attractively plated, served with tomato rings around the huge hunks of crisp romaine lettuce. The dressing is made in-house and delicious. I was tempted to ask for the recipe.

Los Telares is known for excellent coconut shrimp, which is what we ate on our very first visit and what convinced us to come again.

We were served a good Sauvignon Blanc, chilled to precisely the right temperature.

Ambiance

The outdoor dining room is shaded by large tropical trees. Clean, bright table cloths cover the  tables. There appears to be some limited indoor dining, but the attraction of eating at Los Telares is the al fresco dining.

It is a relaxing and pleasant  atmosphere. About half way through our meal, a lone mariachi approached our table and offered to sing 5 songs for us for $100 pesos.

Lone Mariachi

Though he is from Chapala, he told us that he must come to Ajijic as there are no tourists left in his hometown.

We love to engage the local people in conversation and this interlude was pleasant to us. He sang some standard mariachi songs and didn't seem to mind when we crooned along to La Paloma.

Service and Price 

As in most fine restaurants along Lake Chapala, the service is excellent, attentive, polite and prompt. The price of entrees is average for the area, in line with other fine restaurants in the heart of Ajijic.

Chicken mole priced at $90 pesos, Cesar Salad, $70 pesos. This time of year, when business is so slow, management should consider offering a lunch special.

There are separate bathrooms for mujeres and hombres, they appear to have been recently updated and are very clean. If the bathrooms are this clean, I feel confident that the kitchen is also as scrupulously cared for.

Our Recommendation  ****

We  highly recommend Los Telares as a great place for lunch or dinner. The meals are consistently good and service is excellent. The dining area is so pleasing to the senses, it makes a lovely place to linger over a wonderful meal and glass of wine.