Our last dinner in Merida at Rosas and Xocolate

Overall, our last meal in this magical city was very very good. We got plenty of personal attention from the owner Carol; he spent a lot of time translating the menu for us, and at one point poured me a shot of amazing mescal from his personal collection (El Cortijo). Yummy!

At the same time we arrived, two other events were in progress. One was a wedding dress show (which took up the main restaurant space – so we ate at tables setup in the tequila lounge area); the other was a fashion shoot involving a number of very pretty, young and flirtatious Mexican models. I was able to survive both inconveniences.

I found it interesting that Carol made such a point of importing most of his ingredients. I can see why this may make sense when targeting discerning locals, but it was a bit disappointing for tourists looking for high end food made from quality local ingredients. For example, Mrs Makers and I think that US pork is substandard to pork from just about anywhere else, with an odd, chemical flavor. I wanted to try the pork dish reviewed positively by the Casual Restaurant Critic, but changed my mind when I found that it was imported from the US.

Mrs. Makers had the hearts of palm salad and the duck. The duck turned out to be a bit pink (which Carol had assured us would not be the case) so I ended up trading her for a portion of my dinner. I had the shredded duck salad and the octopus main course – and ate plenty of both main courses – generous portions! Other than the pink duck (which Carol offered to replace – but we declined), we loved everything.

But we liked Panuchos de Kanasin at least as much J

Carol has clearly invested a lot of time and money in his establishment, and it shows. He mentioned that he will be in this month’s issue of Condé Nast! He asked us to tell our friends about Merida. This is something we will do, and expect that this wondrous city will continue to attract more travelers every year.

Mark Makers