Saturday Snapshot - Plazuela Machado Mazatlan

 

Saturday Snapshots is hosted by Alyce at At Home With Books.


Mazatlan's Plazuela Machado is one of the oldest plazas in Mazatlan, built in the year 1837 under the auspices of a wealthy trader in silver cloth and pearls, Don Juan Nepomuceno Machado. Featuring architecture influenced by the French and Spanish, the recently restored Plaza Machado brings back an era when Mazatlecáns spent leisurely afternoons and evenings around city plazas. Today the restored 18th century buildings feature sidewalk cafés, theatres, a museum, hotel and musical events throughout the year.

This is a vibrant exciting plaza to visit in the evenings. Many ex-pats and tourists congregate here. There are musicians, artists, dancers to be entertained by.

We've been a few times in our two weeks in Mazatlan in February/March.

The first evening we ate at CasaCanobbio based on reviews on Tripadvisor and an acquaintance. We were very disappointed. Atmosphere is great. Service is fine and they don't rush you.

I had read they had a fine wine list, but 75% of it was unavailable and it was the most expensive wine we have seen in Mazatlan.
But the worst of it was my Fettuccine Alfredo. The noodles were drowning in a thick pasty sauce that resembled something from a can. There was no hint of garlic or cheese.

My husband had the spaghetti and meatballs which he rated as fair. The spaghetti was swimming in a soupy sauce.

The restaurant had few diners but when we stepped out into the plaza we noticed that all the other restaurants were packed with diners, obviously they knew something that we didn't.
UPDATE: I had written the same review of Casa Canobbio on Trip Advisor and did receive an apology from the restaurant and an offer to return for a complimentary meal.

We went back on Saturday night and ate at Pedro and Lola's. This was lots of fun as we had a charming server who had all the tables laughing around us. People chatted back and forth between tables. We did have a rather obnoxious guy with his "two" wives beside us. The girls were all boobs, blond and botoxed Canadians.

I had ahi tuna so you know I was in heaven!! DH had fajitas which looked good as well.

There are fire dancers and spray can artists.

During the day it is much quieter and the streets are not closed off to traffic. Many of the restaurants do not open for lunch. But it is still busy and you can see many walking tours. 

We went back to have lunch at Beach Burger after wandering around and taking photos of the area.

Burgers were good but huge!! Again the crowd was mainly American/Canadian and very chatty.

The donut vendor came around and did a great business selling to the eaters.

One of the pulmonia drivers kept coming around the block and playing Life Goes On by the Beatles and dancing as he drove.

Always an entertaining area to spend a pleasant afternoon or evening.