Restaurante Zandunga

How do you get there?

Zandunga is located in Querétaro's historic city centre, just two blocks away from the Plaza de Armas. You can get there both by taxi and by bus. If you are travelling by car, it will be difficult to find on-street parking. However, there are lots of privately-owned car parks that are relatively cheap to park on.

The decor

The decor of Zandunga is in keeping with its concept of being a legitimate Mexican restaurant. Although the restaurant itself is small, it's very welcoming. It has the typical Mexican decorations made with papier-mâché, as well as Oaxacan hot chocolate served in clay glasses (very typical in places like these). The restaurant has a seating area with some little tables (as you can see in the photo below), but if you are in a larger group, you can go through to the patio at the back of the restaurant where there are more tables.

The food

The food is the best thing about the place. The menu is comprehensive and offers a wide variety of dishes, with breakfast options that include a side - fruit or a drink, like tea or juice.

Zandunga is a Mexican restaurant, specifically a restaurant serving food from Oaxaca. So, on the menu, you will see that there is a wide variety of typical dishes from there, like: tlayudas, different types of mole, tasajo, as well as enchiladas, enmoladas, chilaquiles, different types of egg-based dishes, and even salads. Here, you will see for yourself what the famous nopalitos, entomatadas and enfrijoladas are.

In terms of drinks, they also offer a varied selection: juices, pot coffee, teas, hot chocolate (highly recommendable), and different flavoured waters, like horchata with red prickly pear.

The seasoning that the restaurant uses truly reflects that of typical Mexican food.

The service

The service given by the waiting staff is very good. They are really efficient: they will have brought you the menu just as you have sat down; the food does not take at all long to arrive; and, they check to see if you need anything at regular intervals.

Cost

This is easily the best thing about the restaurant! Zandunga doesn't just charge you a fair price, but it is, in fact, even cheaper than what you could consider the fair price to be. The cost of a meal for two (with tips included) won't exceed $150 Mexican pesos, and the best thing is that you leave feeling both very full and satisfied. It's really incredible how cheap the restaurant is considering the high quality food and attentive service that it has, so it's for this reason that there are always people dining there.

Recommendations

I recommend ordering the hot chocolate (you won't at all regret it) and the horchata with prickly pear (or without prickly pear, it's equally as good). In terms of food, you won't go wrong with enchiladas, or the mole tamales and huevos tirados (scrambled eggs with refried beans). After eating, there's nothing like going for a walk and seeing the historic city centre, its walkways, squares and little streets. I recommend renting a bicycle.

Would I go back again?

Of course I would - it's one of my favourite Mexican eateries.