Our reservation at San Angel Inn was for 8:00.
By 7:30, my feet hurt horribly, and DH was not feeling so grand altogether (he might have caught just the smallest whiff of my stomach bug that day - it was gone the next, though). Thus, we dragged our exhausted selves up to the San Angel Inn check-in counter half an hour early and asked whether there was a chance of getting a table straightaway.
As I am an annoying little thing who always wants it all, however, I also asked whether we could also possibly have a table right by the water. The answer was: "I don't have any now, but as you have "honeymoon" on your reservation, we guarantee a waterfront table for your reservation time anyway. So if you can wait until 8:00, we will seat you right by the waterfront."
Oooh, big dilemma – we were so wasted
, but I so wanted to sit right by that volcano! It took me a moment to convince DH who really rather wanted to have some food and be out of there and back by the pool as soon as possible. Sweet husband that he is, however, he let himself be convinced and we agreed to wait for half an hour
.
So we went on the Three Caballeros boat ride … and looked around the shops … and waited … and waited … and waited. Poor DH was starting to go a bit pale around the nose by 8:00, and at 8:10 FINALLY our beeper went off. So we hurried back to the check-in counter, only to be seated … -
NOT by the waterfront!!!
I was so mad, I wanted to complain at once, but DH stopped me and said that he didn't want the hassle and just wanted a quick meal, and he couldn't have appreciated the volcano anyway (aww, there went my romantic dinner for two
…). So we left it at that. In fact, there was really only one table between us and the volcano – but still, when I think we could have had a table almost 40 minutes earlier, this was just not good enough.
Sorry to anyone who wanted to read a favorable review, but by this point you will already have guessed that that won't be forthcoming
. The tables were really close together so we felt quite crowded, it was loud, dark and not properly air-conditioned, so too warm (I don't know whether that was accidental, or whether it was supposed to remind us of the real Mexican evening temperatures).
Our server was nice, though (if a bit hurried), and she took this picture of us (you can see we're not completely happy, though):
Now for the food – and that is the better part of the review
. I would like to start by saying that I do not usually eat at Mexican restaurants so I can't compare this to any Mexican dining experiences outside of Disney World (except for some fajitas I made myself from a recipe in a Jamie Oliver cookbook, and those were delicious!
).
The server started our meal by putting an absolutely enormous amount of tortilla chips with dip in front of us, which DH then proceeded to finish off
laughing:See, he didn't really feel ill, he was probably just tired). They were nice, but tasted like the tortilla chips you would get in any cinema – the dip was more spicy, though.
For appetizers, we both decided on the Ensalada de la Casa – "Mixed greens with Jicama, spicy pumpkin seeds, fresh cheese, orange wedges, cilantro, mint, and honey mustard dressing". Now that I am copying the information from the menu it sounds really good, and I admit that I don't remember it NOT being good – but the truth is that I actually don't remember it at all, so it was probably nice but not breathtaking.
As an entrée, I had the Puntas de Filete en Salsa Guajillo ("Beef tenderloin tips sautéed with fresh onions and chile Guajillo sauce, served over corn tortillas, black beans, and fresh cheese") as I had heard several nice things about them here on the boards. I really liked those – just the right amount of spicyness!
DH had the Filete Motuleno ("Grilled beef tenderloin with beans, Oaxaco melted cheese, Ranchero sauce, Pablano peppers, and fried plaintain"). He said it was very good, but I didn't ask him to try it – sorry about this rather uninformative review, but we were both a bit cranky that evening (as you may have guessed already
) so we weren't paying as much attention to the whole reviewing thing as we should have.
After the entrées my poor DH said that he had patiently waited for the table that I wanted and that he didn't care about anyway – but now he wanted to go home, so would it be terribly bad for me to skip dessert?
What can I say – I can have dessert any day, but pass up a chance to make the love of my life a bit happier?
So out we went without desserts, and I am pretty sure that this was the last time during this vacation that we did that!
My conclusion about San Angel Inn: Really strange check-in management; beautiful but very cramped setting; nice but not extraordinary food. We won't be back. If you are going – go when you feel well and you're not cranky, then you may be able to enjoy it more than we did
.
Coming up next: Dinner at the Flying Fish Café …