We took a nice nap after a pretty busy morning, after which it was time to head off to an early (430pm) dinner. I had tried getting reservations at the very popular Contramar, but was unable to. I then switched to Contramar's sister restaurant Entremar and could only get an early dinner reservation. Even though I thought we'd done enough walking for the day, the Missus disagreed, so we decided to walk the 2 1/2 miles to the restaurant. To be honest, the weather was very pleasant making this a nice walk.
We arrived at the restaurant, located in the ritzy Polanco district and couldn't believe how busy it was!
There was a bit of a queue to get in. As I stood in line, aggressive "Abuela's" pushed their way past me! This was such a change from the usual polite and well mannered folks I was used to in CDMX. I guess the potential of seafood will drive some folks to this!
Anyway, it wasn't a big deal and we had reservations. We were escorted upstairs and I gotta say the clientele upstairs were pretty tony…….
The staff worked so hard and were very gracious. We placed our order and just chilled out.
The first item to arrive was the Ceviche Contramar.
The fish was very tender, the marinating liquid had a perfect balance of sour with just enough salt to make it enjoyable. Very nice!
We didn't enjoy the Aguachile Verde Contramar as much.
The shrimp was quite tough and fishy and the "sauce" didn't have enough citrus tones for our taste.
The one dish we were looking forward to was the Pescado a la Talla, red snapper that is butterflied, sauced, and grilled. We chose the "Contramr" version, which had half of the fish rubbed with a red adobo sauce and the other half with parsley (De la Barrita) based rub.
This came with some really tasty black beans. Surprisingly, at least for us, we really enjoyed the parsley rub more! It had nice garlic tones; some cumin, and you could really taste the mild, almost sweet flavor of the snapper, which was grilled perfectly! Don't get me wrong; that adobo rub had some nice smokiness and spice; but you really couldn't enjoy the great quality of the fish as much.
Overall; the Pescado a la Talla made the meal a memorable one and we'll gladly return.
Entremar
Hegel 307
Polanco V Secc, 11560 Ciudad de México, Mexico
I enjoyed that fish so much that when the Missus suggested walking back to our room I readily agreed!
Not having to be anywhere allows you to enjoy and notice things more.
Like this restaurant with a familiar name.
And this bar where I guess you might be able to "Break on through to the other side"?
It was still quite early, so we decided to stop for a cocktail and a snack…..we chose another place we'd been to a couple of times; Temporal. Where we sat downstairs at the bar area.
I got my favorite cocktail here; the Suerte de Dragon ("Lucky Dragon").
Sadly, this Mezcal and beer based cocktail tasted watered down and the usual spiciness of it was really muted.
As a snack we got our favorite menu item at Temporal; the Gulf Crab Sopes.
Which were smaller then on previous visits; the sopes were really gummy, and there was too much filler and not as much crab as on our previous visits.
Bummer…….
Restaurante Temporal
Saltillo 1, Hipódromo, Cuauhtémoc
06140 CDMX, Mexico
We slept well and got up early the next morning.
Our next stop was going to be San Miguel de Allende and we had hired the amazing Aaron Cruz to drive us there.
Since it was going to be quite the drive; we headed to another familiar stop close by; Panadería Almuerzos for a Croissant and then got some coffee from Mercado Condesa.
I've often said that the croissants at Panadería Almuerzos are our favorite outside of France….and this delivered.
And the coffee wasn't bad either.
Panadería Almuerzos
Av. Vicente Suárez 64A
Colonia Condesa, CDMX, Mexico
Cafe Toscano
Calle Michoacan sn Mercado Condesa
Hipódromo Condesa, Cuauhtémoc, CDMX, Mexico
Breakfast completed, we headed back to our room to finish packing and check out. Aaron would be arriving soon to take us to our next stop; San Miguel de Allende.
Thanks for stopping by!
While some of the pieces of zucchini were under cooked and too hard for my taste, there were a couple that were nice and creamy. These were nicely seasoned and not overly salty.
