Adelita Bar and Grill

Independencia 124-A, 45915 San Antonio Tlayacapan
Phone: 376-766-0097
Website: www.adelitabarandgrill.com
Facebook Page
Hours: Monday - 12pm - 10pm, Tuesday - Thursday 12pm - 9pm, Friday - Saturday 12pm - 12am
Sunday - 12 PM - 8 PM; Reservations accepted; Ample parking in front of café ; Valet parking available
Master Card and Visa credit cards accepted
Live Music, Weekly Specials

UPDATE: Newly Renovated and Packed every night. Make sure to call for a reservation!

Directions: From Walmart, drive east about 1/2 mile to the second stop light. At the next street past the light, make a right. There is a hardware store on the right as you head down this road. Just past the plaza, the road will dead end. Make a right turn next to the plaza and then an immediate left Adelita's will be on the left, just past the church.

First Impressions

Adelita Bar and Grill looks like a cozy little café from the outside, but inside it is large, open, airy and modern as a result of the recent renovations.

The owners have done a great job remaking the dining room to accommodate more people and to create an al fresco feeling. The back of the dining room is open to the outdoors with a high ceiling partially covering the area.

Thursday evening is advertised as 'wing night' so that is when we decided to give Adelita Bar and Grill a try. The café was bursting at the seams with visitors and expats. This was our first visit and at that time, we not impressed. Everything has changed - for the better. Since the renovations, we have become almost regulars on Wednesday evenings.

Adelita Bar and Grill offers specials during the week - ribs, wings, and a deeply discounted Dinner Club night on Wednesdays. During the high season, there is a regular line up of live music performances.  A frequently updated webpage includes the daily menu and upcoming events and specials.

Menu and Service

The new staff of waiters offer prompt and friendly service. We recognized some of the waiters who had come from other restaurants in town. The menus are available in English and Spanish.

In addition to the specials, the regular menu includes comfort foods such as  hamburgers, pizza, wings, chicken fingers, steak, ribs, chicken and pasta. Warning: the house hamburger is huge, topped with fried onion rings and difficult to get your mouth around, but when you do, the reward is worth it. This may be one of the best burgers lakeside.

With the upgrades in the dining room has come an upgrade in the quality of the food and service. I was mildly disappointed in the food when we visited in December 2014, but since the upgrades were finished, we have returned a number of times and each time the food has been very good, served hot and cooked just right.

Adelita Bar and Grill caters to their - mostly - expat customers and is crowded almost every night they are open. If you go, make a reservation to ensure that you can get a table.

Ambience

The atmosphere is so much nicer with the renovations. The acoustics are better and there is plenty of space between tables, and also the room to bring tables together for a large party. There are now cozy booths for more intimate dining and a modern bar that invites singles to gather.

Our Recommendation ****

Adelita Bar and Grill most definitely caters to visitors from north of the border. There is live entertainment during the week, the café is clean and the staff friendly and fluent in English. The renovations are wonderful and the food and service has improved greatly since our first visit in 2014. We can highly recommend Adelita's Bar and Grill as one of the best places to eat at Lake Chapala.

Restaurante Delicias

Address :Ave. Hidalgo #277, Chapala  
Phone: 765-5021
Facebook: www.facebook.com/desayunosdelicias
Wifi Available
Credit Cards Not Accepted

Hours: Daily, 8 a.m. - 1 pm.

Directions: From Walmart, take the Carretera east towards Chapala for about 4 miles. Delicias is on the left, just past Hotel Monte Carlo and the Farmacia Guadalajara. Park along the street. 

First Impressions

There is a reason why Delicias is a local favorite for breakfast. You can order just about any breakfast food you can imagine. The food is simple and tasty and the prices are right.

Delicias is easy to miss. It is housed in a plain brown building that fades into a long line of other, nondescript buildings along the Carretera., just west of Chapala. 

Like many restaurants in the Lake Chapala area, you cannot judge the quality of the food by looking at the exterior of the business.

The double doors open into a large, Mexican style dining room with plenty of seating. Through the back door is a pleasant patio dining room surrounding a fountain. Smoking is not allowed on the patio.

There is limited parking along the road outside the restaurant, however, if you are willing to walk about a block, you can park west of the restaurant, on the road that runs between the Farmacia Guadalajara and the Monte Carlo hotel.

