Earlier this week, I went to dinner with 2 of my girlfriends. We decided to try D’Stefano’s, an Italian restaurant on Nader Avenue in downtown Cancun. I had heard good things about the restaurant and insisted we have dinner there.

We quickly found the restaurant (located near the Immigration office) and were not at all impressed. It is simply a small house with a “yard” filled with pebbles. Outside, there are about 10 plastic tables and chairs with umbrellas. I am not sure if seating is available inside. We were the only people in the restaurant. That should’ve been our first clue that we were not in for an enjoyable evening. There was no music playing until a couple of minutes after we were seated. The menus are only in Italian and Spanish. This wasn’t a problem for me and my friends, but I would imagine it could be a big problem for many tourists.

We ordered our drinks and, when the drinks were delivered, we ordered our entrees. I decided to have Lasagna. It was only OK. Nothing spectacular, by any means. One of my friends ordered Spaghetti Carbonara. Again, nothing spectacular. She also ordered a salad of mozzarella cheese and tomatoes (I forget the name of this salad, but it is a common dish in Italian restaurants) and the tomatoes weren’t fully ripe. My other friend got some concoction of salmon and pasta with a cream sauce. It smelled really “fishy” to me so I didn’t try it, but she enjoyed it.

The portions were large, but we each only ate about 1/4 of our meals. We got them boxed up, but soon realized we wouldn’t eat the leftovers. If it wasn’t good enough to eat the first time around, why bother eating it later?!

We paid our bill and high-tailed it over to Club Sandwich Cafe for coffee and dessert. I had the delicious Apple Strudel, one of the girls had the equally magnificent Carrot Cake, and my other friend had decaf coffee. You may not think that was much of a treat for her…plain ol’ decaf…but it was. You see, decaf coffee is hard to come by. Sure, restaurants might SAY they serve it, but it’s not really decaf if it keeps you awake all night, is it??

So, to sum it up, we were very disappointed in D’Stefano’s, but I can’t find enough good things to say about Club Sandwich Cafe.

I have lived in Cancun for 2 1/2 years, but I’ve never been to many of the more popular restaurants. Yesterday, one of my friends and I decided we would try La Habichuela. Neither of us had ever been there, but have heard many wonderful comments about the place. Since it’s a whopping 2 blocks from my house, I really haven’t had an excuse NOT to go before now, but I just kept putting it off. Well, NO MORE!

We walked in and they asked our name and which hotel referred us. Um, we live here and nobody referred us… Apparently, they track that sort of thing. Anyway, since we both love eating outside, we requested a table in the garden. We were seated right away. The garden area is rather large and filled with trees and flowers and the lighting was very soft and soothing. It was VERY windy yesterday, but in the garden, we had only enough of a breeze to keep us from being hot.

The waiter brought over menus and took our drink order. He asked if we wanted water. When we said we did, he asked if we wanted a bottle of water or a glass of water. Most places just automatically bring a bottle so I found that to be a nice touch. (Tourists are probably cringing now, but yes, I do drink the water occasionally!)

My friend and I are not big fans of seafood, which the La Habichuela menu has an abundance of, so we both chose steaks. We had thought of getting a Mexican dish, but we eat in little Mexican restaurants all the time and decided we should have something different. We ordered a Caesar salad for 2. It is made table-side and it was absolutely delicious! After the salads, we were served sorbet. I’m not sure if it was mint sorbet or if it was another flavor that had a lot of mint added. Regardless, it was quite refreshing…not to mention a lovely treat! I’m used to eating in taquerias and have forgotten how nice it is to really DINE.

For our entrees, we both had filet mignon with Morel sauce. (I am guessing the filets were around 8 ounces.) My steak arrived without the mushroom sauce. It looked so wonderful that I had to have a bite before the waiter returned with my sauce. It was so juicy and flavorful that no sauce was needed, but since I love mushrooms, I poured the sauce over my steak. The meat was so tender that it practically melted in my mouth.

The baked potato was the only thing we found to complain about. It wasn’t full of all the things that make baked potatoes yummy….no mound of butter, sour cream, cheese, bacon bits, and chives pouring out of this one. It was sad looking. I loaded mine up with the garlic butter we had for our bread and I was as happy as I could be. Not really anything to complain about, as you can tell.

Neither of us had room for dessert, but I noticed the dessert menu was a bit boring. I’m not much of a chocolate eater so nothing appealed to me other than the sorbet.

We paid our check and followed the trail of breadcrumbs back to the main entrance. (We were very disoriented when leaving and couldn’t find our way out of the restaurant! No, we only had Diet Coke and water with dinner so no excuse for it other than a ‘blonde moment’!)

I wanted to get dessert to take home and enjoy later so we walked 3 blocks over to Club Sandwich Cafe and I got carrot cake. YUMMMMMM!!!! I’m totally addicted to that place already and feel compelled to go several times a week.

Finally, after several hours of dining and relaxing, I made my way home. It was a great evening and I highly recommend La Habichuela! The garden is very a romantic setting. It would be a great place for a special occasion, or for proposing marriage, but it was also fine for someone (like my friend and i) just looking for a nice change of pace. We both wore jeans and nice tops, but I saw people dressed in khakis with Hawaiian shirts, and some other people that were a bit more dressed up. Another thing I’d like to point out is that we never felt rushed, even though the restaurant closed before we left.

Prices for our meal:
Filet with Morel Sauce
(served with baked potato and steamed veggies)…..$212.00 pesos (around $20usd)
Caesar Salad for 2…..$158.00 pesos (around $15usd)
Soft Drinks…..$29 pesos (nearly $3usd for a can of Diet Coke!!!!)