Food and Drinks

Breakfast at Gran Hotel

P1120789P1120785P1120787

P1120998P1130002P1130003

Disappointing meal in the hotel roof top restaurant

We booked in for a meal at 7:30pm in the hotels roof top restaurant but things started out badly and it got worse.

We ordered a soup each:

  • Pam had a creamy soup but it did not come creamy and it was very oily with no flavour.
  • I had a seafood soup which had a great broth but all of the seafood, Prawns, Clams & Sea Bass were overcooked to death.

P1120981  P1120982  P1120984

Pam sent her dish back and replaced it with a chicken stock soup and it was good.

P1120990

I had ordered a salad with Scallops. The scallops we have seen in Mexico are pitiful things like we see in NZ from China. My dish has about 4 or 5 of these – in fact they looked like they had been cut in half and were overcooked.

I called the waiter over and sent the dish back, saying that this was the worst scallop dish I had every seen. I then remembered that I had ordered the Tuna as a main course as well so I jumped up and went over to the bar where they were inspecting my dish and told them to cancel my Tuna as well.

They were apologetic but I was not interested in any more of their food for me at all. The restaurant manager came over and apologised and offered me something else I still said no.

Then they brought the chef to me to apologise to me for the cooking quality.

P1120991

Pam had a duck dish which she enjoyed although she did not eat it all.

In the end they did not charge us anything even though I offered to pay for what we had.

Later in the room about 9:45pm we get a call from the reception saying that someone it outside our door. I get up and see the restaurant manager again  - he has come with a place for fresh fruit and apologised again.

I was a bit rough on them when I sent the food back.

A trip to the food La Merced Market

We decided to visit the local food market called La Merced Market to see what it was about – it is not too far from the hotel – about 1.6 km so we walked to it.

P1120819  P1120820  P1120821

P1120822  P1120823  P1120824

P1120825  P1120826  P1120827

P1120828  P1120829  P1120830

P1120831  P1120832  P1120833

P1120834  P1120835  P1120836

P1120837  P1120839  P1120840

P1120841  P1120842  P1120843

P1120844  P1120845  P1120846

P1120847  P1120848  P1120849

P1120850  P1120851  P1120852

P1120853  P1120854  P1120855

P1120856  P1120857  P1120858

P1120859  P1120860  P1120861

P1120862  P1120863  P1120864

P1120865  P1120866  P1120868

A pretty busy place with almost 100% of the people local Mexicans. Prices were quite cheap for most food products especially Chillies. I bought 1/2KG of dried chillies so who knows if this will be allowed into NZ.

Daily Drinks

Each day the resort has a special drink just for the day. Here is a list of the drinks over the week we were here.

Date Alcoholic Drink Non Alcoholic Drink
April 6 Coco Maya
Vodka, White Run, Coconut Cream, Triple Sec, Grenadine, Lemonade & Xtabentun
Conga
Orange Juice, Pineapple Juice, Banana and Grenadine
April 7 Banana Sexi
Coffee Liqueur, Pineapple Juice,  Coconut Cream and Banana
Fruit Passion
Orange Juice, Guava Syrup, Grapefruit Juice and Grenadine
April 8 Excellence Dreams
Peach Liqueur, Tequila, Triple Sec, White Rum and Guava Syrup
Mango Loco
Mango, Orange Juice, Lime Juice and Grenadine
April 9 Sea Breeze
Vodka, Grapefruit Juice and Cranberry Juice
Sirena
Banana, Pineapple Juice, Lime Juice, Grenadine and Coconut Cream
April 10 Medias De Seda
Gin, White Cacao, Grenadine, Milk and Cinnamon
Mango Coctel
Mango, Orange Juice, Pineapple Juice and Grenadine
April 11 Almenda Tostada
Amaretto Liqueur, Coffee Liquor, Milk and Cinnamon
Coco Rosa
Pineapple Juice, Coconut Cream and Grenadine
April 12 Sombrero
Coffee Liqueur,  Tequilla, Milk and Cinnamon
Coco Rosa
Pineapple Juice, Coconut Cream and Grenadine


Most of the drinks I find to sweet so I did not try that many this time.

Last Dinner at the Lobster House

P1120708

Clam Chowder – very nice – a lot better than it looks.

P1120710

Happy Pam

P1120713  P1120712

Pam had the Grilled Lobster and I had a seafood combination (Scallops, Prawn, Lobster) served in a Lobster Shell with a Jalapeno Cheese sauce.

Kitchen Tour

One of the planned activities was a Kitchen Tour – there were about 16 of us on the tour.

P1120695  P1120697  P1120698

P1120699  P1120700  P1120701

It was interesting how it works out the back.

They use 500KG per day of Fruit & Vegetables and about 250 KG of Red Meat and 250KG of White Meat per day.

Along with fish and the hundreds of breads and rolls and deserts and ice-cream all made in house it is quite a large operation.

Food

P1120523  P1120546  P1120547

P1120564  P1120569  P1120570

P1120572  P1120573  P1120439

P1120441  P1120445  P1120447

P1120471  P1120521  P1120396

P1120397  P1120398  P1120399

P1120400  P1120402  P1120580

P1120595  P1120597

A few drinks during the day

P1120524

The day started off with breakfast along with 5 glasses of bubbles each – these waiters – they love to feed you up on booze.

P1120533

How to make  Margarita class – so a couple of Margaritas before lunch.

P1120537

A few more drinks at lunch

P1120559

Just before dinner – some cocktails – a Pineapple Margarita.

P1120560

Then a Caesar special (Caesar is a bartender at the Martini bar who Pam likes to think of the Energizer Bunny). I asked for a Apple Martini and < 20 seconds later there it was. He is like this every time you see him. He remembered me from being here 2 years ago and he was like that then as well.

So I think I had 4 margaritas there, and Pam had a couple of Mojitos

P1120563  P1120566

Dinner we had a Pineapple Margarita again. I tried a white wine but did not like it so had to settle in for the reds. 3 reds Pam tells me.

We flagged the concert and I crashed in a few seconds of getting back to the room.

What a boozy day – cost $0

Off to get some breakfast  - so who knows what the day will bring.

First Breakfast

P1120438  P1120439  P1120440

Bubbles for breakfast – yes please.

P1120441  P1120442  P1120443

P1120445  P1120447

P1120449  P1120446

A good breakfast – the food is better here than Punta Cana.

A lovely dinner at the lobster house

P1120512

We came back from a day resting near the pools to this on our bed.

We decided to go to the Lobster House for dinner last night (no reservations required)

P1120513  P1120518

P1120514  P1120515  P1120517

We had a great location for dinner overlooking the pool from our table.

P1120520  P1120521  P1120522 

We both ordered Clam Chowder which was just Yummy. We then ordered grilled lobster and they delivered 3 plates because one was a bit small.

A glass of bubbles and all was great….

Copyright © Chris & Pam - 2024