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El Jardin - tonala


jkgourmet

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NOTE: this has nothing to do with the "jardin" restaurants in Ajijic.

We spent the day in Tonala (thank you Cruz Roca for organizing such wonderful trips!!!) and, after several hours of shopping, wanted some lunch.

Ended up at a very pretty place on the main strip called le jarpdin. Husband ate his breaded fish, but I thought it was lousy. The only thing that saved it was the hot Red sauce and the even hotter avocado type sauce, both of which came with the chips at the beginning of the meal. Fish was 70 or 80 pesos.

My order of chicken enchiladas with green sauce arrived cold. After one attempt to make it hot (all I could tell was that it took a trip to the microwave, then was doused with more green chile sauce), I gave up and sent it back. That's something I rarely do - but this was just awful. I've had better Weight Watchers enchiladas, and at least they were cooked through.

The servers apologized, took the entree off the bill, and we paid and left. High point of the meal was my margaria. Mostly tequila, but it still didn't help make that food any better. In fact, the price of 55 pesos justt irritated me further.

(we had lunch last year in tonala at Bambu - that was similar food, price and setting. Wish we had stopped there again)

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If you go to Tonala again, be sure to try the Navarrete restaurant. Coming off the cuota road, it is located on the main drag, on the left, just after the first traffic light.

Complimentary appetizers include the best grilled onions, frijoles, guacamole, chips, and radishes. You can fill up on these and they will bring you all you want. They have great carnes asadas un su jugo but we usually get one arrachera which comes with salad, a piece of chorizo, and tortillas. We ask for it media y media so that it comes out right away on two separate plates. Great food and we never go to Tonala without eating there.

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I second Jeanette's verdict on El Jardin in Tonala - it looks like a nice little spot and appeared to be well patronised by locals, and a number of businessmen enjoying lunch,so we figured it would be a good choice.

My husband a fish fillet in garlic, that was swimming in grease, served with an unappetising plop of gluggy lukewarm rice, and runny refried beans - he is a pretty solid eater but still left half of it.

My menu choice was the same as Jeanettes and while it was warm enough,the chicken was full of fat and gristle, served with the same nasty sides as well as some limp lettuce leaves and a tomato garnish.

But the worst offering was the green salad ordered by our girlfriend , hard to mess up , one would think - it seriously looked liked someone had emptied out my kitchen compost bin onto a plate, lettuce,tomato,cucumber had all seen better days, and to top it all off, it was covered in cold cooked brocoli[?!] that had matured to a nice shade of chartreuse - it was so bad that it was funny.

She had another drink instead, and the barely touched plate was neither commented on, nor taken off the bill - never mind, it was worth it for the laugh.

However, I noticed a lot of people eating liver[a personal favourite] and that reminded me that I had rarely seen that offered on a menu - is there any particular reason why it doesn't show up often ? -it seemed a very popular choice at this location.

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