Delicias is clean and pleasant. Restrooms are just off the patio area, with separate facilities for hombres and dames. They are spotless.

We seated ourselves on a quiet Friday morning and the waitress brought our menus, took our drink order and gave us time to look at the menu. She returned with a pot of hot coffee and a basket of warm, whole wheat rolls.

Menu

The breakfast menu at Delicias is extensive, offering the most varied breakfast selection of any lakeside restaurant. Eggs are  cooked almost any way you can imagine; eggs benedict, Mexican style eggs, ranch style eggs, omelets, burritos, and American style breakfast with eggs cooked al gusto ( as you like them).

You can also choose chiliquiles, served with or without chicken or chorizo and with red or green - or both - sauces. The menu also offers waffles, hot cakes and crepes.

Many meals come with bacon or link sausage, hash browns or beans. The three page menu is  chock full of choices. What do you feel like eating? It is most likely on the menu at Delicias. Beverages include coffee, tea, shakes, smoothies and juices.

We ordered the hot cake combo, served with three hot cakes, 2 eggs, 2 sausage links and hash browns and an order of waffles, with strawberries and a side of bacon.

The scrambled eggs were cooked just right, not too dry, and the pancakes were light, served with butter and syrup packets. The waffle was crisp, the strawberries freshly cut without the juice that makes a waffle soggy.

All in all, a satisfying meal. The coffee was good and the waitress came back to the table often to top off our cups.

Price and Service

Almost all the breakfast entrees are priced between $50pesos and $65pesos. Our meal, including coffee, came to $203pesos, or about $15US.

The service was very good, the waitress did not speak much English, but we were able to make ourselves understood and got exactly what we ordered. The menu was written in English, so when in doubt, we could just point to a selection.

Our Recommendation ****

We tried Restaurante Delicias last year and thought the food was quite good. We have not gone back since then because during our research, we read some bad reviews on a local expat forum. None of the negative comments we read mirrored our own experience at this restaurant, so I would caution visitors to take the information gleaned from these forums with a grain of salt. If you are looking for a delicious, hearty breakfast, at a reasonable price, we recommend Restaurante Delicias to you.

Los Laureles

Los Laureles Restaurant at Hotel Villa, Monte Carlo
Hidalgo 296, Chapala
376-765-2120
www.hoteles.udg.mx

Hours: Open 7 days; Monday through Thursday 8:00a.m. through 9:30 pm; Friday through Sunday 8 am through 10:30 pm; Sunday Breakfast Buffet
Credit Cards Accepted: Visa and Mastercard

Directions: From Walmart, follow the Carretera to Chapala. Hotel Villa Monte Carlo is on the right, as you cross the hill. Park along the street, next to the hotel.   

First Impressions

I had no idea that this restaurant existed until we joined the swimming club located at the Hotel Villa Monte Carlo in order to take advantage of their wonderful pool. This is a hidden place, without much advertising or promotions of any kind.

Sometimes a sign indicates that the local Rotary Club meets there, but otherwise, the restaurant seems to exist for the weekend hotel guests - mostly from Guadalajara - that stay in the hotel. This hotel is affiliated with the University of Guadalajara.

The restaurant is located in a nondescript building that fronts the Carretera. The indoor dining area is spacious, clean and inviting, but we always sit outdoors, under the ancient trees that surround the café, beneath the white canopies. The outdoor tables are covered in crisp white and red tablecloths. It is a pleasant  place to have lunch on a bright, not-too-breezy  afternoon.

Menu 

We have eaten at Los Laureles several times. The food and service is consistently good. This time, we arrived in the late afternoon for lunch. The waiter appeared promptly, after we had seated ourselves. He took our drink order and gave us  menus, written in Spanish with the English translation just underneath each entry. He came back with our drinks, and shortly thereafter, a basket of freshly baked rolls.

The lunch menu is extensive. There are a number of appetizers to choose from, including ceviche, to start the meal. Soups include tortilla, cream, and a ham and cheese soup, served in a bread bowl. Several salads are also offered.  


The menu includes small plates, and larger meals. Choose from a variety of sandwiches such as club or vegetarian, steak sandwich or chicken "hamburger" as well as traditional hamburgers. 

