Thursday, November 29, 2012

New On The Block


There have been a number of new eating places opened within the last six months or so that have attracted my attention. Several are in Morelia and one is in Pátzcuaro.

The junction of Calzada Ventura Puente and Avenida Lázaro Cardenas in Morelia house a few of these spots.


View Larger Map  A marks the Centro Uníon de Diagnóstico.

The star is Chenito's Comida Mexicana, a small, semi open air restaurant run by Sr. Chenito and his family. It's located right between the Farmacia de Ahorros and the Centro Uníon Diagnóstico, on the NW corner.

Chenito's

The food is typical antojitos and burgers, but influenced by the Apatzingán area from which Chenito and his family come. We like the guisados best and you can get a nice platillo of guisado, rice and beans for $30 pesos.

Chenito's menu board

The food is better than average, but the salsas are stellar. There are from four to six available at any moment.
Salsas at Chenito's. Don't ask. Just taste!

Chenito's is clean. You can eat in confidence.
Chenito's is open from 8:00 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily.

Food: ***1/2
Service:  ****  Sometimes lags when busy.
Ambience: What you see is what you get
Price: Bargain. $
Hygiene: Excellent. Restroom, limited parking.


Moliendo Café- the upper level coffeehouse.

On the opposite, SW corner of Ventura Puente is Moliendo Café, a very pleasant, well lighted and ample cafetería upstairs, serving coffee and other hot and cold drinks. I've had only a few very good café express cortados and can't speak to the other items. There are very limited food and pastries, I think. The express cortados were made and presented very much to my liking.

Café Express Cortado
I also enjoyed the spectacular murals painted in coffee.


Moliendo Café
Food/Drink:  ****
Service: ****
Ambience: Very pleasant, nice view of intersection.
Price: Café Express Cortado, $20 pesos

Tacos Lore's
Across Ventura Puente from Chenito's is Tacos y Quesadillas Lore's, the old gal on the block. It's extremely popular with white coated students from the nearby medical school.

In my opinion, Lore's main draw is low price. I had several tacos de birria, their specialty, and while they were not bad, they were nothing special. Lore's gets very busy at times and finding a seat may be difficult.

Food, ***,  service ****,  price $ bargain; hygiene, well, the tacos are hot. Seating is offhand. Parking nearby at a farmacia .
Located just south of the corner of Calle Luis Banuet at Ventura Puente.

Special note: the neighborhood seems to be a locus for unusually attractive women. Maybe it's just the Medical School nearby.

In Pátzcuaro, the new place on the block, one worth watching and visiting again is Rincón Huasteco.
It's on the corner of Ponce de León and Romero, about 1/2 block off to the SW of the Plaza Grande.


View Larger Map (approximately correct. Restaurant is across street from place marker.)

Rincón Huasteco serves antojitos such as tacos, quesadillas, sopes and gorditas with a touch of style. The cavernous space was once a T-shirt shop but now has above average guisados and attractively made food, at a low price.

We had a number of sopes, some with beans, some with a plate of three guisados of my choosing for less than $40, complete with arroz y frijoles. Service was quick (the place was nearly empty when we came in.) There's much more dining space up a couple of steps, in a room of considerable size but stark of decor.

It's open from 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m., then reopens from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. to serve pozole and other night time cena specialties.

These ratings are provisional.
Food: ***1/2
Service: ****
Price: $ Bargain!
Ambience: stark, minimalist decór. Front room at the corner is relatively cozy. Large back room, bring some wall hangings, gracias.
Restrooms: Just serviceable. No toilet seat in los Caballeros. Floor was not very clean. Hand washing sink in its own closet between Las Damas y Los Caballeros.

Here's a video of sorts, of Linda Ronstadt singing "Rogaciano", una cancíon de La Huasteca.


Here's a slideshow displaying some highlights of El Rincón Huasteco.

6 comments:

Tancho said...

Have walked by the Rincon place a few times on the way to my bakery, never has seen anyone inside. One day saw a pickup truck from El Bigoli dropping off some boxes and items there, is it the same owner?
Got your Morelia place printed out for our next trip to Morelia, always looking for a good place with prior checked out information...thanks again for the research and tasting.....

DonCuevas said...

There are several other places to get food, much of it to go. For example, there's a hole in the wall place on Ventura Puente, just up from Centro Uníon, serving some good hot tortas. One morning early, I got a torta de albóndiga caliente. $30, and it was good.

Note: the older lady running the place was grumpy that morning and told me not to put my hands past the counter top!

There's another tiny place, next door, which draws a clientele. I'm not sure what the food specialty is.

Tancho, I don't know who owns El Rincón Huasteco, could be a connection to Bigolí.

Saludos,
Don Cuevas

Mark Emmer said...

I believe Alberto, the owner/chef at El Bigoli also owns/operates Rincón Huasteco. We were told that at the last ROMEO breakfast at El Bigoli. The breakfast group will be testing Rincón Huatesteco on Dec. 25, 9 a.m.

DonCuevas said...

I will try to be at that breakfast!

Saludos,

Don Cuevas

Ps: I overlooked a chance to embed a video of Linda Ronstadt or some other cantante singing "Rogaciono El Huapanguero", a song of a Huasteco balladeer.

DonCuevas said...

Check that date, Mark.

Saludos,

Don Cuevas

John Calypso said...

Excellent reviews as usual - looking forward to testing their veracity one day soon; and perhaps to meet you along the way ;-)