Guatemala

It was the first visit for my wife and I to Guatemala. We go to CDMX every year and enjoy our visits there immensely. This time we decided to change the scenery. Before the trip I found a relative paucity of information regarding potential food experience. There are some recommendations on the Eater website, but not much beyond it.

Here I will compile a summary of our eating experience in Guatemala.

The first night we spent in Guatemala City. We walked through the busy underground market with a food area but nothing caught our attention and evoked a desire to try. It is a pretty busy area with a lot of customers around Refacciones Dona Mela counter. It is the one usually mentioned as deserving attention. We did not try her food because it was difficult to get to the counter. We bought some avocados/ fruits.

We got to lunch in Arrin Cuan. A small chain of Maya food based restaurants. (There is one in Antigua as well. But we did not try it.) We liked it. The mix of chicharron/ radish and tomato - Chojiin - was surprisingly good. Guacamole. Chorizo/ longaniza combo. Tasting of 4 local stews: Subik and Kak’ik - not good. Pipian - OK. Hilachas - really good. I am not usually a meat and potato type of guy, but for some reason this dish of meat and potato in chilli/tomato media was the one which we enjoyed in every rendition. Do not skip on it, if in Guatemala.

For the dinner we ventured to the Ciudad Cayala part of town (quick and cheap Uber ride). After strolling to observe the holiday lighting and decoration we ended up in the steakhouse Casa Escobar. Most of the meat they serve is from the US. We did not try any appetizers, but shared small puyazo (sirloin/ picanha) and small argentinian entraña. The meat was good but a bit off on the temperature and seasoning. Probably for compensation purposes the side of guacamole was extremely salty and we could not eat it. The same goes for the beans.

During the morning ride to the lake Atitlan we stopped for a breakfast in Teopan (the same name for the town and eatery). We had desayuno chopin which was quite filling. There is an option of buffet style. All the customers were local and prices were significantly lower than in tourist centered locations around.

Our destination was Hotel Atitlan. The location and the view are spectacular (please request the 3rd floor rooms). The immaculately cared for garden with a variety of birds. I have probably spent at least an hour observing the hummingbirds. There is a friendly tucan in a large cage. The hotel is a bit away from the town of Panajachel. You can take a tuk tuk to the town, but we elected to stay and to enjoy the scenery. The food in the hotel is marketed as something special but in fact is underwhelming. We were stuck there for the Christmas eve dinner. As usual on such occasions the food is poorly prepared and overpriced. Everything was very sweet and tasteless otherwise. Obviously we did not have high expectations and still enjoyed the location very much. Breakfast was a bit better, but we are not usually breakfast people.

During the boat trip around the lake we visited San Juan de la Laguna and Santiago de Atitlan. In the latter we managed to find inn the market the patin.The patin is a fried small fish in a fresh tomato sauce with occasional spice. The dish is endemic to the town. It exists in multiple versions including the meat, chicken or shrimp. All the above versions are not authentic ones. The original one contains only fish. We were impressed by the quality of the tomatoes and learned that the town has local tomato farms. The challenge is figuring all the above out in the market, since less than 40 % of Maya people speak Spanish…

The next day we ventured higher up in the mountains with an overnight stay in the market town of Chichicastenango. The experience is rather rustic since the best hotel in town Santo Thomas (where we stayed) had no concept of heat (with the temperatures dipping at night to about 8), hot water (could be requested 30 minutes in advance) or sound insulation (not able to sleep at all because of heavy traffic going right by the window all night long). The market is a very interesting but overrated experience. Later in the day street food stalls started to appear. I have tried the typical local fare of tostadas with chicken spread and vegetables along with rellenitas (deep fried plantain buns stuffed with sweet beans). Liked both. My wife was not comfortable eating it, but for me long lines and extremely fast turnaround was enough assuring for the safety concerns.

We had lunch in Los Cofrades. It is approximately 1 mile away from the town center on the tuk tuk. We even tried to walk back, but gave up because of the dirty road with no sidewalks. The restaurant presented as a “gastronomic experience” with " organic products". Small menu with basic items. We tried:

  1. chicken wings - not fried but boiled and smothered with the sweet BBQ house sauce - very questionable experience.

