JOHN GRAY'S DOWNTOWN

Restaurant Name: John Gray’s Downtown

Date Visited: December 20^th 2010 7pm-10pm (!)

Address and Phone Number: Av Xpuhil (Right next to Maracame) SM19 MZ 2. Cancun Downtown. 998-889-9800

Restaurant/Menu Link: http://www.johngrayrestaurantgroup.com/

What We Ate:

-          Drinks:

o   Limonada: Regular

o   Wine: Lovely wine list. A few selections available by the glass. Had a great cab at 62 pesos for the glass. A good deal. Bring someone who knows more about wine than I do..like Andrea or Edgar.

-          Appetizer:

o   Classic Steak Tartar: Thanks to Andrea for forcing me to try this. Sooo tasty and pretty oniony. I had never tried this before so I don’t really have anything to compare it too. I would order it again.

-          Salad:

o   Iceburg Lettuce with Roquefort dressing: A few of us ordered this. Excellent! The dressing was creamy and the nuts and everything else really added. Soo good. The perfect combinations of textures and flavors. Oh, and the lettuce was chilled…COLD, perfect.

o   Mixed Salad: Miss Jennifer got the mixed salad. It looked good too. I didn’t ask her for a bite because I was too busy enjoying my own salad. MMMMM!

-          Main Course

o   Salmon filet wrapped in crispy potatoes w/ chile spiced lentils: Wow. Hands down, best salmon I have had here in Cancun. It was perfectly cooked and tender, covered with a thin layer or flash-fried, crunchy potatoes. All this was placed on a bed of spicy lentils..but not too spicy to take away from the mild flavor of the salmon+potato. It was a lot, I could have definitely split it with Alexis (who ordered the same thing) but ate the WHOLE thing myself.

o   Filet Mignon w/ Mashed: Classic. Miss Jennifer got this, Polished it off. Cooked well, mashed looked tasty.

o   The Duck: Well thanks Lord Andrea ordered this one. (She cheated and looked at the menu before we arrived and was apparently talking about it the whole cab ride over.) And thanks Lord it was great because I would have felt really bad for her after she got her hopes up. I had never had duck but I am aware that you must be careful when you cook it so that it does not turn out too tough or too dry. Andrea gave me a bite and it was awesome. A strong taste for the unaware, but Andrea said it was awesome, and this woman KNOWS what she is talking about.

-          Dessert

o   Coffee Crème Brulee: Even though I was stuffed-and-full, Andrea conned me into eating this with her. It was served with some berries which we poured on the top of the crème brulee. Wow, 10, too bad we couldn’t have tried a few more of the desert collection…next time…

Service: Awesome service. We sat through three normal place settings, gabbed, ordered in bad Spanish, dropped silverware, laughed ourselves to tears (it was girls night out ok) and kept changing our minds about desert. The service was great. Minimalistic, no folksy buddy approach here. Though at first he forgot to bring Alexis the wine menu, but that was the only mistake all night. We were also not rushed, and at one point there was even quite a wait as the restaurant got busy and there were no more available tables. (We thought we were going to be more people and we sat at a 6 top, even though we were only four, and still, they did not rush us. Top Marks!)

Ambiance (Décor, lighting, music, seating): Very bistro style. Small. Minimalistic. Sort of dark. There is a huge tree that they built the restaurant around and you can see it through the glass walls that surround it. Cool. Classy tables, cute mini-patio (directly behind the valet parking lot…hm), lovely bar, small back room.  Wish I would have checked out the bathrooms, bet they were cool too.

Crowd: Whoa! VIP crowd. I felt a bit casual. I was definitely the poorest one there, but that is ok. I would dress up a bit more the next time I went. There were some pretty flashy outfits (and bling) spotted that night, but nothing to hold me back from going again.

Note: Get there at 7:30, you will have your pick of the tables. Gets BUSY at 8:30… and we went on a MONDAY! Apparently, Gray’s also serves breakfast. I would love to try their strawberries and crème French toast with a coffee on the cute little patio. And the next time I go for dinner, I will get a salad, a glass of wine and try the MAC and CHEESE which is also on this awesome/diverse menu that truly has something for everyone! Attainable elegance. Love this place.

Will I go back? Si!

Leave a comment if you have tried this restaurant and want to add something!

DOLCE...MENTE POMPEII

Dolce…Mente Pompeii

Restaurant Name: Dolce…Mente Pompeii

Date Visited: Sometime in 2008, and December 28^th 2010

Address and Phone Number: Pez Volador #7, Zona Hotelera KM5.5, Cancun. (Close to the Hotel Casa Maya on the ocean side) 998 849 4006

Restaurant/Menu Link: http://dolcementecancun.com/index2.html

What We Ate:

-          Drinks:

o   Limonada: Regular

o   Coke: All sodas in cans.

o   Red Wine: Decent house Primitivo and Merlot. Didn’t take a look at the wine list and the waitress didn’t offer to bring it. I think she was in too much of a rush to offer.

-          Appetizer: They bring totopos and a thin focaccia type bread with a spicy sauce as well as mayo  for a complementary appetizer. The bread, drizzled in olive oil was pretty darn good.

