Antigua Guatemala Restaurant Guide | The El Chaman Bar

The El Chaman‘s menu and target clientele keeps changing, but you absolutely must go there for this unique Antigua Guatemala view over cocktails.  The spectacular second-floor view of the San Agustin Church ruins in Antigua Guatemala provides an insight into Spanish colonial capital that took hold so many centuries ago.

 

El Chaman Bar Antigua Guatemala

Daytime or nighttime, there’s a stunning sideways view of the church, built in 1657 and destroyed by successive earthquakes starting in the 18th century. The good Fathers of San Agustin decamped for the new capital in Guatemala City around 1751.

The south wall of the church is completely gone, leaving a full view of what’s left of the old San Agustin Iglesia and Convento in full sight — all the floors, doll-house style.

San Agustin in Antigua Guatemala (St. Augustine to you gringos) said, “Lord make me chaste but not yet.”  So here’s a lively bar, one that serves up heady drinks and sometimes pounding music, alluring to the senses and baser impulses.  That it’s juxtaposed with the tattered but glorious remains of a formerly holy edifice dedicated to the tempted saint, well, this is no small irony.

My recommendation: time an early cocktail and light dinner (pizza is okay).  That way you’ll be able to witness the church turn from gentle gray to heavy pewter shades as the light changes toward sunset.  Once the sun is down the flood lights come on and you can see the church in eerie nighttime shadows.  It’s extraordinarily beautiful.

Not only do you get a sideways view of the church, you get a downward and upward look that a sidewalk position at the north front of the building fails to afford.

The El Chaman Bar

As we were leaving, the next shift of younger patrons was starting to show up for the late evening and nighttime temptations that St. Augustine and the rest of us continue to struggle with.  It’s a life’s work.

Address:  7th avenida Norte #2 in Antigua Guatemala.

Antigua Guatemala Restaurant Guide | Best Illegal Mezcal in Guatemala

Illegal Mezcal cafe no se antigua gautemala

Cafe No Se is Antigua Guatemala’s answer to the dark establishment your daddy warned you to stay away from.  It has the air of a true desperado redoubt.  It’s okay for men and women of  amateur or part time frayed morals as well.

Here you can ask for Illegal Mezcal and insist on a dirty glass to show off to better effect your macho fearlessness.  In any case, the staff will look after you even if you didn’t have a crappy childhood, a sketchy youth or enjoy a generally felonious history.

I was in this bar in Antigua Guatemala with her 20-something son when real gunfire exploded on the street a few years back.  The resourceful Cafe No Se staff calmly shut the thick front doors and ushered their clientele to the back of their storied bar until it was determined the coast was clear.   Smooth.

The stories are grand all of them, but we’ll stick to just one more for the purposes of this post. The bar boasts 30 sorts of tequilas and mescals, yeah, the one with the worm.  It’s not illegal here at all, but the branding gives tippling shots of this Mexican favorite a really naughty edge.

As anyone who travels in Guatemala knows, it’s hard to get beer on tap.  In this way, Cafe No Se also distinguishes itself by maintaining Gallo and Moza beers in draught incarnations.  Live music most nights.  No dancing please, it might lead to card playing. Cafe No Se is located at 1a Avenida IIc in Antigua Guatemala.

Antigua Guatemala Restaurant Guide | Best Chinese Food Restaurante La Estrella

Restaurant  La Estrella Antigua Guatemala has the Best Chinese Food.  If you’re up in the 7th Avenida Norte, satisfy your Chinese food cravings in Antigua Guatemala at Restaurante La Estrella.

Restaurante La Estrella

So if you find yourself on an extended visit in Antigua Guatemala you might start to have a yen for Chinese style food. Here’s the remedy. The only indication that this is a Chinese food restaurant is the lovely black and gold Mandarin screen that sits in the front entrance way and which can be seen clearly from the street.   If you look up, immediately from the screen, you’ll see a Guatemalan flag depicted under the restaurant sign.

All of this makes for a real multicultural start.

Once in the eatery, there are few appointments that reminded us of anything from the orient.  It could be any Antigua Guatemala eatery in a converted colonial house, but for the presence of Estrella herself.  There’s something supremely graceful about this woman as she moves from table to table.  Her small daughters caper about her as she manages tables and the kitchen and she doesn’t lose a beat with them or her customers.   When she comes to your table you feel you are in the presence of a clear soul.  The food is really good too.

We ordered the mixed vegetables, a melange of crisp seasonal vegetables done with the time-honored Chinese preference for plenty of corn starch to make the food glisten.  It tasted pretty much the way it would at your hometown Chinese place, but with a Guatemalan flavor.

Fried rice was competently prepared with four ingredients — pork, beef, shrimp and egg — a real protein plate.  This was also very good and the soy sauce provided was easy on the sodium so that it mixed in to enliven but not overshadow the rice dish.  Price for two, including a beer for Mr. Yolkobsen and soft drink for me, rang in at what you might pay for a two small lattes and a pastry at your local hometown over-priced coffee chain outlet.  Hint, hint: Seattle-based corporation.

Address:  7a Avenida Norte #42. Antigua Guatemala