Restaurant Reviews

Lake Chapala may just be paradise for those who enjoy dining out and eating wonderful, creative food. This guide to our favorite restaurants is just that - our very own favorites. We have ranked them according to their menu selections, service, ambiance and price and have personally eaten at them all, sometimes more than once. If you think we have left out a really good restaurant, it is probably because we haven't eaten there yet. Let us know and we will make a visit and add our review to this guide. Buen Provecho!

Saturday, May 3, 2014

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.   

1 comment:

  1. My wife and I have been in this village in 2012 and 2014. After our first visit to Los Teleras it was instantly our favorite place to dine. We go at least twice in a week. Not only is the food excellent but the setting and staff are most enjoyable. Can't wait to go back.

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