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Restaurante Amaro ( Merida, Mexico) |
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12.10.07 (210 review reads) |
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Advantages: Delicious local and international cusine, good vegetarian selection
Disadvantages: Some dishes may be off the menu
Amaro is a lovely restaurant in the old part of Merida in the Yucatan in Mexico. You eat in the courtyard of an 18th century colonial style house; it is located just one block from the more expensive main plaza and just off of the lively Calle 60 (with lots of bars and live music at weekends). As well as a range of international dishes it also has a huge selection of local Yucatan dishes that you won’t find elsewhere in Mexico or Central America. There is also a lot of vegetarian choice, which is great as I had eaten cheese quesadillas two days in a row. Ingredients include ‘Chaya’ which is like spinach and unique to the region. Sadly that was off the menu on the night we dined there, and I never saw it on a menu again.
There were several other dishes that were not available on the menu, and whilst this is frustrating there are plenty of other options available. However, wherever restaurants have fresh ingredients you can run the risk of something not being available, particularly in this part of the world and I think I would rather have this than something ready prepared and just heated up. Amaro does claim to always use fresh ingredients.
They have a range of ‘licouardos’ which are fruit drinks with milk or purified water. Often they are large and quite filling. They also offered Mexican wine, which I was keen to try but they did not have any chilled so we had to plump for the more expensive Chilean wines. Subsequently I tried the same Mexican wine as they offered and can confirm it is worth paying that bit extra for the Chilean varieties! The wine we had was delicious and probably cost the equivalent of £10 which is quite expensive compared to the food. The local wine was about £5-6 a bottle. They also offer a good range of cocktails and local and imported beers.
They did a large range of starters, which I did not have. Judging by the size of them they were almost meals in themselves but very reasonably priced at the equivalent of just a few British pounds and include nachos and salad.
Dishes to look out for include those that come with mole sauce. Fear not, veggies, this is not a sauce made of small, blind subterranean dwelling mammals but a spicy chocolate sauce made from Mexican chocolate. Regrettably I didn’t try this and also never saw it on menus outside of Merida. Other specialties include Aubergine Meshe which is basically a stuffed aubergine with cheese and a local white sauce served with rice. Some of our party ordered this and found it delicious. They also did vegetarian fajitas but I plumped for an Aubergine curry. This is nothing like an Indian curry at home but more of a mild, creamy tomato based sauce with cheese and rice. I thought it was absolutely gorgeous and an absolute bargain at $62 (approx £3.00). This was a typical price for a veggie meal, with meat and fish dishes coming in at a pound or two more.
The meat dishes include typical dishes like enchiladas and fajitas, as well as grilled chicken with mole sauce, beef dishes and local fish dishes. Most dishes are served with rice and ‘frijoles’ which are refried beans and will appear everywhere throughout Mexico and Central America. You can easily get bored of them! They also have a range of pizzas and some varied salads.
There are English versions of the menu, though not all the staff are fluent, they are happy to help with questions. Don’t expect service to be as prompt as in the UK, this is also typical of the region as a whole.
We ate there on a Sunday night; I believe they have live music on some other nights of the week.
I would heartily recommend this restaurant on many counts – not just do you have a varied and exclusive menu offering local dishes freshly prepared but it is in a beautiful and romantic setting. They also cater easily for groups, and I would suggest booking if you are in the area over a weekend.
Restaurante Amaro
Calle 59 por 60 y 62 Centro Histórico.
Mérida Yucatán México
Tel: (999) 928-24-5
http://www.restauranteamaro.com/ (sadly only in Spanish)
Summary: Varied, reasonable restaurant in Merida, Mexico
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