Best Mexican Restaurants in GTO

[jesm]

You have a wonderful tasty adventure ahead.
Two long enjoyed suggestions:
The first is close, the fondas ( food stalls) along the outside of Mercado Hidalgo. Zero atmosphere but you have your choice of 10-15 individual kitchens with small seating areas. You are surrounded by the fresh ingredients you then closely watch turn into your delightful traditional meal. We love the family that runs Fonda 7-8. Embarrassingly cheap.
Second, takes you about 30 minutes out of town eastward on newer highway to San Miguel. Pueblo of La Sauceda where it’s Main Street is a parade of family restaurants. Each small, personal space has a ready selection of homemade delicacies served around the staples of beans and rice. Beef, pork and chicken flavored in ways you never tasted.
You eat grandly at either spot for under 100 pesos each, drink included.
Provecho!!

[DonJuane]

Plan B may be sitting down to a long run of youtube cooking videos and learning a new skill. In the past I ate along with the local vendors where they re-use plates by dipping them in some lightly soapy water and serving the next group with a partially cleaned plate at these food stalls and eating from public access salsa, onion and chopped cilantro bowls, all the while knowing it would build my immune system; however we may be moving past that at the moment. Also the longer you travel, the more you start questioning what you are eating when you do things such as pass large production vegetable farming which may even be touted as "organic" and you smell what it is they are spreading on top of the vegetables for fertilizer. Also you start to notice things like that head of lettuce your vendor or restaurant is using or bunch of cilantro they reach for which still has the market twisted band on it and has never been washed. Then add to that, you buy the same thing at the market, take it home and wash it in a bowl, pour out the water and see what all comes out of the water. Trust me, it's a crazy world out there and if you think it's better in the US then during this movie marathon, try finding a movie called "Food, Inc" about US food production.

I guess not many are as particular as I am but I only eat out when I'm too tired to cook, as nothing ever tastes as good as I can make in my own kitchen. It's a great way to keep you occupied and the accomplishment of what you can produce is quite rewarding. And in any country after a while all restaurants seem to take on the same flavor patterns. And you absolutely won't find TexMex at least anywhere I have been in Mexico like you can in the US. The man who owns the two restaurants in town, La Terraza and the one directly across from the Teatro Juarez, even though he has 30 years experience as a TexMex restaurant "small chain" owner in the southern US, the bad, bad, bad flavor of the cheeses available "in general" in Mexico even kills that authenticity. So while I don't mean to sound negative, doing things like cooking at home or learning to do so if you don't know how will be your best route to the ultimate palate pleasure. After all, most of the locals are doing just that and are smart enough to save money cooking at home while avoiding local restaurants as much as those with the experience.