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.

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

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.

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.

The cathedral is the largest cathedral in the Americas. The cathedral was built in sections from 1573 to 1813.

A photo from 1836 of the Cathedral and another showing it today 2015.

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.

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.

I mentioned in the previous post about the air-conditioning not working very well in the room. I complained again along with the TV remote not working. The maintenance guy fixed the remote (grabbed another) but he could not fix the Air-conditioning.

So they upgraded us to a larger room on a higher floor.

The room is very similar but it has a separate lounge area.

We have basically the same view from the room which is great.

The main square which we overlook is called the Zocolo (240 meters x 240 meters) and it it contains the largest flag I have ever seen (50 meters x 28 meters) on a pole 100 meters high.

The army raise and lower the flag every day in a very professional way with marching and trumpet playing.

The picture above is taken from our room.

The hotel we are staying in – Gran Hotel – in the Zocalo Square.

The hotel was constructed in 1899 for a merchant named Jose de Teresa, it was first known as the Mercantile Center. The building stood as an example of how Mexico was modernizing its building techniques, by using iron and concrete, at the end of the 19th Century.

Soon after its construction, the Mercantile Center became the most exclusive department store in Latin America. It wasn’t until 1968 that the building’s owner decided to turn it into a hotel before the Olympic Games were held in Mexico City.

A nice hotel room but the air-conditioning is a bit crap not really working properly. We did not mention it when we arrived but I have complained twice today (day 2)

A nice welcome when we entered our room the first time.

The hotel also gives you a glass a bubbles from Baha California. This was nice as it is about 600 pesos in the restaurant. But better than this we find that we can have a glass when ever we want (for free) 24 hours a day so obviously I am not going to let this go without being used.

The cost of a taxi appears to be $68 (but what currency?)

This price was quoted on Taxi Fare Finder website.

We are staying at the Gran Hotel in Mexico City for 3 nights after Cancun.

We have not been to Mexico City before and hope to find it a wonderful place full of interesting food and culture.