Ladies Lunch at Juanito's March 15th

Last week's lunch was at Juanito's at the very north end of the Golden Zone and it didn't turn out to be a very good experience.  Our ladies lunch and bingo friend Sue, told us that the restaurant was a deli/restaurant and that the owner is actually her landlord.  She wasn't sure that we would like it but as it was drawn from the bag of choices we decided to give it a try.

 We arrived just as they were getting ready to start serving the lunch menu and were seated at their very eclectic tables.  The restaurant is relatively new and the American owner has done a nice job of decorating it.  The tables are all different and you can chose whatever style catches your fancy.

 Here we are seated and ready to have our drink order taken.

 I can't believe it.... I actually got a good picture of Connie!  We have been served drinks at this point which are a happy hour all day special so we'll get two each!  Good news is that there was very little alcohol in my pina colada.  No one needs to get "smashed" at lunch!  In the rear you can see Igor the East Indian waiter.  To say he was in a flap serving us is a huge understatement.  He is new and he looks like he should be on old age pension not waiting tables!  The large group of individual orders sent him over the edge and he did nothing but write orders down on pieces of paper, confirm them and then write them down again and then confirm them again.  Totally out of his element.

 One of the very artistic tables.

 At this point Sue is on her feet with a piece of paper collecting lunch menu orders  (all items to be ordered have a number) and then she took it to the kitchen.  Thanks Sue.  The waiter was still running around like a chicken with his head cut off!  The owner was making drinks and yelling at Igor to come and get them.  The owner also explained that a lot of the items on the menu such as the Rueben sandwich were not available because his deli meat order had not come in...swell!

 Igor is still at it!  It was funny at first but....then it got old.  Wrong man for the job and the owner should have helped him out.

 Loved this mirror which as stones set into the cast frame.  Bet it's heavy.

 Still talking and waiting for lunch.

 That's the owner in the rear getting ready to start a happy birthday song for the boy sitting at the table.  He was turning 13!

 So...the food arrived.  Eddie and Ruth shared a hamburger.

 The hot dogs were a hit although Connie sent her's back twice as it was supposed to have cheese on top.  The owner said the cheese was inside but the menu said ....on top.  They were Johnsonville from the USA so they were good.

 Chicken wings and fries.

 One of the sandwiches.  The bun was some sort of a sourdough ciabatta and it was quite tough.  No one could cut through the bottom slice to halve it.

 That's our Sue from the park and Cathy with their chicken sandwiches which I had as well.

Robyn had a hot dog as well.

This is a quick shot of the dinner menu. 

I didn't eat much of my sandwich but the fries were very good.  I gave the half I didn't eat to Sue to take home.  The only people that had a really good lunch were those who had hot dogs and the rest of us were underwhelmed. 
Now for the checks.....well it was the same running back and forth and redoing of all the bills before we all finally got to pay.  Not funny at this point and certainly not relaxing. 
Not a place that any of us would return to except maybe ....the ladies who had a hot dog. 

I'd say another Mexican experience except this was a very north american restaurant and it's failings really have nothing to do with Mexico. 

Ride to Playa Cueta March 9th

 Today we were off on a ride north to Playa Cueta which is on the coast west of La Cruz. As we were heading out to the free road past the toll road we hit ....seal coating.  They really should have had one side done and the traffic diverted but...they didn't.  There will be tar on the bike for sure.

I'd like to add a map to my post but I don't know how to do that on Blogger.  I guess I'll have to figure it out.  It was easy to put a Map Point map in Open Live Writer but they won't load into blogger...sigh!  So we left the park and went east to the free road, north to La Cruz, west to Playa Cueta (used the bypass through La Cruz) then returned south via the toll road to Estacion Dimas where we got off the toll road (to avoid the large toll before Mazatlan) and rode east to the free road and then south home.  Clear as mud...right!

Heading to La Cruz de Elota which means corn, which is growing along the way as well as a huge amount of crops in what looks to be a remay type fabric greenhouses. 

Coming into La Cruz.

Bypass the downtown and head onto the libramiento.