Mexican specialties include enchiladas, tacos and tostadas. There are several seafood and steak plates as well as pasta dishes such as spaghetti and fettucini. There is something on the menu for every taste and every size appetite.

We ordered a salad with shrimp, club sandwich with French fries and ham and cheese soup served in a bread bowl.  Everything was quite good.

Ambiance and Price

The service at Los Laureles is good. The waiters are pleasant and accommodating. Entrée prices range from $36 pesos to $120 pesos.

There is no loud music playing here, only the sounds of the birds in the canopy of trees, and there is a good view of the lake from the outdoor dining area. This is a very pleasant place to enjoy lunch in a lovely, quiet setting.

Our Recommendation  *** 

Los Laureles is a nice destination for lunch. The prices are reasonable and the service is good.

The food is not unique or creative, by any means, but rather standard dishes prepared well and served by attentive staff in a beautiful setting.

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.

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.   

El Quetzal Restaurant

Address: Hidalgo #236, Chapala,
Phone: 376-765-6063
Hours of Operation: Monday - Sunday 9 a.m. - 7 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday - Breakfast Buffet from 9 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.; Live Music - Sundays from 3 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.

Directions: Start in Chapala, from the intersection of Calle Francisco Madero and Calle Hidalgo (the end of the Carretera).  Head west towards Ajijic on Hidalgo. Travel approximately 1 1/2 blocks. El Quetzal is on the left. An iron gate sports a sign announcing the restaurant and a sandwich board in the street advertises "El Quetzal". From the malecon in Chapala, walk west, past the Beer Garden. El Quetzal is just before the end of the malecon.

First Impressions

If the ancient Mayans had designed a restaurant, El Quetzal would have been the result. The quetzal, a beautiful tropical bird, was sacred to the Mayans.

The décor of this lakeside restaurant is like a museum of Mayan symbols - serpents, also sacred to the Mayans, coiling down the tamarind tree, the plumed serpent, representing the marriage of the quetzal and the serpent, and Mayan statues.

Customers enter from the street, or from the patio entrance on the western end of the malecon and dine alfresco, under the shade of the huge tamarind tree.

Our visit was on a beautiful spring afternoon.  We chose to sit at a table near the malecon so we could gaze upon the lake and the mountains in the distance. A warm breeze was blowing off the lake.

The Menu  

The waiter brought our menus immediately after we were seated, took our drink order and left us to read the menu. The menu is available in Spanish and in English.

El Quetzal specializes in steak, fish and seafood dishes. There is a tantalizing selection of appetizers, including fondos, soups, empanadas, quesadillas, molcajetes and ceviche.

A full bar is available, and a wine special was offered at 2 X 1 prices. The white wine was served cold, chilled to exactly the right temperature.

We ordered shrimp empanadas, refried beans and shark cooked in garlic. The waiter brought out a basket of huge totopos and a spicy salsa to whet our appetite while we waited. 

The shrimp empanadas were large and served sizzling hot with a crispy crust and accompanied by a small side salad and slice of watermelon.

The serving size was so large that I could not have had anything else to eat. I broke open an empanada to reveal a creamy cheese filling stuffed with shrimp.



The thin filet of shark, cooked in garlic, was accompanied by large wedges of fried potatoes and served with a small green salad and fruit.

The shark was tender and not overcooked. The refried beans were creamy and topped with melted cheese and totopos.

Some tempting sounding desserts on the menu made us think twice, but after a huge and satisfying meal, we were unable to try any of them. Looks like we will have to return for dessert.

El Quetzal is moderately priced, a little more expensive than some other restaurants lakeside. The shark was priced at $120 pesos and the empanadas, at $100 pesos. Wine was a bargain, though, at 2 X $40 pesos.

Ambiance   

The location and ambiance of El Quetzal is just about perfect. There is soft Mexican music playing overhead, the view of the lake and the mountains on the southern shore is lovely.

The manager of the restaurant, walks among the diners, chatting and making sure everyone is satisfied with their meals. 

The décor is unique and fun, with snakes coiling around the trees and statues of Mayan gods guarding the bar. El Quetzal is certainly  different from anyplace we have dined along the lake.

Our waiters were polite and very professional, anticipating our needs but not coming back to the table too often.

