Guadua ranks arguably the best restaurant and bar in Puerto Escondido in terms of atmosphere, quality, and creativity of the food. In fact, to this reviewer, it stands head and shoulders above the rest.
The restaurant’s designer has done an impeccable job of creating an atmosphere worthy of a beach bistro, but with class and subtlety, and an obvious lack of that all-too-frequent and overpowering nautical paraphernalia. You can’t walk over an arched mini-bridge on these sturdy hardwood plank flooring boards. With the completely open concept of it, there’s not a wall to hang a dolphin, a net, or an oversized photo of the owner’s big catch. While structurally a palapa, the configuration is more than just functional crossbeams and uprights that support palm fronds; the posts stand at aesthetically pleasing and unusual angles, worthy of mention in Architectural Digest. Lighting, though somewhat dim for late-night dining, is provided by bulbs hanging inside elegantly strung oversized patterned burlap balls.
The servers rush to greet you, take your drink order, and return with a basket of warm, multi-grain, hand-cut bread. The recorded music is tasteful new era Latin-style, but only until the 50-something Cuban-born troubadour settles with his partner on a street corner to serenade familiar soft rock and the strange Spanish melody. Otherwise, there is the sound of the waves, with the sand practically at your feet and the ocean only a few feet away.
Our first appetizer was the tuna timbale with couscous, which is cold, fluffy couscous lightly tossed with cucumber, red onion, avocado, and diced fresh tuna marinated in soy sauce, garlic, ginger. Each ingredient retained its distinctive flavor. Soy was used sparingly enough not to overpower. Equally impressive in its ability to showcase each component was the aubergine bruschetta…a purée with roasted tomato, melted roquefort and homemade mayonnaise, on the requisite thick toast.
The baked seared white fish with rosemary butter was prepared to perfection and came with sides of salad and mashed potatoes. My Parmesan Long Pasta with Split Cardamom Cream Cheese was cooked to the optimum degree of doneness, but required a bit of prep to bring out the Indian spice. The tuna lived up to its “weird on the inside” billing, often a struggle to achieve when dining in southern Mexico. Once again the marinade, a teriyaki, was very understated.
We completed our dinner with Torres 10 brandy glasses, and shared the lemon pie frozen to the perfect consistency, with hibiscus coulis, and then a personal size dark chocolate sponge cake filled with melted white chocolate, accompanied by vanilla ice cream and sauce of cocoa brandy.
The menu selections at Guadua cover all the usual bases, so you’re unlikely to have a hard time finding offerings that appeal to the palate. But the expected ends there. Whether it’s the guacamole with grasshoppers or the grilled vegetables with balsamic vinegar from the antojitos; rocket salad tossed with parmesan flakes, figs and lemon olive oil vinaigrette; a hamburger or baguette; tomato and dill soup with sautéed prawns; a filet mignon drizzled with green pepper brandy cream sauce; or the more standard seafood selections, each accented with its own touch of Guadua.
With tips and taxes included, appetizers, soups, salads and light meals range from 50 to 100 pesos; and starters from 100 to 160 pesos. Hard to get over? I also thought the same!
guadua
Tamaulipas esq. with Federal Zone
Neck. zicatela breezes
Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca
Telephone: (954) 107-9524