Progreso has a new restaurant, open for about a month as of this writing, owned by the fine folks that run Almadia, Parrilla, and La Recova among others and this one features comida italiana.
The menu features plenty of seafood-based specialties along with wood-fired oven-baked pizzas, pastas and steaks. The space feels well put together (no Coca Cola plastic chairs wooo) with a lot of over-the-top design features like the giant lamps and the view of the beach right out front is stunning. It is open, so the breeze that usually swings around in the early afternoon keeps things cool.
On this occasion, the Critic was joined by los dos amigos, and that was a good opportunity to sample a few menu items, all of which were tasty. The meal started with drinks and a bread basket with bread that was warm, dense and somewhat chewy. It is not the kind of bread that you will devour but it does come with its own prepared butter and there are breadsticks as well, all baked in-house apparently.
Among the items sampled were the mussels – fantastic in a tomato-based sauce – and some fried seafood crunchies consisting of calamari, scallops and shrimp with what the Critic would call a zesty dipping sauce.
For main courses, one of the amigos is on the Lion Diet and had himself a massive chunk of Porterhouse steak cooked to order and perfect that came with ignored grilled veggies. The Critic had himself a carbonara pasta which while good and of generous proportions, will not present an immediate challenge to Fabrizio over at perennial favorite Eureka. Our intrepid host amigo had the black ravioli stuffed with lobster which definitely looked delicious but before the Critic could stick his fork in that plate, the raviolis were all gone. Next time.
No desserts were had, but there is something chocolatey, a tiramisu of course and a few others. The bill? Not sure, as this was picked up by the host amigo on this occasion but judging from the menu, the prices are in line with what is being charged these days in this kind of setting.
Starting with zero clients when the Critic arrived at 1 PM, the place was packed by 3 PM and the best part is that there is a parking lot, owned by the restaurant, right next door and right on the beach. Easy!