El Buen Comer
Bienvenido, loyal reader. This day finds Bruce and Mary at El Buen Comer, a restaurant a little off the beaten path, but still in Old Town. Please join them. Provecho!
Tacaño, cheapskate that I am, we are constantly on the prowl for value priced (cheap) food, and we really enjoy discovering places where we are the only gringos in the joint. Now Mary and I don’t want to give the impression that we are experts in this area, having lived here only about 5 months. We constantly bump into tourists who know more about Old Town eateries than we do. But, on the off chance you are not aware of El Buen Comer, well… come along!
El Buen Comer is located on Calle Madero, entre Calles Aguacate y Jacaranda.
El Buen Comer has a charming, family feel to it, and you can certainly tell what season it is, this day.
This is what brought us in the first time. They run specials like this cada dia, every day.
All specials include a sopa or crema, here is my sopa de pasta. It is very good, especially with a dose of cola de rata salsa (more on that later). Oh, BTW: The beers are only 15P!
And my albondigas, meatballs with potatoes and carrots in a tomato sauce. It is good but I bet mijo Joe would like them even more than me, as the albondigas, with their boiled eggwhite core, would evoke memories of his study abroad in Chile, the egg capital of Latin America.
Here’s Mary’s Crema de Verduras, a very nice, creamy comfort soup with diced chayote.
And this is Mary’s Chile Relleno. This Chile Relleno is stuffed with a different cheese than we’re used to. Turns out we think that Queso Fresco is a little too… rustic (?) for our tastes.
On another visit we both ordered off the menu.
This is my Bisteck ala Mexicana, a grilled, marinated flank-steak smothered in green peppers This version is only mildly spicy but quite tasty. The meat is very tender.
And Mary’s Enchiladas de Queso, very tasty cheese enchiladas with a fresh tomato sauce that really tied the dish together, Donny.
Oh boy, this is my lucky day… Pescado Frito!
It is hard to believe that this dish, including the sopa de pasta I just wolfed down, is only 50P!
And this is Mary’s Pollo Empanizado. She was hoping for a chicken fillet, and being a vegan wannabe this quarter chick is a little too grizzly for her. So it makes a great dessert for me! BTW: She does love the beans and rice. Oh, the salsas… one is a habanero salsa that will shoot flames out of your ears if you’re not careful. The other is a savory salsa made with tomatoes and cola de rata peppers and is even hotter!
As in eateries everywhere it is a family affair here at El Buen Comer. This is Vicki, grand-daughter Abigal and daughter Paloma. Vicki is always very helpful and loves to share recipes for her fantastic salsas. One of these days we will give these recipes a try but first we will need a blender… and then a fire extinguisher.
Abigal is pretty proud of her reindeer.
We have become regulars at El Buen Comer, in no small part because it is only a block away from our gym. Every Friday we hit the weights and then get our protein and carb infusions at El Buen Comer. However some caveats are in order: We cannot recommend the Pozole and as mentioned earlier the cheese they use here is Queso Fresco which is fine in small doses, sprinkled on frijoles for example, but not, at least for us, when cheese is a major component of the dish. But, that being said, on the whole our experiences here have been very satisfying. The value is top notch, the service excellent and it will remain our post work-out refueling station in the foreseeable future.
Thanks for visiting gentle reader. As Bruce mentioned at the top, he and Mary are by no means experts on the Old Town hospitality scene so if any of you have some suggestions, particularly in the way of value priced eateries (don’t forget what a tacaño Bruce is) please comment. Hasta proxima Domingo!
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January 13, 2013
· 
Bruce · 
6 Comments
Posted in: Life in Puerto Vallarta
6 Responses
Man I just finished my diner, fell like I can eat some of that food about now.
Thanks for posting.
Hola Tony,
Yeah, El Buen Comer can do that to you.
Thanks for reading.
Cheers!!
I caught “The Big Lebowski” reference first, Bruce!
Hahaha, yes you did, Kevin!
I must say that was Mary’s idea, though. And being reminded of the movie, we watched The Big Lebowski for about 100th time last night.
Cheers!
We watch it every Christmas Eve religiously!
So it’s your Christmas movie! Ours is Scrooged.
Cheers!
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