Sunday, December 27, 2009

La Habichuela - Lovely restaurant.

My honey had eaten at La Habichuela (String bean) several times in the past during visits to Cancun and wanted to take me there if it still existed.  Not only does it still exist but in my honey's words, it was exactly the same as he had remembered it.  Lovely establishment, great food and top notch wait staff. 

As noted on their website, La Habichuela has been legend in Cancun since 1977, when Armando Pezzotti opened the restaurant in what was once his home. Today, La Habichuela is celebrated worldwide. Our romantic sculpture garden, filled with aromatic plants and native trees, creates the magical illusion of Mayan ruins under starlight. Year after year, we greet old friends again and again. We use only the best ingredients, just as in our own home, and we prepare and serve our dishes with the same love and warmth.

We took a quick taxi ride to the restaurant and were immediately greeted by their welcoming staff.


Lovely inside with lots of glass, sculptures, and wood and rich with the smells of marvelous dishes to choose from.


A pretty hostess confirmed our reservation and handsome wait staff greeted us as we were led through the inside dining room into the garden area.  It was magical. Tiny white lights hung from trees, pretty wrought iron chairs surrounded tables of all sizes, magnificent Mayan sculptures around us, soft warm breeze floated through the air, pretty red hibiscus above us and all under a warm evening sky.  Magic.
 


This magnificent Mayan sculpture was next to our table.

Pretty copper menu listed enticing dishes.  I selected a Giant Shrimp dish with ginger and mushroom sauce.  My honey selected stuffed Calamari.

A basket of freshly baked rolls and breads is brought to each table.  The house favorite are the onion rolls.  I shamefully had two with whipped butter.


These shrimp were huge, almost 6 inches in length and an inch wide. Cooked to perfection with a lovely mushroom sauce and a hint of fresh ginger.


Stuffed calamari in a delectable sauce.  My honey's only words were:  WOW!


 We followed our meal with Mayan Coffee.  This is fun to watch as the server worked fire from heated saucers. 


This is La Habichuela creation and the restaurant signature coffee made with Xtabentun, brandy, ice cream and ground cinnamon.


Mayan Coffee laced with crystallized sugar and orange. 



While we sipped our coffees, we waited for our dessert...the Kukulcan Pyramid.  A delicious hard chocolate stuffed with cream of amaretto and fruits.

This fabulous creation is a miniature Mayan Pyramid right down to the last detail. Easy to break into, it is filled with Amaretto laced cream. 


The chocolate was neither sweet or bitter but PERFECTION. Fresh fruit on the side and we destroyed this temple of chocolate along with our coffees.

A lovely evening with a spectacular meal and the price, less then $70.00 which included our before dinner drinks as well.  I have been fortunate to dine at many wonderful restaurants around the world, but La Habichuela will be one of my personal favorites.  It was a perfect evening.


A quick taxi ride home and we headed for our room.  Tomorrow we will be diving and we hope to take some interesting pictures.  Blessings to all of you.  Sea Witch

8 comments:

Pat @ Mille Fiori Favoriti said...

It all looks fabulous! Just magical! The stuffed calamari...yum!

Have a fun dive ..enjoy!

One Vintage Hag said...

hi dari,

your dinner ~ amazing. have fun on your trip ~ i'll be checking back for some of your dive pictures.

happy new year,
~hag

Garden Antqs Vintage said...

Oh my looks like a wonderful place to eat and visit for that matter. Happy New Years, wish the best for the coming year, Theresa

Kathleen said...

What a magical place to dine...can't wait to see the pics of your dive!
Hugs, Kathleen

anythinggoeshere said...

Your evening looks lovely. I felt like I was there. I am still hungry though... cyber eating isn't very filling.

A very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you!

svelteSTUFF said...

(BIG SMILE)
I adore Cancun... and a very fond memory is the flaming orange coffee that I had every evening...
(BIG SMILE)
THANKS for sharing - and have one for me 8-)!!!
S-
(have a couple of El Jimador for me too - we can't get that here in NE U.S.A. !!! ...mmm...)

Fragrant Liar said...

Oooooh, how fun! Cancun for the holidays. That first picture of La Habichuela reminds me of a little cafe in Puerto Morelos, a little fishing village (now growing rapidly) just south of Cancun but north of Playa del Carmen. I don't remember the name of it, but we sat many nights in that cafe watching the goings-on in the village square. Very fun and relaxing. Hope you're having a fabulous time and your dives are photo-worthy!

P.S. Stay away from the rays!

Kathy-Catnip Studio said...

What delectable dishes you've shown us! I couldn't help but notice the wonderful scrolly wire metal dining chairs, too!