36 replies to this topic

[Sunsetkid]

Restaurante Di Aurora

Best pizza(brick oven baked right in front of you) and happy hour every day(2x1) Went today with my wife and sister-in-law and we had the time of our lives. Pepe is the owner and he is Quite an entertainer. Great Fun!

[Mainecoons]

Where is it? What are the hours/days?

[oldshoe]

Pepe & Aurora's is on the mountain side west of Hacienda Steak House and the Panteón (cemetery) in West Ajijic. It's a two story building usually with several cars parked outside - they're closed on Sunday open lunch and dinner (sorry don't know hours) and the phone is 766-4013. We usually have pizza from there every week - they might still have their pizza special of any 2 items 2 for 1 for like 110p.

[liquipure]

and free salad with it (or it used to be). We'll be there Thursday.

[holdrja]

We had a bad experience at Aurora's - we downloaded a coupon off their web site, and they refused to honor it. Went ahead and ate there anyway, food was not very memorable, won't go back.

[Viajero-Tiempo]

Have they moved the pizza oven exhaust so that it doesn't waft into the terrace seating.

I hope they do, I'd return then.

[hensley]

We were at a friends house one night for cards and they wanted to order pizza from there and have it delivered, it was so thin and burned black that it was inedible, never again.

[ohjoni]

Best pizza I have had here in a long time is at The Score (formally Los Miche) when there for the benefit of Daniel Jackson the jeweler. Went back a week later and the pizza was still good. Only thing I didn't like was the road noise. They have nice cardboard boxes for pickup!!!!

[jaykay]

When Pepe opened his current place, my wife and I went there a few times. I greatly admire his pizza oven. It is a type called a "Japanese oven" and is very well built. Still, if you forget you put a pizza in the best of ovens, it doesn't turn out well. However, I thought that the pizza had the usual lakeside problems. They never get the dough even half right. Why that is I have no idea. It was originally food for less than wealthy people in Italy, and in many cases, has only very basic ingredients. Interesting comment on The Score. We'll give the pizza a try. I never totally give up hope.

[Canamex]

We will also try The Score and report back but agree with Jaykay about the dough in general. Two reasons I can think of for the less than optimal dough here are altitude (it rises too fast then collapses and never quite gets the right texture, like so much bread here) and the crummy flour they use. I don't think most pizza places here import their flour or use 100 year old starters. But instead of pining for the breads of other countries, we have to judge the pizzas here against each other or go crazy.

[saege007]

We will also try The Score and report back but agree with Jaykay about the dough in general. Two reasons I can think of for the less than optimal dough here are altitude (it rises too fast then collapses and never quite gets the right texture, like so much bread here) and the crummy flour they use. I don't think most pizza places here import their flour or use 100 year old starters. But instead of pining for the breads of other countries, we have to judge the pizzas here against each other or go crazy.

I make my own pizza dough - using the locally bought flour (which I do not find crummy at all - and I do a lot of baking). I have absolutely no problem with it coming out as good as stuff NOB. It's all in whatever recipe they use, and the sauce they make. I've also found that too many times the pizzas are not cooked thoroughly enough. I'd rather have mine too crisp than to have it underdone. I think the pizza at Auroras is best reheated at home in the oven. The Score had some decent pizza, like others have mentioned. I generally just make my own because it is quick and easy and I can put the ingredients exactly how I want them.

[artsnob]

Sounds good!! when are you serving,? I will be right over and bring the wine....K

[crjd]

In a recent post about Restaurant de Aurora relating to locations for the best pizzas a member brought up the use of "Mexican flour". If one were to "Google" bleached and unbleached flour they would soon learn that Mexican flour is "unbleached" just like all flour in EU countries where "bleached" flour is not allowed. "Bleached" flour is still used in the United States and Canada and unless you're a serious baker you might wonder why you have to pay so much more for "Unbleached" flour, particularly if you buy a U.S. product at Superlake or El Torito. Your own research on the Internet might convert you to the use of the wonderful, very inexpensive unbleached Mexican flour that we are fortunate to have available in this country. In my opinion......and I bake......Mexican flour is the best I've ever used! Best pizza dough and cake ingredient. However, you might have used local flour for cakes and when they didn't turn out you simply blamed the flour. Likely the problem you encountered was simply not adjusting the flour content to the altitude here at Lakeside. At just over 5000 ft above sea level you generally have to reduce the amount of flour in "sea level" cake recipes by approx. 1/3 and reduce the baking soda content by 1/2. (Try it...you'll see!)

[Canamex]

Tried The Score last night. It was ok, not much different from any other but a bit salty. Nobody here ever has green olives, always black from Costco. The crust was quite hard, and looked like it had risen for a short time or risen and fallen. But we may try it again.

[Canamex]

Why not put a name to the flour you're using? It's NOT "all in the recipe," altitude plays a role and so does the protein content of the flour. If you've ever had a croissant in Jalisco - from Guad or from here, you surely know that they don't rise the same way (also they don't use butter or good quailty butter if they do)! Nor does the pizza dough rise in the same way. Where in Mexico do you think they get high protein winter wheat?

In Italy they not only use hard wheat, they have starters passed down through the generations. Saying Mexican flour is the "best" someone has ever used is astonishing. Is it because people are stuck here that they have to find every mediocre thing here the best ever, anywhere?

[slainte39]

For someone who has so much worldly experience...you are having a hard time adapting to Mexico and it's food availability.

[RVGRINGO]

Not long for Mexico, eh?

[Canamex]

Not if I can help it. I miss my purple cauliflower and all the rest! Any why the sarcastic comment slainte39, can't cope with other people's experiences? Or should we all just nod and grin and pretend it's perfect here - best pizza, best flour, best meat, big variety. Wow. Not.

[lakeheron]

On the topic of making your own pizza from scratch, I have found that the cheap comales here really work to make a good crust, like a pizza stone. I have bought both large and individual sizes. Sometimes I have friends over and let them make their own pizzas on the individual size.

[crjd]

Re: After 15 years we've seen people come and go and it's always nice to know that some are definitely not missed when they leave and return to whatever small place they came from. Tres Estrellas and Selecta are perfectly fine Mexican unbleached flours for making excellent pizza dough. Sadly, the majority of restaurants here do not make a good pizza dough as they do not know what they are doing and they do not, generally, cook at sufficient temperature to ensure a good product. A home cook, even without a pizza oven, can do a respectable job on a good barbecue providing they can get a covered temperature of close to 600 degrees. Good pizza dough takes time and is much better if you "proof" overnight in the refrigerator. It also needs a full ten minutes of kneading and has to double in size when rising. It's also critical that the yeast is allowed to develop naturally and that the water temperature for the yeast is not too hot.