  2. pork chop in Convent adobo sauce - no sear, smothered in achiote based substance. The meat was good, but I would not order it again.

  3. Side vegetables and fried potatoes were very good.

We stayed in Hotel Santo Tomas, where the tourists usually come for lunch. There is a sizable lunch buffet, but after browsing the offerings I found them not to be very palatable. We ate dinner in the hotel. It was a very sad encounter, which I would not recommend to anyone. In general Chichicastenango is a forgettable experience not worth staying overnight. The market is not as interesting as it sounds.

The last stop was Antigua where we stayed for a few nights in the magnificent Casa Santo Domingo. It is one of the numerous monastery ruins in town. Besides, it was rebuilt to incorporate hotel rooms. We enjoyed our stay there. We did not eat in the hotel although they go out of their way to advertise their food. I have browsed the breakfast selection and found it to be less interesting than in Hotel Atitlan. For the ones who are the breakfast people: there are numerous cafes around which serve decent food for a fraction of the price.

We tried:

  1. Street food by the Iglesia de La Merced. There are multiple vendors, but you want Donde MImi. No posting signs, but you can figure it out. It is the one off the streetside closer to the street with the Santa Catalina Arch. Some staff wear aprons saying "Donde Mimi’, but I have noticed it only later. As well there are plenty of people attempting to get food from this stall, while many other stalls are surrounded by the rolling tumbleweed. Tostadas, chile relleno and rellenitas were good, although the letter ones were much sweeter than in Chichi.

  2. La Cuevita de los Urquizu. This place was recommended by my few local acquaintances as the most authentic, but in a very touristy environment. We went with our local friend and tried 4 stews. Pepian, mole with cordero (lamb), hilachas and made on Saturdays from the entire pork head, revolcado. My favorite, once again, was hilachas. In general, eating too much of the different stews gets overwhelming. After that meal I was definitely done with the stews in Guatemala.

  3. Chicharron Cindal (Sindal?). Relocated recently from Antigua to the shoemaking town of Pastores. Probably about a 10-15 minutes ride from Antigua on Uber/ tuk tuk/ “chicken” bus. Come for lunch. They run out of food by late afternoon. One of the places I have enjoyed the most. Very rustic with radish, avocado and fried onions served on the side. Chicharron is very good. Carnitas were so-so.

  4. Chicharrón Panza Verde. Walking distance from the Casa Santo Domingo. Less impressive than Cindal. I had intended to try moronga (the local version of morcilla), but they ran out of it. The same set of sides as in the restaurant above plus beans.

  5. Casa Escobal. We visited the Antigua location because we were told that it is the best restaurant in town. We liked it better than the Ciudad Cayala one, but it is just meat on the grill. Nothing is special. The service was good in both locations.

  6. Barriga Llena. This place stood out a bit among the other restaurants in the sense of its modernity/ cool vibe. The menu was small. We picked Guatemalan tacos (with sausage and vegetables) and fried chicken (reported as a specialty). Tacos were so-so. The chicken was pretty decent. They offer a lot of mixed drinks, but we did not try any. In general we had a very positive feeling about the place. Unfortunately it is on a very busy street and excessive dust and smoke gets in through wide open windows and doors. Everything is covered with a layer of dirt.

  7. Adobe. Another chain. All the customers were local. Here I eventually tried moronga, which was not very impressive. We had small chile relleno (as well so-so) and small entrana. The service was horrible, but the ambience was very lovely.

I am not confident to state that Guatemala is a gastronomic paradise. It is not Mexico. Most of the locals seem to enjoy the chains of pizza/ fried chicken/ hamburgers. Unfortunately, the Guatemalan food scene is very monotonous. All the restaurants serve almost the same menu and all street vendors sell the same staff. They do not taste bad, but are very timid in flavor. The quality of the fruits and vegetables is pretty good. The fruits are strictly seasonal. The street food is not bad but the choices are very limited. Happy to answer any questions.

