A week or two ago, the Casual Restaurant Critic had the opportunity to visit, along with his better half and another happy couple, Villa Italia after a long hiatus. The first visit to Villa Italia many moons ago resulted in a poor rating for the Villa, when the staff was beyond indifferent and the food was, as the kids here say these days, “equis” which means it was just whatever.

On this occasion, there was an actual hostess and the group had the pleasure of having a friendly, proficient waiter. The restaurant itself has undergone several renovations, featuring a semi-enclosed area near the street and large additional rooms in the back. Villa Italia has had staying power over the many years it has been on the Merida restaurant scene, and all this renovation proves the point.

The waiter suggested to the Critic that he try one of the daily specials, which was rabbit. Since one can’t eat rabbit in Merida every day, the Critic decided against the pasta winking at him from the menu opted for the bunny. Seasoned, grilled and served with real vegetables and some grilled potatoes, it was a little on the dry side but very flavorful and something different for a change. Others in the party had salads and pastas, all of which looked and (according to them) tasted very good. Presentation was good; perhaps the table was a little small for 4 people.

While there was really nothing to write off as positively negative (!) and the Critic and Party enjoyed the experience, Villa Italia remains in a strange kind of gastronomic limbo in that it is not so unbelievably good that it’s worth raving about, nor is it so absolutely awful that it is worth trashing. Perhaps another visit is in order to try the pastas.

Take it or leave it. From one to five, the Villa gets, from this Critic, a 3.

If there is one thing the Critic likes, it is his Yucatecan food. And so, along with his better half, he visited once again the Yucatecan La Tradicion, where chef David Cetina whips up authentic and non-pretentious cuisine from Yucatecan family recipes.

As in the last visit, the food this time around was absolutely wonderful; scrumptious queso relleno, hearty lomitos de valladolid, classic papadzules and crispy/chewy well seasoned longaniza. The Critic cannot find a flaw with the food.

The excellent service, such a rarity in Merida, was friendly, efficient and fast.

In fact, the only miniscule detail in detriment to the restaurant’s rating, were the saucers (think cups and saucers) placed on the table as side dishes, but this is so common that the Critic has almost given up on this niggling detail.

The Casual Restaurant Critic maintains La Tradicion at a solid 4.5 out of 5.

Last week, Critic and some guests had a late (3:30pm) lunch at the Flamingos seafood restaurant, located on the malecón in Progreso.

The restaurant, a large room with an open kitchen and a view to the Gulf of Mexico was packed with locals, a lot of them sporting nametags which seemed to indicate that they were with some sort of convention or at least on company business. The Critic mentions this only to give the reader a better picture of what was happening, since the service was rushed and slow at the same time, if you get the idea. Rushed in that the waiter almost bounced while taking the order and slow in that it took him forever to get there in the first place.

The Critic’s group heartily approved the frozen margaritas and piña coladas and ordered several to make sure that it wasn’t a fluke. Apparently it wasn’t. Along with the drinks came the requisite mini-servings of botana (snacks) which accompany every round of drinks in every restaurant on the Yucatan coast. At Flamingos, these were the hard corn chips, refried beans, ceviche, sikil-pak (pumpkin seed, roast tomato, cilantro paste for dipping) and fresh cut jicama strips with lemon squeezed on top and a dash of chile powder.

As for food, the Critic had a small ‘back to life’ mixed seafood cocktail, which was good but by no means an OMG moment; the rest of the group had San Francisco shrimp, featuring melted cheese on top – which by the looks of the clean plates were delicious – and Shrimp in Normanda’ sauce, which was a white sauce, again with melted cheese as well as onions, bacon and other goodies in addition to the shrimp. Both plates were served with white rice and some steamed vegetables of the local variety. `

Only one person in the party had room for the desserts and ordered bananas flambé; one banana, split down the middle and served in its skin, flamed in liquors but not at the table which was a little bit dissappointing since some sort of show was expected but then it was just brought out. Maybe at night, when the setting is a little more laid back, they actually flame them tableside? The Critic doubts it since this requires a little more training in the waiter department and some sort of little cart and other utensils that were nowhere in sight.

Overall impression? Ehh. Nothing particularly wonderful. On a scale of 1-5, this is a middle of the road 3.

The other day, the Critic was invited to Valladolid to have lunch with friends. The restaurant chosen is the oldest restaurant in Valladolid, and it’s a mouthful in itself: San Bernadino de Sierna de Don Juanito.

Apparently Don Juanito is now in his 70’s and the Critic didn’t have a chance to meet him, but did get a glimpse of his shotgun hanging on the wall, as well as a photograph of him carving up a roast pig on one occasion when the restaurant, still twice the size it is now, was filled with 2,000 people. The waiter informed the Critic’s party of this fact; no historical sources were researched to authenticate this nugget of information. 2,000 people does seem like a lot… Also, the Critic’s party members were intrigued by the stuffed ‘pavo de monte’, a pheasant like bird common to the Yucatan at some point, in an unlit glass case in one dark corner. The Critic suggested perhaps it was some offering to coincide with the Day of the Dead celebrations coming up, but the waiter informed everyone that the owner had shot this bird many many years ago and then had it stuffed.