Lots of agriculture here so you need a John Deere dealer...right?

Turn right for Playa Cueta. 

There's the corn I was talking about.

Head straight to the beach.

Another wide open beach with a small malecon.  On a Sunday this would be packed with people from La Cruz and even farther inland.

Pretty but there is nothing to stop those waves from pounding in.  It wouldn't be much fun trying to swim out there.

We didn't have a restaurant in mind but this one looked good so we stopped.

A wide open view of the beach.  On the ride here it was smoking hot but when we got to the beach the wind was blowing and it was cool enough to zip up our jackets.

I couldn't figure out what the large curved things hanging in the corner were.  Eric said they are whale ribs and they are hanging over a whale pelvis.  Hmmm...they look old wonder if there used to be whaling here.

So what did we order for lunch...pescado or fish.  I ordered empanizado or breaded and fried.

Eric ordered pescado frito or fried fish not thinking he should have ordered fillette frito so he got the whole fish head, tail and all! 

His wife took pity on him and swapped.  I have no problem dismembering a whole fish so he got the fillets. 

Would you look at the teeth on this bad boy!  The fish was tender and since I like the skin as well I just carved it up....with a fork!  No knives available.  Must pack some cutlery with us on these lunch excursions.  There weren't any small bones to deal with just the backbone and the large bones attached to it.  Very tasty and a huge meal for 130 pesos.

With lunch done it was time to head back up the malecon and head home.

Pretty!

There were some small children playing in the water but they didn't last long.  Now Mama had three soaking wet cold children to deal with.

Instead of heading back through La Cruz we hopped onto 15D or the toll road for part of the way home.

Corn growing here too.

Lots of it.  At Estacion Dimas we left 15D and headed back to the free road to avoid the toll between Dimas and Mazatlan.  We retraced our route south and ended up back at....

.....the Riu like we do at the end of every journey.  It was a tiring day due to the heat inland and besides....we are getting old!  A journey of just under 200 miles and a good lunch.  Where shall we go next time? 

Ladies Lunch at Pin Ups ....March 8th

As usual I am behind on my blogs...seems it's been a bad year for this but in my defense the inability to use Live Writer easily has slowed me up.  Contessa  a fellow blogger sent me a link to a fix which I have looked at and started on.  For now I am using our extra data that's included on our TelCel Amigo sin limite plan.   So where did we have lunch....Pin - Ups which is located in the Golden Zone right next to Lucky B's.  It is a really good " Hamburger joint!"  We ate here last year just after it opened and it was worth another visit.

Connie got here ahead of us and as we were being seated she was already eating!  Look at that burger...delicious!

Sue was with Connie and they wanted to get an early start as they were heading over to Friend's to play cards.  This is Sue's lunch.  

The rest of us needed to peruse the menu and order drinks.

That's Cathy looking very studious.  The pictures were taken on our little Iphone 4S as I was waiting for a call and didn't bring my camera. 

Linda and Ian (Eric's brother) ate here a few days ago and struck up a conversation with the staff.  This young woman remembered her.

Robyn is a non alcohol gal and this is her virgin Mojito.  Very good. 

Lil came in a bit later and had to sit at another table with her friends.  This fellow was with her and was taking a bit of a ribbing for some reason.

My drink....a Mamacita which tasted like my usual Pina Colada with strawberry on top....yummy!

            Linda was trying to eat her Juicy Lucy (chicken sandwich) but I made her smile nicely for a                photo.

 Anita's fish tacos....wow that's a lot of fish and really nicely presented.  I must get some of those taco holders.  Apparently they are available downtown at a kitchen shop. 

 Need I say that no one went hungry at lunch!

 My Pin Up's burger...beef and it was delicious.  I had to peel the cheese off the top of the bun and eat that because I couldn't make it through the whole bun and ...eat all the wedge potatoes too!

Yum, yum.   So a good time was had by all.  I didn't take as many pictures as usual but you get the gist of it all.  At the end of the meal everyone drifted off to look at this and that.
A good lunch was had by all and if you're looking for a top notch burger and a good drink this is your place to go.