Dreadful Dining

Back in 1973 when I attended the University of the Americas in Cholula, the little town didn't have much in the way dining options... especially for a gringo such as I, worried about Montezuma's Revenge.  I ate at the university cafeteria or occasionally I took the bus to Puebla to dine at "Sanborns", considered a "safe" place for tourists to eat.

Today Cholula has become a tourist destination, and there are loads of restaurants.  The problem is that a lot of them are tourist traps that are more interested in making a buck off of the day trippers, than providing a fine dining experience.  Alejandro and I wandered around, looking at menus and trying to decide where to eat.  We sat down at a table at a sidewalk restaurant on the main plaza, but after waiting ten minutes for a menu, we got up and left.  We went to another place we had noticed earlier.  It was in the very pretty courtyard of an old house.  As it turned out, its attractive setting was the only good thing about the place.

  
The waiter brought us our menus, and immediately told us that they were out of chicken.  Well, that eliminated half the items.  We asked him what kind of "aguas frescas" they had. ("Aguas frescas" are the beverages of flavored water that are so popular in Mexico.)  He said that they were all out, so we ordered soft drinks... a Coke for Alejandro and a "Sidral" (apple flavored pop) for me.  Apparently they were out of glasses too, because he served us the drinks in the bottle.  

We decided on "cecina", a slice of cured, marinated beef.  Alejandro ordered the plain "cecina" and I ordered the "cecina enchilada" with a spicy coating.  After waiting for a while, the waiter brought Alejandro's dinner, but not mine.  I told Alejandro to go ahead and eat, but he couldn't because he didn't have a knife.

Smiling for the photo, but not happy about the service.

We finally got the waiter's attention, and told him that Alejandro needed a knife.  At least fifteen minutes later, he received his knife, and I received my dinner.  The food was very mediocre.  My "frijoles" were watery.  The menu boasted that the tortillas were hand-made, but ours were lukewarm and hard.   When the bill arrived, the suggested tip was already included.  Even though we are both generous tippers, we paid less than the suggested amount.  We have eaten in many places from fancy restaurants to little holes-in-the-wall, but we agreed that this was our worst dining experience.

Needless to say, when we bring my friends Nancy and Fred here in November, we will not return to this place!