As soon as you walk into this place you wonder to yourself, “What person decided to create this place?” It’s something taken out of a movie with candles lighting up the place and colorful chairs welcoming you to take a seat and enjoy the view of a cave as you munch on some of their famous barbecue dishes or a simple dish of frijoles with tortillas.
La Gruta, located just 650 feet from the Teotihuacan archaeological site in Mexico is the restaurant you or someone else might want to go to experience a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to eat in a cave. Founded in 1906, this restaurant dates back to Mexico’s ancient times, evoking pre-Hispanic cuisine. With its exotic scenery, it’s no surprise that famous figures like painter Frida Kahlo, her husband Diego Rivera, and even the woman herself, Queen Elizabeth II, have visited this restaurant. Not only is the experience of dining in this restaurant their main attraction, but typical traditional Mexican folk shows also occur.
Keeping the idea of traditional dances in mind, La Gruta is very different from your typical Denny’s or Red Lobster. As soon as you leave your car, this unique experience starts. In order to get to the restaurant, you need to walk down a set of stairs, and out of nowhere, you are hit with the view of people dining, chatting away with their families, or just vibing away to the music that they are playing. When I first entered, it immediately made me think I was in some other kind of world, because what restaurant has a guest dining area and a kitchen in a cave? Some might think it’s a safety hazard for this to occur, but for me, it’s a privilege to be dining at this location. Once I was seated, right off the bat, I could think to myself, “I must take advantage of this because I’ve never seen this before.” Scanning across the place, I made sure that my eye caught every single detail this place had to offer. The lights dimly brighten; might it seem like it was your own special celebration. Not all was filled with dimness; the chairs filled with every color from the rainbow brought a nice touch to the place.
Turning around, almost at the end, this area caught my attention. This section could easily remind someone of the Day of the Dead due to all the candles burning off their wax. The meaning behind this section is that at the end of a guest’s dining experience, they get a candle and have a chance to make a wish. Once they do that, they place it where the rest of them are. Sometimes it’s not the extravagant things that make a restaurant unforgettable; it might be something as simple as a candle, like I mentioned above. Changing topics, the gray and rocky cave was something to admire. One can imagine how old this is and how they were able to create a whole kitchen and dining experience. I just kept looking up,seeing every detail it had to offer. The setting in this establishment was a 10 out of 10. After a while, my stomach started to growl; luckily for me, the food had arrived. Lucky for you, because that is our next topic that I’ll be discussing.
To start things off, I decided to order their famous “arrachera a las brasas,” which consisted of steak, some grilled nopales, and frijoles de la olla. As an appetizer, I ordered some of their guacamole with chicharron. The way the food was presented showed me that they do live up to their pre-Hispanic heritage. The appetizer was alright; nothing in particular stood out. Smelling all the flavors was a bit overwhelming, but I had to trust myself that this was going to be a good eating experience. I took my first bite of the steak. It sure tasted like glory; it was super juicy, and you could tell that it was well seasoned. All that combined made an explosion of flavors. The nopales, on the other hand, not quite as I hope, were kind of bitter, almost like they just dipped it in water and called it a day. To my taste buds, they just left a bad aftertaste. Now to the frijoles de la olla—not something out of this world, but it did present itself with a nice warm flavor. To accompany it, I also got some warm tortillas, which tasted just like they were made by Abuelitas back at her house.Generally speaking, it’s worth getting the dish only for the meat and the tortillas; other aspects of it were pretty average. For my drink, I ordered agua de jamaica (super refreshing).
After all the munching and crunching, I was ready to order some sweet treats to finish off my meal. The “pastel de chocolate tibio de harina de amaranto” was the ideal thing to choose at the end of my experience. This chocolate cake also included some Agua de Jamaica ice cream. The cake alone was covered by glazing chocolate sauce, drooling from its walls, and the bold pinkish tone of the jamaica made for a delightful view. The sweetness of the chocolate and the refreshing Jamaican flavor brought the ultimate combination together. To my surprise, I didn’t think it was going to be that good because, in my mind, agua de jamaica and chocolate cake never came across as a dessert together. The only thing to keep in mind if you are a fan of sweet things is that this dish, surprisingly, isn’t that sweet. I don’t recommend getting it if you have a huge sweet tooth. To sum things up, in the food portion of this, I would give it a 7 out of 10. Dessert was the best part for me.
With all that being said, let’s get to some of the important financial stuff—how much the typical prices range in the restaurants. Typically, the prices range from 350 to 500 pesos, which in US currency is about $28–34. It’s a bit pricey compared to what one is used to, but it’s worth spending that extra money to experience this. The dish that I ordered cost 293 pesos (17 US dollars), the drink 63 pesos (3.69 US dollars ), and my dessert 197 pesos (11.54 US dollars), which in total comes to 553 pesos. If you feel like you want to splurge and treat your family or yourself, this is the place to go. In my opinion, this is not the place to go every weekend, but it’s worth it if you want to break your routine and try something new. Prices: I can understand why they are that way and not crazy cheap.
Now, once again, imagine you are the person sitting in one of those colorful chairs. Some things to keep in mind at the restaurant are: bring your wallet. It’s not a cheap place; if you’re looking for something more affordable, I recommend going to street vendors (good food as well, and way more affordable). The visuals are something I definitely recommend going for. You will not regret it. Other than that, my final opinion is to visit this place if you enjoy restaurants with aesthetic scenery.
