A few days ago, I was in the hotel zone with a friend. While we were out, we decided to stop at Plaza La Isla to have lunch. My friend was in the mood for some good Mexican food. Since I usually eat Mexican food in restaurants downtown, I had no idea where we could get a good meal in the hotel zone. (Well, there is Xtabentun, located in Coral Negro Flea Market, but that lacks all ambiance.)

We had both heard great things about Casa de Las Margaritas and decided to give it a try. We looked at the menu posted by the front entrance and found the prices to be extremely high for Mexican food. Mind you, neither of us are “cheap”, but thought $15usd for an enchilada appetizer to be a bit extreme. We found it hard to believe that was the lunch menu but, indeed, it was. We saw a sign listing the special of the day. It was a beef or chicken burrito, with tortilla soup, and a beer or soft drink. There was no price listed. After living here for over 4 years and eating more than my fair share of burritos, I didn’t think to ask the price of the daily special. My friend and I both ordered the burrito because nothing else on the menu seemed fabulous…or worth the money.

Anyway, the food arrived and it was good, but the burrito was a little dry. We had a lovely time chatting and relaxing in the gorgeous restaurant…and then the check arrived. Our jaws dropped to the floor when we saw the price for our burritos. The lunch special was $250 pesos! (around $25usd) We were in shock!! It’s one thing to spend $25usd for an entree at dinner, but for lunch it is just decadent…or stupid. We were just taking a break from work and not living it up while on vacation, you know. We had a nice, enjoyable lunch and the service was very good, but I still cannot believe that a burrito, a bowl of soup, and a soft drink was $250 pesos! I wasn’t dining in Hawaii, after all. That price would probably be low for Hawaii. The part that really annoyed me the most was that Xtabentun (one of my favorite places to have Mexican food!) has better chicken burritos than Casa de Las Margaritas…and I would’ve spent less than $10usd for a burrito with beans and rice, a 1-liter soda, and a $2usd tip!

I don’t mean to discourage people from going to Casa de Las Margaritas because, like I said, when you are on vacation, or just want to go out for a nice dinner, money usually isn’t a great concern. When you live in Mexico and are used to paying very little for Mexican food, it’s a different story, however.

So, for me….lesson learned. I will always ask the price of the daily special.

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 27th, 2007 at 2:30 pm and is filed under General Blog Entries, Restaurant Reviews, Restaurants. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site. We reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments.