El Real in the rain

On Thursday afternoon the skies darkened to the shade of good grey flannel, the winds came up and, pretty soon, the rains were upon us.

It rained off and on all night, not heavily but I could hear it pattering in the fronds of the palm tree outside our window.  Friday dawned grey and damp.  We had made plans to go out to El Real for comida with two visitors from Milwaukee.  We decided that, what the heck, it's either lunch here or there and there seemed more interesting! 

Off we went to Costa Dorado, one of several very large, palapa-roofed restaurants along the beachfront in El Real.

The place probably holds 300 diners when full; it's absolutely enormous.

But yesterday, a wet, cloudy Friday, there were only about 20 people there, all clustered down at the very front looking out at the dark and choppy sea.

My restaurant review goes like this:  pretty setting, terrible food.  And it came highly recommended by Chuy.  We all agreed that a meal at Fernando's puesto was far, far superior, cheaper and much closer to home!   And no leftover shrimp for my opera salad; it's Tosca today.  It's still overcast and cool; soup perhaps.