Restaurant of the Month

Portico del Peregrino

Cuisine: International
Chefs: Julio Mendez and Juan Carlos Benítez
Menu: international
Setting: a charming antique filled dining room plus two outdoor garden patios
Credit cards: Visa, MC, AMex 
Price for 2 including 2 drinks: $350 pesos
Schedule: lunch & dinner 12 noon – 12 mid-night daily 365 days a year
Seating: 90 in three settings – indoor dining room w/AC, 2 outdoor patios for smoking and no-smoking
Location: Calle 57 between 60 and 62 - down a hallway next to Pop Cafeteria 
Parking:  no

For 33 years El Portico del Peregrino (”the entrance door for the pilgrims”) has been serving consistently excellent food. When we decided to feature this restaurant and started asking around about it, we received very favorable comments. With this in mind, we went to the restaurant (unannounced so as to not receive special attention) with expectations of being served good food. We are happy to say, and pass on the word, that our expectations were met!

The selection of wines has something for all tastes. Choose a red or white depending on our meal and taste. Or a real made-in-Mexico margarita might also the perfect touch to your meal.

While the menu is not huge it does offer the perfect variety of traditional Yucatecan food, plus international meats, chicken, seafood and pastas. Of course, the banana leaf wrapped Yucatecan dish pollo pibil is a popular choice for tourists, while the red snapper choices might be the perfect choice for a local. Salad options include a fruit plate, a green salad, and shrimp cocktail.  We started our meal with traditional lime soup and an onion soup au gratin. Both were rich and perfect. Other soups are tortilla soup, consommé, and vegetable.

My seafood zarzuela that included fish fillet, shrimp, squid and octopus in a delicately herbed wine sauce was tasty and fresh. Ruth’s chicken liver shish-ka-bob was better than her mother’s. The salmon dish also sounded great.
For dessert we shared coconut ice cream with Kahlua licor and a piece of almond cake - divine!

Our wonderful meal was served by gentile, multi-lingual professional waiters.
For us, Portico del Peregrino definitely scores a 10!

www.porticodelperegrino.com

To read in Spanish click here

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