Guatemala Report (and Copan Ruinas, Honduras)

[baltoellen]

Many thanks to the cleverly named rworange for all the tips in Antigua. Our group was so impressed with the first recs, that any place I suggested, the rest of the group would ask: Is that on your list? Below is where we ate in each place, and a brief description. (The * reviews weren't recs, but places we tried on our own.)

Antigua:

We started at La Canche, and thought it the best find in the world (only to learn later that it was included in the Lonely Planet--& hope it doesn't end up with what we call the "LP kiss of death.") Anyway, we'd never had pepian, and loved it. We loved it so much that it was the bookend meals for our trip. We also had a fantastic breakfast there of sandwiches and fruit salad. My Spanish brother in law was very meh about the chocolate for breakfast, but he's hard to please on that front.

Hector's: Good, well prepared food, and while we weren't disappointed in our food in the least, it wasn't exactly love. I do see what it has such fervent fans, though.

Cuevita de Las Urquizas: We loved choosing the stews, and among the four of us had a selection of beef, lamb, and pork, although we thought the pork was very chow mein-y. (Not necessarily a bad thing.) The sides were good, but not especially memorable. We were delighted about the place until we got the bill which was $15 per person, and none of us had any drinks. Next time, we'll ask first.

La Esquina: A bit of a hit and miss for our group. We started out with ham and cheese plate, great, although brother in law from land of jamon was again meh. Great, great guacamole, perhaps the best ever. Tortilla soup and cilantro soup were weak, in fact the cilantro soup was so weak that it lacked all taste. One person's stew of four meats was amazing. Probably it's a terrific place if you order carefully. Nice courtyard, with fantastically cool chairs.

Dona Maria Gordillo: Stunningly beautiful, the place and the candies. Got small selection, and happiest with the small orange and strawberry fruit pieces. A bit disappointed with other things we got, but, again, perhaps we picked wrong.

Toko Baru: Love. Great, unusual swarma, and other creative food. Cheap. It's just too bad that it's in such tiny, cramped, hot little place. Really, we'd pay a bit more for their great food if they moved to slightly more comfortable digs.

Pupusa stand in front of La Merced church on Sunday*: Amazing cheesy pupusas covered with guac & salsa and served with fermented cabbage. While we didn't have them, it also looked like amazing grilled meat sandwiches. Also comforting, thick arroz con leche type of drink (maybe a version of arroz con leche, we've no clue) with corn and cinnamon. There are several stands, and this is the one with the line.

Cafe Fernando's*: A few doors down from our hotel. Great coffee in a land where that's hard to come by. Decent, if somewhat standard, breakfast.

McDonald's*: We didn't eat there, but it's definitely worth a visit to see perhaps the most jaw droppingly beautiful fast food outlet on the planet.

Panajachel:

Chef Alex*: Definitely not to be confused with Chez Alex, a touristy looking place with stuff like French onion soup. Small, pop up type place only open for dinner. Choice of several meats to go on the grill: chicken, ham steak, chorizo, and beef. All very good, although ham was just ok. Served with mounds of grilled tortillas that are made in the back, and perfect grilled green onions. Very inexpensive. We ate their twice.

Mario's Rooms*: We ate there for breakfast since it was included in the price of our room, and the place is also open to the public. We were all disappointed with our breakfast, and just could not imagine paying extra for it. If you sit away from the windows, you have a better chance of skipping the touts.

Santiago:

Posada de Santiago*: Great, house made ginger beer, and very solid food served, unfortunately, on stale bread. We know we were there during low season, but don't think that's really an excuse.

Biotopo Del Quetzal:

We stayed at Ram Tzul*, which was gorgeous and had these great little cabins. The restaurant had fantastic micheladas & other good food. We had a Mayan named, sort of deconstructed pepian, with local turkey that was a delight. Portions overly generous, so if you're not starving, think of splitting. Great breakfast, but if you're a non-egg eater like me, avoid pancakes which are like egg cakes with syrup. Very good coffee.

Copan Ruinas:

Maria something or other's pupusas*: Recommended by my hotel, but pretty week pupusas, despite it being their thing. There is one that's from a local squash that is interesting.

Viva Honduras* (at least that's what the sign said, but it might be called something else): Very good coffee & breakfast. Decent, if unusual (for us) tacos, and good nachos.

Here, there, & everywhere:

Pollo Campero*: Yes, we know it's a chain, but we never had it. Loved the fried chicken. Substandard fries, and truly awful tortillas. And, what's fun, is that with a little mispronunciation, it can sound like you're going to eat at "chicken with dog!"

(Also, big thanks to JoanN for advice!)

[JoanN]

Great read. Thanks for reporting back.

Wouldn't worry too much about La Canche. It's been years since it's been any kind of a secret. In fact, if you Google it, you'll come up with nearly three pages of hits. And ask any local where to get good, traditional, Guatemalan food and it's one of the first places they'll send you. The greater fear is that there seems to be no one under the age of 70 in the kitchen.

I'm shocked by your bill at Cuevita de Las Urquizas. It's been quite a few years since I was there solo, and the prices have gone up, a lot, since then. But I was there just a couple of weeks ago with some locals and our price per meal was about half that. I would hate to think there's a "local" price and a "gringo" price. I know a number of locals who eat there and they just can't afford to pay that for a meal.

Agree that the guacamole--and the micheladas--are the best things about La Esquina. They do a decent burger on the grill, but it's overwhelmed by a huge, unappealing bun. Tried the ribs when they had them as a special, but didn't think they were as good as the ribs at Epicure.

