Friday, March 06, 2009

Hotel Real Palmira Pátzcuaro



The Hotel Real Palmira is surprisingly located along Calle Obregón, below the mercado entrance on Plaza Chica. The congested street has until now been more notable for its ferreterías and the Correos midway to the next corner. (The corner, incidentally, where the yet unopened new mercado structure lies fallow.)
Note that the entrance is up a set of stairs over the lower level parking garage.

In my three visits, I've never seen a guest in the hotel, but it's new
and has yet to make the guidebooks. (By the way, a double room starts at
a very reasonable $650 a night.)

Here's a slideshow for your visual delight.




My wife and I had been in the hotel before, just to look around, escorted by a friendly staff member. I thought of the restaurant there for a possible Mens' Breakfast. With that in mind, four of us got together for a tryout.

Again, the staff was accomodating and friendly in showing us the attractive architecture and decor. The centerpiece is the magnificent patio, a relaxing and comfortable place for gatherings large and small.
The balcony level restaurant, 'El Rincón', hold 42 diners in a more intimate setting, but one can also dine on the patio.

We ordered breakfast, available a la carte or as paquetes desayunos, averaging $70 pesos for the latter. They include juice or fruit, a main dish and coffee.

Service was fine. (We were the only guests in the restaurant.) The food was attractively presented, but there were several shortcomings in the meal. The coffee, described as "normal coffee" by our waiter, I would call "weak". The accompanying papas fritas were barely warmed up after passing through the frying oil.

The main dishes were pretty good. Plating presentation was attractive.
Some came with average frijoles refritos and a diced vegetable medley
(lukewarm). E. and I both had a pretty tasty aporeadillo (like machaca
con huevo with salsa or chiles mixed in). R. had chilaquiles verde. They
looked good to me. S. ordered Huevos a la Mexicana, which she described
as "o.k"

Our orange juice was freshly squeezed and tasty. The tortillas were just
passable, as they were unusually tough. I suspect they'd been heated in
a microwave oven.

Overall, it's a lovely place to breakfast, but it disappointed us that the food, and especially the coffee, is not at the same high level of quality as the beautifully restored building. We hope that the food quality will improve as more people stay there or use the ample spaces
for special events.

I'd tentatively rate the restaurant, on a 1 to 5 scale: 5 for
ambience/decor; 4 for service, and 2.5 for food. Averaged out, 3.8.
To be fair, it would need more visits over time to get a fair
evaluation.

Location and contact info.
Obregon #10, Centro Historico
Pátzcuaro, Mich, Mex.

Telefono: 434 3421037 y 434 3421295

Fax: 434 3421037

Obregon #10, Centro Historico

Pátzcuaro, Mich, Mex.

Telefono: 434 3421037 y 434 3421295

Fax: 434 3421037

email: hotelrealpalmira@hotmail.com

msn:hotelrealpalmira@hotmail.com

3 comments:

Michael Dickson said...

I peeked in there once and got a brief tour by the "manager" who was quite rude. I notice their website mentions no prices whatsoever.

I wouldn´t stay there on a bet, on general principles.

Don Cuevas said...

Well, they've always been very friendly to us.

Come to think of it, I got the rates written on a sheet of their stationery on my first visit.

I wouldn't book via web at hotels whose web sites don't give the rates. But if I go in person to find out,, or by telephone, that's another matter.

I do give them big points for not using Flash on the web site, which is almost de rigeur on Mexican hotel web sites.

Saludos,
Mike

Anonymous said...

Beautiful - I love the arches akin to the buildings in Merida y Valladolid.

nice photos and slideshow -

Saludos desde Denver - james...