-          Salad: Didn’t order one. Ate too much bread…

-          Main Course:

o   Cannelloni: Karina had this and I should have asked her for a bite. It looked good and she polished it off.

o   Maxi Raviolo: Edgar had this, a GIANT homemade ravioli (yes one) that LITERALLY covered the entire plate. I have to say it was pretty great. The tomato sauce was homemade and smooth not chunky. It was a lovely light sort of tomato sauce that was perfect for the spinach and cheese filling. Yummy! He was still hungry though.

o   Fusilli Pesto: I had this. It is always scary for me to order pesto because sometimes it is so strong! This was great!! The pasta was a bit undercooked, but the flavor of the pesto was lovely and the pasta also wasn’t drenched in sauce. It was quite tasty.

-          Dessert: None ordered. It was late and Edgar has been working for 15 days in a row. That plus 2 glasses of that house primitivo and it was DEFINITELY bedtime.

Service: OK. Well, we were a group of 10 with no reservation and so I was expecting that our food would take a bit longer to come out, which it did. It was worth waiting for and I also appreciated that they still sat us quickly with no reservation.  HOWEVER! This woman broke the cardinal rule of waitressing and gave us “the eye-roll” TWICE. If you do not know how I feel about the eye-roll you should ask my students…or my father who feels the same as I do. Anyway, being waiting on by a snooty, eye-rolling waitress is never fun, but she came around at the end of the meal, and smiled at us a few times. Nice. At least she was competent.

Ambiance (Décor, lighting, music, seating): Over decoration. Super Italiano! The most interesting was the giant statue of David, decorated for Christmas, that also had a hole cut where the privates were and had a stuffed toy moose tucked inside there with his head and antlers coming out. Odd. Good seating for large groups. (But make a reservation if you don’t want the eye-roll.) Sufficient lighting, not too dim. Right on the beach if you sit on the patio.

Crowd: A good diverse crowd. A lot of Americans and many people who seemed to be regulars. Many big groups (over 8 people) but this might be just because of the holiday family dinner season. Some people really casual (even one waiter) some people dressy, felt like a come as you are type place. No customers wearing togas, though I am sure they wouldn’t frown on it if you did…

Note: Ok, my reason for not going back is so petty but it is what it is. The food was good but I was overwhelmed by what I like to call “the cheese factor” at this restaurant (nothing to do with the food…). TONS of holiday decorations, a giant plaster statue of David when you first walk in (also decorated for Christmas) busy table cloths, busy wall patterns ah! Too much to handle. In addition, all wait staff (except for one guy in jean shorts and a t-shirt (?!)) were wearing togas with gold beads and Caesar type plastic gold medals on them, and long sleeved unmatching cotton shirts underneath. Plus the eye-rolling issue.  

*Also: Mil gracias to Gary for picking up the check for this one! Nice guy, good conversation…in English!

Will I go back? No. (But if you do decide to go, don’t forget to iron your toga.)

Leave a comment if you have tried this restaurant and want to add something!

CENACOLO: Restaurant Review

Restaurant Name:  Cenacolo

Date Visited: December 23, 2010; 7pm.

Address and Phone Number:  Plaza Peninsula on Bonampak . Cancun.

Restaurant/Menu Link: http://www.cenacolo.com.mx/

What We Ate:

-          Drinks:

o   Limonada: Good.

o   Wine: Excellent Wine list. I ordered the special of the day without asking for the price…100 pesos for the glass…but WOW! A good choice. Good recommendation from the waitress.

-          Appetizer

o   Ensalada Caprese: Miss Claudia had this and she looked like she enjoyed it. Cute presentation with sort of a round “baseball” type hunk of the cheese with little cherry tomatoes, basil and oil.

-          Main Course

o   Sombreros Verdes: ZOMG. No leftovers here! A truly savory dish and homemade as well. (The menu has a whole section of homemade pastas…definitely start there!)

o   Canalones de espinaca: Miss Jessica had this. It looked good but I should have asked her for a bite. She saved half for her husband. Aw.

-          Dessert

o   None: On a budget folks…I promise to update when we go back! (Which we will…)

Service: The service was nice. Timing was good and everyone was polite. Our waitress was young and seemed a bit shy, but she really put herself out there and spoke to us all in English! She knew a good deal about the wine list and when she didn’t know she offered to go check for us.

Ambiance (Décor, lighting, music, seating): The lighting was soft and the décor is quite classy. We sat on the lovely patio, which was surrounded by a curtain-like enclosure due to the rain an odd chilly Cancun weather. The patio overlooks Bonampak and even though this restaurant is in a plaza with less “high class” restaurants, I felt very “VIP.” Cenacolo offers inside seating as well. There is also a nice wine bar. Plating was tasteful and refined.

Crowd:  When we arrived there was a table of 10 smokin’ hottie businessmen finishing up a business meeting. Double eye-candy…us and them. There was a table of a few glam/snootie women with lots of bling and then a couple that had just come in from Christmas shopping. All in all a professional/classy crowd. As we were finishing up a table of Americans came in. Whoa! Martinis all around for those folks… As a teacher, I didn’t feel out of place, though I was happy that I wasn’t dressed too shabby, not that it should matter.

Note: This restaurant actually offers normal portions. No supersizing here. So if you have an all-you-can-eat sorta husband like I do, order him an appetizer…and a salad.

Will I go back? SI!

Leave a comment if you have tried this restaurant and want to add something!