Gran Café del Portal (Centro Histórico) — Restaurant in Veracruz

I am here right now as I am sharing my experience here. Walked in at around 8:10 there was around 5 table with customers and I think I counted 10 server. Walk and pic your own table I guess cause there was no host. Got my table and wait for 8 minutes when I stand up and ask the cashier for a printed menu and if I have to order at the counter. Just barcode menu! I walk to a group of 3 servers and ask if any of them was my server, after looking at each other one asked me "How can I help?". He came to me and answer some of my questions and give me some suggestions. I place my order the food arrived within reasonable time. Small portions but ok in flavor, nothing to brag about. It's been 30 minutes and counting and not a single person have stop by to offer me coffee, pick up my plates or offer me the check. In summary the worst service in a restaurant in my entire year in Mexico. Maybe was worth it back in the days but I definitely don't recommend this place. Leave it to the local old customers maybe the are use to the bad service or don't know any better! Note: Before I post this critic I spoke with the manager and he mentioned that the service that most of us expect is different with the locals. For almost the time back in the days the customers feel offended if the server clean there table, "Are you kicking me out?" mentality! Oh, well now...

One of the best coffee spots in Veracruz. I asked to a taxi driver where do locals usually go to drink coffee and he sent me to this beautiful place. They have the famous and traditional "Cafe Lechero" which is basically coffee extract with a lot of milk served in a particular way to create a certain frothy consistency, even though it's pretty good, I'm more into plain coffee (Americano) which I recommend if you want to taste the real coffee from Veracruz. They have some vegetarian options on the menu (the "Picadas" for example) which you can turn into vegan but would need to ask the waiter to remove the cheese and sour cream in advance. Also recommend the Bomba which is sweet bread cut in half, and they put cream and some mixed berries, it's a little sweet but with a coffee (americano) is the perfect combination. You can also ask for the coffee to go if you want to take it to the Zocalo which on weekends at night is a really nice spot to stop by. On Saturday nights it gets crowded (which is why I asked my coffee to go). The prices are accesible, the service is good (when there's a lot of people, expect it to be a little slow, but it's understandable). Also sometimes there are people playing music which adds a really good vibe to the environment while you drink your coffee and have a...

Of the 3 historic places hoping to be the number one choice for your traditional Veracruz lechero, this is by far the worst.

Took over 45 minutes to serve something as simple as mollejas and only after we told them we were leaving. Didn't even come with pico de gallo; It takes you almost an hour to put beans and cheese on bread? Not to mention this was attempted to be served to me when my partner was almost done their meal. We go to a restaurant to eat together, not alone.

I'd say their aguas frescas were Tang quality, but honestly that would be offensive to Tang. Took one sip of the horchata and it was warm and awful. Immediately asked for something else and they actually tried to charge us for both drinks at the end.

Even their lechero was not even hot and had barely any coffee.

We left and went to La Parroquia de Veracruz. That's the...