The Return of a Favorite

I have written many times about "El Cardenal", a chain of restaurants that are one of our favorite places to eat here in Mexico City.  There is a branch just a short walk from my apartment.  But long before that location opened, there were three branches downtown... the original restaurant in an elegant, old building just a block from the main plaza, a modern branch in the Hilton Hotel, and a third branch on the Plaza Tolsá next door to the National Museum of Art.  Alejandro and I have eaten numerous times in all three of those restaurants.  A few years ago, before the pandemic, the branch on Plaza Tolsá closed.  We were sorry to see it close, but were not really surprised since the three downtown locations were all within walking distance of each other. 

After the closure of "El Cardenal" on Plaza Tolsá, a new restaurant called "Los Escribanos" moved into that spot.  I never ate there, but there were some very bad reviews of the place on Google Maps.  The consensus was that the food and service could not compare to "El Cardenal".

Last week when I was downtown, I passed through Plaza Tolsá, and I saw workers putting the name of "El Cardenal" back on the awnings of the building.

I asked one of the workers when the restaurant will reopen, and he said sometime in May.  I probably won't have a chance to eat there on this trip, but it's nice to know that on future trips I will once again have another "El Cardenal" downtown for excellent Mexican food.