Brunch in Antigua Guatemala – Mañanas

Review of: Mañanas
Author:
Claudia

Reviewed by:
Rating:
4
On 13/11/2015
Last modified:28/03/2017

Summary:

For a few years now, my travels can’t not include a “brunch around”! In September this year I was in Guatemala and in its ancient capital, Antigua Guatemala, I enjoyed a delicious European-style brunch. I can recommend it if you find yourself at the point of getting a bit tired of beans and fried banana. Let me explain: it isn’t that I didn’t enjoy the traditional breakfasts with eggs, avocado, beans, ranchera salsa and toast with jam, I actually loved them! But after nearly two weeks of eating basically the same thing every morning, we were so glad to find this brunch with food that was just a little bit different.

Here most of the places that offer brunch are hotels that play host to the many tourists that come to this colonial city. So the question was, how to choose between so many options? Luckily some friends of mine put me in touch with local people and quite a few of them recommended “Mañanas” to me – a place that opened so recently you won’t even find any information on it online.

Antigua is a very small city so everything’s pretty close, but Mañanas is particularly handy as it’s just a few blocks away from the main square. Like many other hostels, it has a patio area with a few tables and a lot of vegetation, and all the rooms open out onto this space. Stairs lead to a terrace with deck chairs to one side, and to the other side are some enormous, low tables with cushioned benches and a canvas “roof” to provide some shade.

Brunch in Antigua Guatemala-Terrace

Considering the incredible heat of the midday, we opted for ordering something “light”. One of the dishes we asked for it’s called TLV, however now that I’m writing this I’m realizing they brought us something different to what was on the menu! I think this reflects the very relaxed attitude of the Guatemalans and how contagious this can become 🙂

In the end, they brought us 2 eggs, aubergine cream, a light cheese, cottage cheese with tuna and cream cheese. Everything was accompanied by bread with butter and jam. The other thing we ordered was a salmon sandwich, which they did bring us and which came with cream cheese, pesto, rocket and onion. And as there is always room for a little dessert, we finished with some French toast with mascarpone, strawberries and almonds. Absolutely delicious!

Brunch in Antigua Guatemala-French toast
I’ve put a picture of the brunch menu in the photos. I don’t know why they gave it to us in English – perhaps our Spanish accents confused them a little hehe

In Antigua, in general, the prices are higher than in the rest of the country, and so in the end the three dishes and a some bottles of water came to €24, at the exchange rate at the time.

Although the city is very small, you can still get lost in its streets. Many roads don’t have a name and although when you look at the map it looks easy to find your way around, it can get complicated. To find Mañanas, I recommend asking about or looking for information on Samsara, another interesting and quite well-known cafe which is on the junction between 6a Calle Poniente and 7a Avenida Sur. You’ll find Mañanas on 6a Calle Poniente, a few doors down from Samsara.

Brunch in Antigua Guatemala-Entrance

This brunch in Antigua Guatemala was particularly interesting because it gave me the opportunity to meet Lucia, one of the girls behind the project “Mister Menu. This is a web page and app for all the restaurants in Guatemala. If you decide to visit there and you want to know which are the best restaurants in the country, don’t forget to download the app.

Finally, if you’re passionate about travelling, and you want to find out more about this marvelous country, here’s a link to my new project, a travel blog, where I’ll describe my experience in Guatemala, with lots of useful details. 

It’s name couldn’t be other than “Bruncheando por el mundo” (only Spanish version)


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