Place to eat in Catavina?

check out this previous thread

Casa Linda closed their restaurant in November. The people running the place were rude, so be warned. No hot water at Casa Linda, so beware - if the restaurant is open, your chef cannot wash his/her hands properly.

The Desert Inn is mid-priced, but offers excellent service and food quality. The restrooms are clean, with hot water to wash your hands. Expect to pay $10-$20 per person, just like in the United States.

'Restaurante' across the street from Desert Inn (formerly 'La Pinta') is your typical "Rice, Beans y Tortillera" place. The food isn't that spectacular, but on a budget, you get what you pay for. Expect to pay $5-$10 per person - Exactly half of what Desert Inn would charge, but for simple food and mediocre service.

The restroom situation at 'Restaurante' is very bad.
Bring your own hand sanitizer, use the restroom someplace else, when you get there, you will see what I mean.


'RESTAURANTE' is known simply as 'Restaurant' because the word is painted on the roof of the establishment. Expect budget pricing, but disgusting restrooms and medocre food/service.


'Desert Inn' has a more upscale clientele, looks nicer inside, the food is prepared by more knowledgeable staff, the restrooms aren't filthy, and you can wash your hands with warm water (muy importante para evitar la gripa fea).

David was able to get a steak that he enjoyed, the kids were able to both get shrimp scampy over pasta which they loved. Everyone was happy because the food and the environment didn't remind us we were in the backcountry.


I'm not going back to 'Restaurante' simply because I can't risk getting sick if all it takes is an extra $10. Plus, the food tasted much better, and there weren't people stinking the place up with their cigarette smoking, either.

Sorry, Bob...guess it's almost a unanimous vote for the Desert Inn. Perhaps you will experiment-eat at another area spot and let us know? Got lomatil?

Look me up in Coyote Bay when you get here.

I'd go a little further to Eugenio Grosso's place at Laguna Chapala if just to look at the stuff on the walls. Don't count on much of a bathroom though.

Loncharia Chapala, 1 mile South of the Gonzaga road and I recommend the chilequillas. Eugenio is the son of the legendary Arturo Grosso who was a road builder and host to travelers of the unpaved Hwy 1. As Nomad Squarecircle told me, his old ranch was located 1 mile down the Gonzaga road at a present clump of trees, some foundations and a dangerous deep pit that Arturo is said to have dug himself. When the path of the new hwy moved 1 mi. West of his ranch in 1973, he moved his ranch to it. The two places now on the hwy, the loncharia and a tire shop, (abandoned I think) belong to his children. Arturo was also the older brother of Anita "Mama" Espinosa.
More info in Greg Niemann's, "Baja Legends" book.

Pictures of Senor Grosso hang prominently on the wall.

We just ate there last week: quesadillas, and they were good.

What got my attention the most, however, was their interior decor. The walls are covered with pictures that are all jigsaw puzzles that have been assembled and glued to the walls as paintings.

My mind started to wander and I thought back to one of my early trips to baja, perhaps 30 years ago. It was somewhere around catavina, I believe. As I sat at a restaurant eating my rice and beans I marveled at the mural on the opposite wall. It was an image of snow covered mountains with a lake and a majestic elk in the foreground. How interesting, I thought, that people living in this desert would choose such a subject for their dining room. But somehow it looked a bit too familiar. And then it came to me. It was the picture on the 'Challenge butter' we always had in our frigerator. Someone had found the butter wrapper and painted their restaurant in it's image. Oh my .....