Restaurants: Other Beaches

Restaurants on beaches in the environs of Ixtapa Zihuatanejo, Mexico

These out-of-town localities and particularly the beaches with their simple, low-key lifestyles and rustic, open-air,  restaurants are very popular with the local residents and Mexican nationals. Beachfront you can expect sand floors or at most crude cement slabs under your feet, simple palm-leaf sunshades over your head, the most rudimentary of sanitary facilities, and plenty of tortillas to accompany your meals. Food choices center around grilled and fried fish and traditional Mexican fare such as fish and chicken tacos, shrimp and mixed seafood cocktails and ceviche.

Coacoyul:

A small town a few minutes drive to the south, slightly inland and near the Zihuatanejo International Airport,  surrounded by coconut plantations, Coacoyul is a favorite spot for typically Mexican weekend brunches of barbecued chicken and Thursday pozole.

Playa Larga, Playa Blanca and Barra de Potosi:

Barra de Potosi

Playa Larga is located between Zihuatanejo and the Airport on a 10 mile long beach. Dotted with restaurants and a very few small hotels, Playa Larga offers water sports, horseback riding and other beach activities. The restaurants on Playa Larga vary from large, attractive palapa roofed structures with pools to small enramadas with sand floors. All serve seafood (most at very reasonable prices) as well as cold beer and many have full bar service. Accessed off the boulevard leading out of town to the Zihuatanejo airport – watch for the Playa Larga sign. Playa Blanca is a continuation of Playa Larga to the south, separated by Las Pozas area at the northern end of the airport. It stretches all the way to Barra de Potosi. There are a few bed and breakfasts and rentals along this area but little else other than long stretches of white sand to beachcomb, wide-open horizons and tremendously powerful surf, dolphins frolicking in the waves, spectacular sunsets and miles and miles of blissful solitude.

At the southern end of this long stretch of white sand and wild surf lies the village of Barra de Potosi, with calmer, more protected waters and the shallow lagoon that permits wading and kayaking to watch the abundant bird and wildlife along its serene extension. Barra de Potosi offers a whole selection of rustic beachfront restaurants with a full range of seafood and Mexican specialties.  On weekends in particular, plenty of wandering vendors are out plying their wares: balloons, strings of beads, ice cream, coconut candies, alegria (a sweet made from puffed amaranth seeds and honey or sugar) and fried bananas; and wandering musicians, too,move from table-to-table and restaurant-to-restaurant offering a selection of local music accompanied by guitars, bass and other instruments.

Barra vendor

Playa la Saladita

La Saladita is a surfers and beachcombers beach north of Troncones, offering bungalow rentals with a few rustic beachside, daytime restaurants. Accessed from Highway 200, 40 kms. north of Ixtapa Zihuatanejo.

• Enramada Jaqueline – Playa la Saladita. Beachfront palapa restaurant – fried lobster, other fish & seafood and great breakfasts with the best tortillas heated over a wood-fired stove.
• Ilianet – Playa La Saladita. Beachfront enramada restaurant. Follow signs to the right before reaching beach; north of Enramada Jaqueline
• Restaurant Sotelo – Playa la Saladita. Beachfront palapa restaurant near the rivermouth and point. Camping and bungalow rentals. Good seafood and breakfasts.

* An enramada, or enrramada, is a simple structure, usually made of crudely peeled and fairly thin tree trunks stuck into the sand and tied or nailed together at their upper end with other smaller trunks which form cross pieces, then covered with a sparse layer of palm fronds, much thinner than a regular palapa or thatched roof. The purpose of the enramada is not to protect against rain and moisture but rather to provide a protective shade while still allowing a good flow of air and a filtering of light to come through.

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