The restrooms are old, but they are clean. Mujeres and hombres have separate spaces. They could use some updating and the Mujeres had no paper towels or working lights.

Price

El Quetzal is not cheap, but the prices are reasonable for the quality of the food that is served. Our meals, including wine, came to $375 pesos, less than $30 USD

Our Recommendation ****

El Quetzal is in a unique and beautiful setting, a Mayan garden hidden from the street by an ordinary looking entrance.

The food is delicious and the 2 X 1 wine special makes eating here a bargain.

We are coming back to El Quetzal soon. I have a feeling this restaurant is destined to become one of our favorites.

  

 

La Lena

Address: Francisco  Madero #236C, Chapala
Ph: 526-422-7813
      526-420-2096
Hours of Operation: Daily 12 p.m. - 11 p.m.

Directions: From Walmart head east on the Carretera approximately 7 kilometers to the intersection with Calle Francisco Madero. Turn left on Calle Madero. La Lena is 1 1/2 blocks on the left. Parking spaces are along the highway and are limited - watch for an opportunity to park as soon as you turn onto Calle Madero.

First Impressions

Brightly colored La Lena is perched above the sidewalk in Chapala. Decorated in orange and green, it looks like a Mexican fiesta. Banners are strung above the dining room and tables are covered with multi-colored tablecloths. The open air dining room overlooks the sidewalk and the main thoroughfare through Chapala.

A charcoal grill, made from half of a 55 gallon barrel, smokes on the patio. Cooks exit the kitchen from time to time to put a pot on the fire, or to roast tomatoes. La Lena has that casual, beach shack feel that is perfect for a late afternoon lunch.

The menu is  propped against the wall, next to the short flight of steps into the dining room so customers can peruse the selections before making a commitment to la comida.

Menu

La Lena is not designed with gringo visitors in mind, but that is the charm of this cafe. The food is traditional Mexican fare. The menu offers several varieties of quesadillas, tacos, empanadas, and burritos as well as steaks, hamburgers and chicken burgers.

The menu is in Spanish and the waiters speak no English, but we were able to  get by with our limited vocabulary and the young waiter was patient with us.

We ordered a cheese quesadilla, empanadas camarones (shrimp turnovers), a chicken burger and French fries. The waiter brought totopos, salsa and pico de gallo to the table along with our Pacifico beers. The chips were fresh and crisp and the pico de gallo some of the best we have had.

Our meal was served after just a short wait. The chicken burger was actually a grilled chicken breast on a bun, served with avocado slices, tomato and lettuce.

The plate included french fries, but not knowing this, we placed an additional order for fries. No matter, since they were very hot with no greasy taste, so we ate those too.

The shrimp empanadas were incredible, served with a tomato and lettuce salad. The turnovers were fried crisp and the shrimp and cabbage interior was warm and cooked just right.
La Lena has a full bar located at the end of the dining patio, however, they do not serve wine. Beer is available.

Ambiance

La Lena is a cool place to eat. The dining room is outdoors, under a covered patio. It is just high enough above the sidewalk to allow diners to watch the world go by without feeling like they  are part of the street scene. We sat at the table closest to the railing to have a bird's eye view of the main thoroughfare and do some people watching. Carnival started today in Chapala and strangely costumed actors where beginning to show up in the plaza across the street.

There are pictures of famous Mexican banditos on the wall and the ubiquitous sun plaque. The grill is an interesting addition to the patio, smoking slightly, pots and fresh vegetables taking their turn cooking over the hot fire.

It is all very casual, very Mexican, very pleasant. Our waiter spoke no English, but was prompt, efficient and friendly. The washrooms are clean, with separate facilities for men and women.

Price

We ordered a chicken burger, an additional order of fries, cheese quesadilla, shrimp empanadas and four Pacifico beers. Our bill totaled $279 pesos, about $22 USD - a great deal.

Most of the items on the menu ranged from $20 pesos to $65 pesos. The most expensive items were those that served two people, which topped out at $120 pesos.

Our Recommendation ***

La Lena is a good place for lunch. We recommend the cheese quesadillas and the shrimp empanadas if you do go. The prices are very reasonable. Sometimes it is nice to eat at an establishment that does not necessarily cater to gringos. It reminds you that you are, after all, in Mexico