Our Sunday Drive, One big Mistake

Sundays our day to drive around and have our main meal out. A few days ago someone had written in one of the blogs that I read, asking if anyone had heard of or had any experience with a restaurant in Zirahuen called LA Troje De Ala. The response that I remember was the blog owner said, "keep driving to Uruapan".

One of my local friends in Patzcuaro had also told me about it, he said it was good and very expensive.
Well, he is not by any means a gourmand, but he does know decent places which he has taken me to in Morelia and environs.

So as a public service and to be sure the experience was fresh in my mind I am writing this restaurant review for you dissection.

The place is located about 5 km west of the town of Zirahuen. If driving be sure and take the road through town otherwise it is a long way around if you take the other road around the lake. You can take a launch over to their dock, not sure how expensive it is.

Arriving, there were a few cars in the parking lot (good sign) and a spectacular view of the lake. Walking into the dining room we were greeted by black vested waiters asking us if we wanted to sit inside or outside on the deck. Being that it was about 4 in the afternoon, a little cloudy we figured it would be warmer inside.

That proved to be our mistake, since it was both equally cold both inside and out. With several doors open to the Troje dining room there was a slow breeze most of the time we were seated in the corner table. ( bring a warm jacket)

The menu was presented and it included the common appetizer plates, the queso fondido, guacamole, etc..etc. etc.

The menu had 4 soups on the page, SopaTarasca, Crema of Mushrooms, Consomme and another I fail to remember.

The also had a few pastas, Alfredo, Spaghetti and one more.

A half dozen fish items, one of which my wife ordered which was a Trout, some shrimp dishes, a few brochettes, seafood and meat style and a few Filets, one was a Pepper Filet and the other which I ordered with Bearnaise sauce.

What we did finally order was the Queso Fondido,  I had the Sopa Tarasca while the wife had the Aguacate Relleno.

For the main I had a Filete A La Bernesa while the wife had the Trucha Caprier.
Dinner started out with my wife ordering a glass of red wine. I saw them open a new bottle and poured a generous amount of wine for my wife. The only problem was that the red wine came out of a bottle that was from the refrigerator. I guess no one told them to serve red wine at rook temperature. For the rest of the meal my wife was trying to warm the wine up by cupping her cold hands around the large glass......

The appetizers arrived fairly quickly, the Aguacate dish my wife had was a hollowed out avocado shell filled with medium cooked shrimp drenched in a Thousand Island style sauce.  The dish could have been more elevated with a simple vinaigrette which would not have masked the delicate shrimp flavors.

My Sopa Tarasca was lukewarm and crying out for both salt and flavor.....the abundance of fired strips of corn tortillas simply created a disappointing soup. So far the Sopa Tarasca is far superior at Lupita's in Patzcuaro, hands down.

The waiter had asked me how I wanted my Filet cooked which I usually request medio-rojo, which came out a lukewarm well done. Any trace of moisture was covered up by a gloppy and broken Bernaise sauce. After having four or five bites I decided that it would probably be better service for tomorrow lunch tacos at home.

Asking my wife how the Trout was, revealed that the sauce that covered her fish was over seasoned with a salt and spice mix, causing here to pick and choose where the fish was devoid of their sauce.
After a half dozen bites, she didn't ask for the fish to be wrapped up "to go", the only place we wanted "to go" was home at this point.

After our plates were cleared it was difficult to gain the attention of the waiter to bring us our check. I was presented the check along with a comment request card which my wife snatched up, knowing that I would be a lot harsher than her in my comments.

For the first time that I can remember, the check was handed to us with the tip amount already written in.....
Hello, Hola, huh?

Either they think their food is so out of this world good, or possibly bad, that people wouldn't leave a decent tip, they wrote it in.....

Unbelievable..... What was unbelievable was that for the money spent we could have had two nice dinners at Lupitas or even places in Morelia.

All in all , the place was very expensive, very disappointing, and sadly we will never be back. It could have been a nice place to go to because of the view, but there were too many other poor service and food issue to compound to tell me that obviously they don't know what they are doing.......
I should have scratched off the 60 pesos tip but I didn't want  to punish the waiter for the owners or cooks problems......

I just had to take a picture of the check, to prove the expensive, disappointing meal was real...