La Gruta — Restaurant in State of Mexico

I personally found my experience of dining at La Gruta to be wonderful!

I admittedly felt some apprehension about going, as I've seen many reviews and heard word of mouth about it not being worth a visit...most of my group had already decided against going. I still wanted to experience La Gruta's unique dining location at least once however, so I convinced my partner to go with me.

The atmosphere and vibes upon approaching were very impressive...I basically had a "wow!" type facial expression. You can see the dining space in the caves below as you walk up to the host stand...and I've just got to say - it is REALLY beautiful and cool to see! Another aspect of the atmosphere that impressed me was just how bright and airy it still was inside the restaurant space, since there's several openings to the surface.

We were visiting Teotihuacan on a Monday, so even though we didn't have reservations, we got seated right away! I seriously enjoyed walking down the steps and descending into the large, spacious, cavernous area in which the tables are located. A true EXPERIENCE from beginning to end.

I was also pleased to find that service here was attentive and courteous without being overly pushy.

Now on to the food itself - I actually enjoyed most of what we ordered quite a bit more than I had anticipated. The portion sizes are very generous - even for the starters, and we ended up with more than we could finish on our own. So keep that in mind when ordering! Yes, they have very American prices (similarly priced to restaurants back home in LA), but you could probably just share a couple menu items with the whole table and be perfectly fine!

I especially recommend ordering the "La Gruta" Mortar starter of guacamole, onions, and pork rinds. The guacamole was fresh and it was a HUGEEE size!

I also wanted to try the Fried Grasshopper Corn Cakes...for the experience! It was beautifully presented (as beautifully as one can present a plate full of fried grasshoppers), and well-prepared, although definitely not something I could finish or would order again!! It was fun to try out one time, though!

Lastly, we had the Trio of Quesadillas starter and also some Prickly Pear Margaritas. The margaritas were lovely, and the quesadillas came in a colorful trio of red, plain, and green (like the Mexican flag). Now, they were honestly a tad bit bland, although I'd like to give them the benefit of the doubt and chalk that up to them being prepared in that authentic, pre-Columbian way. The tortillas themselves and ingredients inside were still very high quality!

OH yeah, and at the end of the dining experience, they bring over a candle to your table for you to leave on the walls of the cave as part of a little ritual/tradition to leave from "la gruta" as a "re-born man or woman". It was a lovely little touch and one which we enjoyed doing!

Overall, should you visit La Gruta? I personally say YES! As a traveling/vacation experience, I definitely feel it's worth doing at least ONCE. The atmosphere here is truly incredible, the service solid, and honestly a lot of the food is pretty decent as well.

I ended up having a great time during my dining experience, and it has since become a memorable highlight from our...

I had breakfast today at La Gruta and had a horrifying experience. When you walk in you are greeted by the hostess they ask what your dietary restrictions are. To which my tour guide and I let them know my partner is allergic to peanuts. We proceeded to order our food, I ordered as my partner does not speak Spanish. I requested chilaquiles for myself and he wanted an enchilada with mole. We were served our food I had the chilaquiles given to me and they placed the enchilada with mole for him. Once we’re finishing our food my partner notices his stomach feels off and I noticed his lips started getting swollen. I saw he was feeling discomforted so he went to the restroom. During this I looked up the food just because I was wondering what was making him feel so odd and there it was mole contains peanuts. I couldn’t find my server for 5-10 minutes so I asked a server near me and he confirmed the mole has peanuts. I quickly asked for the check because at this point I was panicking at how bad his reaction could be as he was in the restroom. All the servers told me were oh ya we don’t have any medicine. The server that served us not once came up to us after this. I then approached the hostess and they confirmed they notified the server and he should have told us. That was the end of that, then I asked if they had anything because he was now vomiting his eyes were red and his throat was getting tight. A manager approached us with a medication that alleviated the allergy a little. He told us to hold on for 10 minutes to see if it helped. Our tour guide came to pick us up and talked to the hostess to ask what was going. They claimed I ordered the mole and since I placed the order they did not notify us and that I was given the mole. This is a lie! I waited and he was still throwing up feeling nauseous etc so I went back and asked for the manager. I asked if they could AT LEAST refund his plate. This whole process took at least 45 minutes almost an hour. To which they kept saying we are working on it we’ll let you know. Once they finally came to us they told me I only asked for the plate to be refunded. As mentioned above I told managers if they could AT LEAST. This is a matter of life or death, allergies are SERIOUS. I was shocked by how inhumane it was, they said they were following all procedures and were doing everything they could. I don’t understand how we were not fully refunded. This is a beautiful restaurant and I was so excited to visit it being from a different country and I was shocked by how horrible this experience was truly traumatic. I was trying to make sure my partner was not having horrible symptoms all while fighting for a refund this seems absurd to me. We ate there at 10 AM today and it is now 3 PM. He still has symptoms, an allergy attack does not just go away and it’s not anything light. Truly felt like a place where they do not value...

Getting there: we actually took the bus leaving from the Autobuses del Norte station at 9am and paid $300 MXN for two adults ($120 RT x 2) and one kid ($60 RT) = $17.48 USD as of this writing. We were dropped off by the gate 2 that leads straight to the pyramid of the sun. We took some photos then raced to make our reservation. The gps took us towards the right of the pyramid and towards the museum area where the road splits off. We followed the gpa through the gate 5 parking lot, away from the museum, crossed the street and there is literally a sign that says La Gruta. We kept following the sign and after we passed the La Gruta parking lot we got our first view of the cave. We made our 11am reservation exactly on time and I’m so glad we made reservations because when we left the premise there was a huge line of people waiting to eat.

The dining experience: The food was better than I expected though everything skewed a bit bland. Biggest takeaway is that the portions were so generous we over-ordered. With two adults and a kid, I would suggest either getting two entrees and a kids meal or one guacamole and one starter and a kids meal. We ordered one guac, two entrees, and a kids meal with drinks and it was just too much food. Felt a bit wasteful and I wish I knew just how huge the molcajate was. The molcajate with chicharron was more than enough to feed 4-6 adults as an appetizer. One couple behind us only ordered the guacamole and beers. They did it right.

One little thing. I mentioned my son was allergic to eggs, dairy, and nuts. His kids meal was fine until the end. I asked several times if the lemon sorbet had any of his allergens especially milk since that's a severe allergy for him. I was told several times it was water based. I trust the staff about the ingredients so maybe it was cross contamination. Sometimes ice cream is scooped using the same scooper that was used for dairy ice cream. My kid ended up reacting and threw up everything he ate in the bathroom which was an unfortunate ending to an otherwise memorable meal. I would still go back and maybe ask more questions about allergies even if it makes me the annoying patron because I'd rather be sure my son won't get sick. Overall, it was an amazing experience, especially ending the meal with a candle that we got to add to the stairs and hearing the conch and tableside fire for celebrations. Felt like we were in on a secret or something which always feels extra special.

Overall I paid $105 usd...