The menu is ample and there is probably something for everyone. The Critic’s party however, came for the Yucatecan food and for this hungry party of 5, the waiter suggested bringing out plates of all the Yucatecan dishes on the menu (there weren’t that many after all, and the Critic’s favorite, queso relleno, was reserved for Sundays only) and this was agreed on.

So, after getting plates, cutlery wrapped in a paper napkin and some watery agua de lima (lime water) with ice, the dishes arrived. The papadzules, soft corn tortillas stuffed with egg and covered with pumpkin seed sauce and tomato sauce, were delicious as was the brazo de reina, a corn masa loaf made with chaya (spinach-like vegetable very common in Yucatecan back yards) and also served with the previously mentioned sauces. The lomitos de Valladolid (small pork chunks cooked in a tomato-y sauce and seasoned to perfection were very good, while the poc chuc – a marinated and very flat strip of pork – was extremely tasty but unfortunately also cooked to the point of shoe leather. Cochinita pibil and it’s feathered cousin, pollo pibil, which is essentially the meat seasoned with annato seed paste among other things and baked in banana leaves in underground pits, were also quite good, with the chicken getting mixed reviews from the others in the party. The Critic’s personal favorite was the longaniza, the chorizo like sausage Valladolid is known for. Fried, it was crispy crunchy on the outside and smoky and flavorful on the inside. Wonderful in a hot tortilla all by itself with a dash of habanero chile salsa on top for an extra kick

A big disappointment were the tortillas, which arrived luke-warm and had to be sent back to be nuked in a microwave. Also, they were not hand made, but rather the assembly line stamped by a machine variety which are so common these days.

After dinner Xtabentun, a local liquor, was not available, since they had “just run out.”

The service was excellent, the waiter most attentive and informative without being overly familiar as is occasionally the case when Mexican waiters are dealing with tourists.

Bathrooms are in pretty bad shape, considering that this is supposed to be a tourist town. They are not clean and there is no place for garbage as in paper towels when you have dried your hands. The toilets are of the hover variety, which means they haven’t bought toilet seats so you have a choice of hovering or placing the delicate white skin of your buttocks directly on the unwashed porcelain. There is no flushing of toilets with paper permitted; the standard battered plastic bucket with used toilet tissue from previous visitors stands at the ready, presumably waiting for you to finish hovering. The soap dispenser, on the other hand, is electrically motivated, completely at odds with the rest of the ‘ambience’ and will make you jump when you place your hand under the dispenser and a light comes on, a motor whirrs and liquid soap squirts into your hand.

This restaurant is not bad, but has deteriorated since the Critic last visited it. What is needed is a thorough cleaning and revamping of the building itself with a special emphasis on the bathrooms since this will gross most people out. The menu is not bad but tries to cover too much ground and should be whittled down to emphasize the Yucatecan dishes; in addition, the Critic would capitalize on the fact that if it is indeed the oldest in Valladolid, the restaurant is practically a historical site and should be promoted along with the story of the owner.

And they might want to think about buying another bottle of Xtabentun.

SAN BERNARDO DE SIERNA DE DON JUANITO
CALLE 49 #227 X 48 Y 50 BARRIO DE SISAL
(985) 856 46 53

Rating? On a scale of 1-5, this restaurant currently gets a 2.

For those of you who are fanatics of a decent hamburger (and who isn’t) the sight of Carl’s Jr. closing their one and only Montejo location across from Sam’s Club was terribly upsetting. Even more so when Wendy’s also closed their location next to the Gran Plaza mall. While Wendy’s was having some problems, they did have a decent burger… but who suspected that Carl’s Jr. was having any difficulties?

Turns out though, that everyone can rest easy; Carl’s Jr. has reopened in the Mexico Norte colonia, in a new L-shaped shopping center (Mérida has so few, that it is imperative that more of these be opened almost on a weekly basis) located beside Planet Bol (bowl) which has won awards for it’s clever use of local vegetation in it’s landscaping and it’s spacious parking lot. Not.

You will be glad to know that the Critic checked and the good news is that the burgers at the relocated Carls Jr. are as big, sloppy and tasty as at the original location; the service is somewhat lackluster and unenthusiastic and the Cartoon Network blares away for the benefit of the employees who watch glassy-eyed as Bob Sponge indulges in his latest adventures.

For those of you interested in the back story (chisme!), Carls Jr. is owned by the same folks that own Burger King and it seems that BK wanted the Montejo location and so Carl’s was sacrificed to give the King more visibility on Mérida’s most important traffic artery, offsetting the imposing McDonald’s just a few hundred feet away.

As for the Wendy’s location, there will be a Starbucks there very soon. Yes, Starbucks is finally arriving in Mérida and it is rumored that they will be opening in the upcoming malls at Liverpool and Altabrisa as well as that other one being built by Hines on the periferico.