Restaurants Near Mejorada & Santa Lucia

Cafe Alemeda
Calle 58 #474 between 55 and 57
This lebanese restaurant is cheap and casual. I only like to sit on the patio in the back. That is sometimes a problem. Josh likes the cabbage rolls. We always have the hummous, berenjena and taboule. Sometimes the kabobs are nice and tender and sometimes they bounce.

Cafe Club
calle 55 x 60 y 58
I go here for the fresh juices and the vegetable soup. Don't know why but I go back once or twice a week. It's my canteen but my order never varies except on the days I order french fries and change from watermelon juice to payaya with lime.
Here I never have to fight to sit on the patio.

El Templo
Calle 59 #438 x 52 y 50
Last time I checked they were not open for lunch. The working gringo's like this place alot. More than I do so I'll let them speak. I've had a couple of good meals here but always very bad service which in the end made not wish to return. But that was at lunch. We'll order a drink and if it sucks go around the corner to Meson del Segoviano.

UPATE December 1, 2011 After rave review from my friends Jim and Vija from NY I tried Templo again. The chicken in mustard and white wine sauce was undercooked but the sauce was not reduced enough and just tasted like wine had been poured into a watery stock at the last minute. The stuffed chicken breast with chipotle and cheese had a very unsavory crust and it was cream cheese which I have a hard time think of as cheese. If the food had been good I could have endured the loud pop music and the low chairs at a high table...alas the food was awful. I called Jim and he assured me that his lunch had been great and in fact his dinner the night before was catered by El Templo and was good as well. He is as finicky as I am so you'll have to take a chance on this place. Segoniano has moved to El Norte.

Casa Lucia
Santa Lucia Park
calle 60 x 55 y 53
Reminds me of alot of neighborhood restaurants in Milan from my former life in fashion. Marble and glass and laminated menus. It's not at all a bad choice for lunch. I eat there all the time. It's never been great and it's never been bad. The desserts are the only real disappointments here. They are sitting there staring at you all through your meal and they look great. They all suck. I have tried them all. They suck. I know they look really, really, really good but they allsuck. Yes the pecan pie, the chocolate layer cake, the carrot cake and even the cheesecake suck. Sorry. Have that order of fries and skip the dessert. Even the bathrooms make you feel like your in Milan.

Meson del Segoviano
calle 50-a no 443 entre 59 y 57
Plaza de Mejorada / Centro
tel 999 924 0055
I've said elsewhere it's the best restaurant downtown. I believe it is. I've been back several times this fall 2007 and I like it for lunch and I love it for dinner. Update June 2008. I still go here often when there are friends or guests in town. It's best to call first and make sure the owner/chef will be there. Sadly there are never many people here and there is basically zero buzz after you ask them to turn off the TV. But the food is real and the things I like best are croquets, sausages and the divine warm octopus & potato salad.

This restaurant closed and is now called El Segoviano. Now there are more people and more TV's and a larger menu. Zero charm but still very good food

Calle 32 no. 219 plaza 32 upstairs
San Ramon Norte
Merida

924 0055 or cell 999 163 3196

Los Alemendros
Plaza de Mejorada/Centro
This is why I link to David Sterling at Los Dos cooking school. He gives places a second chance and give them the benifit of the doubt....
Whatever... It is still an unpleasant room to eat in.

Update June 2008: I still cannot bare the thought of going back to Los Alemendros but recently some guests invited me to lunch a couple of times at La Tradition a 100% Yucatecan restaurant that I can recommend. In fact if you are at Mejorada you'd better jump in a cab right now and go there if you're looking for real Yucatecan cuisine prepared by a real chef. It's not in centro but it's not far away either.

La Tradition
calle 60 no. 293 x 25
Col. Alcala Martin