Everybody is familiar with the restaurants in downtown Sayulita, crowded around the plaza and on Avenida Revolucion both coming and going; and on the streets leading down to the beach. And even on Revolucion on the north side of the bridge. We are talking tacos on every street. There are dozens of indifferent, good, and great dining rooms all over downtown, some frequented by tourists, others by locals, the best by everybody with an appetite. It’s a dinner hour free-for-all out there, but mostly what you run in to is great inexpensive food.
But people, especially those of you who don’t get north of the river much, since all the “action” is downtown, you’ve got to come check out our new north side “restaurant row,” on Avenida Palmar between Miramar and Coral.
This block has been home to the excellent, gringo-priced Tropical House restaurant for several years now, and across Miramar to the south, the moderately-priced Medusa has occupied the corner for two years. But last year, another restaurant appeared, carved out of one of the little houses along the block between the two: Pizza Venezia, home to wood-fired Italian thin-crust pizza, and a smash hit in the ‘hood. At about the same time, across Palmar, appeared the German dining room called El Pretzel, where you could get economy-priced, authentically prepared wienerschnitzel and other Bavarian delights, should the craving for such arise. From what I could see of that empty room with its Germanic décor and church pew seating, said craving didn’t arise much. But nice to know it’s there, if sauerkraut is what you dream of.
This year, an odd, dark brown hut on a truck appeared on the street just south of the pizza place and the next thing we knew, El Jakal, a seafood shack, set up a couple of tables by the Diamante hotel, on the corner, and started serving great fresh cheap seafood, and drawing a crowd from all over the neighborhood.
Suddenly this once dark block is another lively Sayulita dining street, bustling with sidewalk cafes full of happy eaters. Given Tacos on the Street, and Che Marcelo and the other dining spots popping up on Miramar and Revolucion closer to the center of town but still up here on the far bank of the river, those of us who live or visit on the north side can go for a week at a time without crossing the mighty Rio Sayulita. Come on up for a visit sometime, downtowners.