Re: Pollo Campero. One figures it's becoming internationally famous for a reason, and their seasoning is good. But, yikes! it's expensive for fried chicken! At least, for fried chicken in Guatemala. Next time you're in town, try the Pollo Pinulito. That, too, is a chain, and there are at least three branches in Antigua alone. The one across from the mercado, though, has the most traffic and the freshest chicken. I think it's better than Pollo Campero (pollo con perro? and, yes, I've had people in the states think I was saying exactly that!) and they even have fried chicken skin and chicken livers.

I see you bailed on Tikal and went to Copan instead. Good call.

[baltoellen]

We ended up having a guided tour of Antigua one afternoon (this is sort of the end of a long story) & the guide suggested Cuevita de Las Urquizas, which made me happy since it was on the list anyway. We very well could have gotten the we have to pay commission to a tour guide price. And, yes, we saw plenty of people we assumed were locals eating there, and wondered how they could afford it. And, the lovely woman who ran our hotel warned us about the prices at Pollo Campero, and she wondered how locals with great big families could afford to go there.

And, sorry to have missed Tikal. All the travel agencies were recommending that people not go, especially via night bus. Of course, a few days before we left the country we talked to other travelers who had been there and back and were fine. I think they weren't even dissuading people from the night buses. Oh, well, that means one more reason for a return visit!

Thanks again for all your help!

[rworange]

Yeah, thanks so much for the great report and glad to hear it was mainly hits.

The first time I went to Hector's I was unimpressed. The next time I fell in love. For my own amusement, I always ask locals where to eat and Hector's always is one of the responses. I have heard though that Hector needs to be in-house watching over things. On my first visit he wasn't there.

Yeah, don't worry about ever needing reservations at La Canche. I can imagine most people reading Lonely Planet and walking in the door would turn around. I tried to convince some locals that Sabe Rico had the best pepian (only had a taste of La Canche) and was soundly voted down.

I agree about the La Canche hot chocolate. It is good enough, but not my favorite thing there. Sorry, haven't gotten around to that report. Also, the chicken sandwiches at the vendors at La Merced might be better.

I qualify that because I wanted my pan de pollo to go and asked for no lettuce since I wasn't going to eat it until dinner. La Canche was concerned about this lack of veggie and asked if I wanted avocado. That was really sweet. So anyway, I screwed with the sandwich and that might have influenced the result.

Glad you liked Toko Baru. It is flat out my favorite small restaurant in Guatemala. Was the owner there? He's back to Holland for a few weeks, but he's the extra cherry on this place. There's always interesting people in there and good conversation when he's around.

He is thinking of getting a larger place with more menu items. He makes both regular and sweet potato fries. The sweet potato fries are the best I've ever had. I had them the Dutch way, as he suggested, with peanut sauce ... so good, so good.

I had lunch today at Cuevita de Las Urquizas and was initally taken aback by the bill. It was 93 quetzales for a beer, two pupusas, and a side of piloyoda..

Thinking about it, it was kind of ok ... but still.

I did have my first Guatemalan-style pupusas there and .... good heavens ... they were magnificant. They are bigger and thicker than Salvadoran and you can taste the filling. There were whole chicharrons in there and the cheese pupusa was mixed with potato and oozed deliciousness.

They also have the best traditional piloyada I've had I finally saw the point Nice vinagrette, good quality chorizo and other meats. La Canche makes a wonderful soup with the piloyada beans but it isn't the classic presentation

I did a chicken crawl, comparing breasts from Pollo Comparo, Pollo Pinulito, Los Pollos, Pollandia, and Nuestro Pan. It explained why Pollo Comparo is at the top ,,, endless advertising aside. Pollo Pinuleito tied for second place and it was a good deal for the money.

Pollo Pinuletto only charged 8 quetzales for a breast while Pollo Comparo charged 14. That being said, the PC breast was twice as large

Nuestro Pan, which is a bakery selling chicken in the market area was the other contender for second place. It was the smallest breast (8 q), really half a breast However, what makes Nuestro Pan a bad bakery ... they use lard in EVERYTHING and it tastes it .... makes for some tasty lard-fried chicken .... even after sitting under heat lamps.

Polandia is a dry, awful breast which other people have agreed with me. Los Pollos coating was too salty, but it my be a find It was the only place I've seen that had egg soup for breakfast on the menu.

I am so backed up on reports, but it was a choice of reporting or getting out and about in Antigua. For anyone who might read this thread for Antigua ideas, Casa Santo Domingo has the best Sunday breakfast buffet I've had in he city in the most beautiful setting.

Not only was the breakfast buffet great, but it had some of the best versions of Guatemalan food I've ever had ... the best black tortillas ... a fabulous ... fabulous ... relleno ... an item I've never liked in Guatemala ... the best banana bread in a land with outstanding banana bread ... and the best quesadilla (in GT that means a type of cheese bread) .. beating the quesadilla I had from Zacapa, the home of this particular food. The house-made pink guava jelly ... my, oh, my.

While mainly outstanding examples of Guatemalan food, they had some European dishes such as a crepe station. They also had wonderful lox and bagels ... real bagels ... not Bagel Barn bagels .. there was a nice chew to the crust and the inside was not bready. Add cream cheese, real sour cream, capers and onions ... sigh Only 125 quetzales for this magificance. I think I ate that just in lox.

I had their tasting menu the night before at Casa Santo Domingo and it was pretty impressive. I should have that report posted tonight.

[barryg]

Two updates:

-Viva Honduras has been converted into something different, i forget the name. It's changed from what sounded like a nice casual place to an upscale and overpriced restaurant. Nachos are still on the menu but the other stuff we read about is not... they seem to specialize in waffles. Not sure what the nachos were like before but we were not pleased with these... raw tomato, lettuce, and a very sparse application of unmelted cheese and cold ground beef. Even forgiving the unmelted cheese and cold preparation (this seems to be a thing in Central America) this was a big ripoff because they were so skimpy on the cheese and meat. Very disappointing.

-La Esquina is gone.