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Thanks for the report. I stayed in Guatemala for more than a month about two decades ago, and before I really started paying attention to food. My impression at the time was that Guatemala was an amazing place to travel as a backpacker. But it didn’t have a big dining out culture, partially because of poverty. So the restaurants there primarily catered to tourists in tourist areas or city centers.

Partially because I only followed my guidebook at the time, and didn’t know how else to look for restaurants, the places I went to mostly had gringos in it. That was neither good or bad, its just a fact that restaurants weren’t catering to the locals.

I largely skipped Antigua that time and opted for language immersion in the much less touristed highlands- Xela (or Quetzaltenango) specifically. And backpacked all around that area in little villages, and eventually all around the country. It was much closer to the locals than staying in Antigua would allow.

The food as I remembered it, was quite monotonous- rice, beans, tortillas. But the scenery was breathtaking and the people hospitable. To date, it was still the most memorable and treasured trip I had, despite bone-rattling rides on chicken buses between cities, food poisoning, leaky roofs, exhaust fumes.

When young locals went out, they enjoyed a date night at US fast food chains. Why? Fast food meals cost the same in Guatemala as they did in the US, so it meant it was a splurge for the locals. And no rice beans and tortillas, so it was a change.

The chicken bus network was one of the most efficient public transport system in the world. I still remembered one ride between Xela and Panajachel, when I needed to change bus in the middle of the highway to the lake. The senor just grabbed my backpack from the roof of my first bus, gave it to the senor on the other bus to the lake, and the other senor just secured it and I was on the other bus within a few seconds.

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wow I am now feelingmore than a little guilty I havent gotten around to making a few posts about MY trip in November. Will have to do this now since we went to several places worth mentioning. But your general observation about it not being a place of varied food is correct but its not without good food, and there is a lot of beautiful nature and interesting culture to compensate.

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Initial difficulties finding the relevant information was the reason I posted…
Hope it will help someone…

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Hola, sck - Had perhaps a parallel experience and similar observations from around the same time in Guatemala. Language immersion in Xela twice (MiguelAngel Asturias and Celas Maya), both times with home stays and hearty home cooking. Xelapan for bread and treats. Amazing experiences, traveling by chicken bus all the way

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Xelapan in Quetzeltenango is still great - they serve out a big basket of rolls when you arrive and it goes on from there. Big modern bakery display - local stuff looked better to me than the the danish 23 had a great breakfast at the location our van load of visitors went to - not sure which one it was! Nice how they kept refilling coffee, hot milk jugs and fresh rolls regardless of how much or little we were buying!



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In November i spent 12 days in Guatemala as part of a birding tour. Little control over eating choices as we were moved around by van and airplane between destinations, but we were in beautiful places, mostly insulated from mass tourism and got to have a good sampling of local food.

Here are a couple of suggestions in Guatemala City - our group at mostly at our hotel (a nice place, La Immaculada, pretty good food, including fresh squeezed orange juice) but I had a couple meals at outside restaurants that I thought were good -
My first taste of guatemalan maya food was at attractive Restaurante El Adobe Zona 10 on Calle 8A part of a small chain as @Dostrov notes. https://eladobe.gt/menu/
Entering the courtyard, one sees a lady making blue corn tortillas by hand., Seating was indoors or in a very attractive roofed veranda with trees, birds and local decorations all around. guests are mostly local, including mayan businessmen (or perhaps government officials) in traditional dress. there was a lot of attractive food on the menu and on view on the tables around, including parrillada and grilled seafood, but I chose the mayan set of traditional stews, OJER K’UTUN, not being sure I would have another chance to taste them, along with fresh lemonade. The waitress first brought me a basket of tender, delicious freshly made tortillas, We had freshly made tortillas at every subsequent meal of the trip (12 days), even had a go and making them, and I can honestly say that these were the only ones that made a strong case for the deliciousness of tortillas!


the stews were interesting and very different from one another - I guess I liked the pepian best, I think it is a weakness that mostly they used turkey (their traditional meat) which is certainly the blandest meat I can think of to prepare these authentically and in the end there was not much protein but i was glad to have tried them, and in lovely surroundings.