As we strolled on over to our car, the Missus and I remarked about how much we enjoyed the vibe of Los Olivos. We just wished there were better accommodations (like under $400/night) and perhaps a nice destination restaurant.
Each of the buildings has an underground "Guest parking" area before their respective security gates. 
There is usually a soup of the day, always Mom's Chicken Soup and always Mom's Beef & Bean Chili. Here's the chili ($5.75). An excellent, from scratch chili -not too spicy and very flavorful- the coarse ground beef and fresh cooked kidney beans make the texture of the chili very pleasant. 
At the bottom corner of the menu board are Monday-Friday daily specials. 
We also were here on Meatball Monday ($10.75) Mom's from scratch meatballs (five) covered in a from scratch marinara, melted Provolone and served on a toasted French roll. Excellent. The large meatballs were light, meaty and flavorful with basil, garlic and parsley. 
Bros, not 'Brothers', Bros. Waiting inside to pick up 'to-go' orders, you'll hear the phone answered 'China Bros'. 
There's a menu on the wall. If you are eating in, there are wipeable, one page menus handed out. I do appreciate attention to cleanliness.
As usual, I ordered hot tea ($2.25) which was kept refilled. Egg drop soup (with corn) was brought out for both of us. A very eggy version made with a rich flavored (not salty) chicken broth.
The Shrimp Egg Foo Young ($12.95), of course, had to be ordered for our first eat-in meal. What a lovely version! 
Fluffy eggs, light top and bottom crusts, plenty of plump, juicy shrimp. Served with rice and a good brown (again, not salty) gravy, this is an excellent meal with plenty of leftovers which reheated well. 
Lunch Specials (until 4 p.m. daily) are served with steamed rice, fried rice or chow mein or half and half of your choice, as well as the corn egg drop soup. This was L-19, "Fish filet with black bean sauce" ($9.95). The pieces of fish were lightly breaded and fried to a light crisp, which remained crispy even under the slightly thick, garlic-y, salty black bean sauce. The vegetables were very fresh and also remained crisp. The chow mein seems to be requested a lot here and has a slight smoky 'wok hei'. 
Located at the South East corner of Broadway at H Street, next to the new/current location of Aqui Es Texcoco (
Señorita bread is sold hot from the oven; that's why there is a short wait; it's never 'day old'…even if you take it home…
You can buy it by the bag or the box. You really should at least buy the minimum of five pieces as long as you are in the neighborhood. Buy more to give to friends. Buy some to eat in the car while driving home. Seriously, 60¢ for one piece. A piece of happiness. Joy. Deliciousness.
You might have noticed there are other bakery items in the glass case and on the counter. Many (sweet) baked goods are here (donuts, cupcakes, small poundcake). This is a guava jelly filled 
Take a look at the color of the ginger-scallion sauce to the right and compare it to 
On occasion I would take either my or the Missus's car to Victor's next door for a hand carwash, especially after roadtrips. So, during one of those sessions I decided to have some tacos while waiting for the Missus's car.
Again I was the only customer and even though it was just 1045 in the morning I was the only customer, which made me a bit concerned about sustaining business.
I should have known better, but perhaps I was 
I enjoyed the textural contrast of the Chorizo with Nopales….but of course I enjoy the supposed "mucilaginous" texture. I do think I'd enjoy a more assertive flavor component.
I'm used to toothsome beef in yum neua, but this was particularly tough. It also hadn't spend enough time in the sauce. Yes, this was spicy; but where were all the other flavors that make a good beef salad……lemongrass, shallot, enough fish sauce? Maybe I should have gone with the duck larb or nahm tok, but my strategy on this day was to start with the basics.
Man, my tolerance is getting low in my old age. Like the beef salad, we felt this was off in terms of flavor. It lacked the funky fermented tones of a good Lao Papaya Salad. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't what we recalled was made by the Sab E Lee of our memory.
Except I'm wondering what the deal is with the Sriracha? No way I'd add that to the sausage; it would ruin the flavor. This was solid and we enjoyed it. It had always been a favorite in the "old days" and even though this version 
