Great new vegetarian restaurant in guanajuato

[dermotwa]

Great new place called Panizarte,located between baratillo plaza and casa cuatro.The owners speak very good english.Sara is from spain,and Aaron is from df,and they are super nice and helpful.I love their lentil soup and spanish tortillas.They provide free entertainment sometimes with Aaron playing acousric guitar and Sara singing some chill music.You can bring your own beer or wine,no corkage fee.They are open till 10pm.They have wifi and a great relaxed ambience,they sell indian clothes too.

[wwintermute]

I would recommend this restaurant as well. Ate there today with the kids. The food is good and very reasonably priced, and the owners very friendly.

[cam00]

I also would recommend this "artsy" restaurant, that uses only very high quality ingredients, such as completely unrefined sugar, extra-virgin cold pressed olive oil for cooking, and has a very large array of delicious dishes available, all unique. They are struggling to survive, as most people who live here don't want to experiment with "foreign foods, dishes", and I've seen many really good foreign food restaurants sink below the horizon for that fact, sadly.

[cam00]

I just spoke to Sara a couple days ago, on Wednesday October 14th, and she told me that the restaurant is barely making it, not getting enough business, and on top of that her laptop was taken. Anyone who has a used laptop that would care to donate it to her, I'm sure it would be very much appreciated.

[Lisa Andrews]

The problem is the lack of comfortable seating and average food in my opinion. Only bread with dip on top, soup or salad that had soooo much dressing, no chips and dip for hummus and other tasty sounding dips, very similar to the already indian vegetarian place around the corner. And nowhere to sit across from someone so you can chat, just my opinion though, nothing to do with the 'exotic' food I didn't rate the offerings.

[cam00]

Lisa, I for one, am glad that you brought up the deficiencies of the restaurant as you experienced it. I'll be sure to tell Sara, as she is my neighbor. Sadly, she is going to leave the restaurant to someone else, as she cannot survive with the minimal customers she has had. She is leaving as soon as she arranges her affairs.

If anyone has a problem with a store of restaurant here in Guanajuato, I hope that they'll feel comfortable letting the owner know, so that changes or improvements can be made. Although, it may not do a darn thing..........

[Lisa Andrews]

I did give her some comments at the time. For example if you want to run a health food type store you need to have gluten free, lactose free, egg free etc options. I am allergic to gluten so if I find a good place that doesn't poison me will go back lots and lots of times, like habibis (where I bring my own wraps that they use) and campos (which I know what is safe) also Escarola and Santos have good reliable food that I can eat. It is about finding your market in a town full of restaurants.
Hope she figures out what to do next, I was so sad that I couldn't have dip or GF bread even though we had discussed she could have gotten it in (and it can be bought at mega if you are going the we are a health shop route) I would have been a great customer!

[cam00]

Well, the last word from Sara was that she will be leaving GTO as soon as she can. BUT, the restaurant may stay in the hands of her partner who has been working there almost continuously since it opened. HE may take your recommendations much more seriously.
If it's a restaurant that you liked otherwise, you might consider telling him what your concerns were/are. I know that the so-called Hindu restaurant in the Plaza Baratillo sent a few people out every single day for weeks, maybe months on end to sell stuff on the street, pass out flyers, and tell people about the new restaurant that they'd just opened. It appears that they are there to stay and that the marketing plan worked. I don't think Sara or her partner ever did anything like that. It's just incredible the rate of turnover of so many businesses that open up here, and are gone shortly afterwards.

[Lisa Andrews]

Too many people open restaurants as what they would like not what others want. You need to do market research first and find out what the town is lacking and why. See if people actually want it and then let people know that you are open and have deals and opening specials and create a buzz etc.
It annoys me so much when people just think opening a restaurant is making a bit of food and people will flock to you, it is sooo much more and I'm sure that's why so many businesses fail they design for what they would think is nice not for the masses.
I wish her well in her next venture and hope her partner can figure something out, I haven't seen it open in a couple of weeks, I'm leaving gto soon so doesn't affect me just sad to see people opening businesses so blindly.

[peddler665]

I have great empathy for struggling business ventures. My wife's business took a decade for it to reach financial stability. Fortunately my income in those days was enough to keep it afloat just as now she happily supplements my retirement funds.
However as Lisa states if there is little need or desire by the public for a service it is likely doomed to failure. With a somewhat smaller tourist base then many Mexican cities I would think a vegetarian cafe in GTO would be a tough sale no matter how much promotion it receives. I can think of a dozen food choices I would prefer.