The second meal was at festive Portal Dell Angel https://elportaldelangel.net/ with a remarkable view over the sprawling city and plenty of historic artifacts as decor . The resto featured an Argentinian wood-fired grill, and the food was quite tasty though frankly the lamb we had was expensive and the meat while good was imported (not from Argentina) and certainly didnt match up to what we ate travelling around Patagonia last year!

We travelled SE through Antigua (not stopping) in the dark to our first birding location at Finca San Cayetano, https://sancayetano.gt/ which is across the valley from currently erupting Volcan del Fuego and Alcatenango, where we birded on the estate property for several hours and had a nice breakfast and lunch at the Restaurant. Food was a little more eclectic, but tasty and they also offered freshly made blue tortillas. No food pics, sadly, but lots of tasty drinks for our english colleague . I think this could be a nice chill place to stay. (helipad provided)



Our next stop was at a coffee plantation and nature reserve close to Lake Atitlan, Los Tarrales, http:/www.tarrales.com which had been preserved and operated by a single family for over 80 years. A great place to immerse in nature, its an extraordinary site with plenty of hiking opportunities - amenities need some updating, but I loved it. Due to a recent regime, cooking had not settled down - offering were buffet style and mostly fries of vegetable and meats fries or stews with rice with fruit and locally made cakes for dessert; it was all tasty but very much simple home style. It was remarkable to watch the workers marching up and down the mountains to harvest coffee and the processing at the rather dilapidated looking plant. I am enjoying the coffee now, very smooth and delicious which I received by fedex just a few days ago! Coffee plant including drying area and just one bird. No food pics

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Hotel and Restaurant Bambu at Santiago Atitlan has a beautiful location looking out over the lake. We stopped there for lunch and had a very good meal - some mexican style spicy tacos. Everyone was pleased, Id love to stay at this place its very nice in the Atitlan area - convenient for climbing the mountain if you are nuts, too. traffic in the area is terrible, tourism is creating a lot of crowding in the towns around the lake and we got caught in two major traffic jams caused by a taxi strike blocking the streets.

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Our next stop was at the https://xelaaid.org/eco-guest-house in San Martin Sacatepequez, at 8500 ft it was convenient to visit Volcan Chiqabal, where we rode up in 4WD vehicles to view the lovely lake in the collapsed crater from above, - local people were easily walking up with flowers to perform religious ceremonies and relax around the lake. It was a beautiful place. the guest house was very comfy and the mayan ladies cooked us food, more of the healthy sautees of vegetables and meat, with some beans rice and fried plantains we were starting to expect, along with baskets and baskets of tortillas - which they taught us how to make. On from there to higher peaks close to the Chiapas border where we stayed in a fleabag (the only viable hotel) in Sibanal to see the horned guan, up the mountain. We saw it and ate lunch at the home of our local guide, the usual rice beans tortillas, bread rolls, potatoes and some chicken. No stinting on the starch. There was a small coffee shop in Sibinal that was ok, the mountains were amazing and we did see the bird. We then travelled down from the mountain and to the San Marcos area to see the quetzel and othe birds at reserves and other locales in that area. The hotel in San Marcos offered some pretty good food, we had another couple meals with local ladies at their homes. They cook outdoors using wood on verandas, with a big sink for all washing uses. A very simple life and simple food. more chicken, starches, beans and vegetables. We also visited a small hip ecological resort which had some sort of a restaurant and would be a very pleasant place to stay, Reserve El Vergel which is situated on a Finca , a lovely peaceful and property. https://reservaelvergel-com.translate.goog/?_x_tr_sl=es&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc
If you have any interest in travelling in this remote area of guatemala, please contact me directly, I can probably turn up some additional information.

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I just cannot understand why people like turkey (I can understand why Guatemalans eat given costs). I rank it at the bottom of any list of poultry. Anyone who says “ I love the smell of turkey roasting in the oven” needs to roast a goose (at the top of my poultry rankings).

If my wife and I are alone on Thanksgiving as during covid we prepare squab.

When the main part of our birding tour was concluded we flew up to [Flores] for a visit to TIKAL NATIONA PARK. en route we stopped at the Villa Maya hotel and had a nice breakfast, including excellent pastry coffee and OJ. that was a very nice property


We then moved on to the Jungle Lodge at TIKAL NP. Our guide told us that this was the nicest lodge in the Park (it was very well located too) and we enjoyed it until it started to rain and we had to leave (big tropical storm in Honduras was threatening. These remarkable and rather scarce ocellated turkeys were roaming in the vicinity of the lodge. I imagine the Maya ate them back in the day!

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A couple of general observations, it would be hard to get into all these areas without private transportation. US Government discourages taking chicken buses and other public transport due to crime - they are very visible in most of the tourist towns and the routes between the major cities thogh. We had a van and driver and we appreciated his skill in navigating the terrible traffic manners on some of these roads. There really isnt a concept of right of way and we experienced several face offs . Atitlan area is beautiful but grossly overtouristed and the pressure of tourism on the housing supply and land resources for the native Maya people is disturbing. Roads in some of the areas we visited, i.e. up toward Sibinal, can be really terrible also (cobbled or dirt with big boulders and ruts). We didnt see much evidence of migrant trafficking (it goes through the country and that area specifically) but presumably there is much less migrant pressure on Guatemala now than previously but drug trafficking is also an issue near the mexican border. We saw no evidence of this in our superficial visit.

Foodwise, Iwould not characterize this as a foodie destination. Most of the foods are bland but wholesome - we ate the local produce throughout the trip and I dont believe anyone got sick. Our guide indicated this would be true pretty much anyplace that catered to westerners.
Here was a typical homecooked plate we were served in a home setting - this meal, along with almost every meal we were served was also accompanied with fried or roasted sweet plantains a well as the inevitable basket of tortillas. No hot sauce. It was not spicy food.


very nice shrimps at our commercial hotel in San Marcos.

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The textile museum in Guatemala City, across from the Popol Vuh Museum, is really excellent (and has a nice shop) - The exhibits, including paintings and photographs of the interactions between Maya and Spanish civilization, and garments showing changes in clothing styles, and other objects were fascinating. I recommend to get some insight.


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Lucky you. Its almost a rite of passage if you go down market.

What kind of crime on the chicken bus?

You had a much difference experience than I did (as a backpacker). Its quite interesting to see Guatemala through a different lens. I remember flying into Guate late night, with my hotel in Zona 1. I spent a few days in Guate zona 1. It was a bit of a shock to the system.

Only towards the end of the trip that I returned to Guate to stay with a friend whose family had status in Guatemala and had highly educated US relatives. I stayed at their compound in Zona 10 where they had a whole entourage of helpers. I remember traveling through all the ‘basic’ places over Guatemala and then coming into another shock of the income inequality between the rest of Guatemala and Zona 10. I went with my friend to take a yellow fever shot in preparation of a trip to the jungle. The clinic he took me to looked just like US clinics, which in Guatemala was quite amazing, and the doctor graduated from Stanford, which was not far from where we lived.

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There are definitely different modes of travel to Guatemala - our local guide stated, contra the US state department advisory, that it was possible to eat fresh fruit and vegetables, salads etc at tourist places - and it was. It you took the government advice, we would never eat anything or travel anywhere,

Our folks were mostly overr 60 and not interested in travelling like the backpackers many of them were earlier in life. We ate local fruit and veg at the humble local homes we visited (guide has relationships with a number of locals who serve these meals). Some of our group were upset by living conditions of our hosts (dirt floors in houses, etc ) and reacted with lots of hand sanitizer in the bathrooms . This was in an area where people cooked with wood - and went out into the forests to cut down the trees they needed, which was ruining the pristine environment. I would have to say that the population and economic pressures in the country were visible to see and class differences were obvious too. I was glad to see something beyond a curated sunrise view from a mountain top, a stay in gentrified Antigua and a resort on Atitlan, where tourists are crowding out the locals who have lived there for centuries. It also made me think more deeply about the US role in central america…

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