Started the day at Metódico Café for an oat milk flat white. Good coffee, this place knows what it’s doing without being precious about it. Guadalajara’s coffee scene is really good. The day before we went to Montenegro 1917, alacena y café and thought it was delicious and Metódico Café was just as good. High acidic coffee seems to be the norm in the US today, all of these were smooth and rich. Comforting and delicious. Breakfast was a cinnamon roll and chilaquiles at Piggy Back.
After breakfast we took an Uber to Tlaquepaque. This neighborhood is the most charming shopping you will ever find. We started at the Museo Regional de la Cerámica. Small museum documenting Tlaquepaque’s ceramic tradition, which goes back centuries. You can see the evolution of technique and style, the way indigenous methods merged with Spanish influences, then evolved further. Afterwards we wandered Tlaquepaque’s streets and did quite a bit of shopping.
After a rest we headed back into the city and stumbled on Parroquia El Expiatorio Eucarístico and I have to say: this church is more impressive than Guadalajara’s main cathedral, which we saw on Titan’s tour. The neo-Gothic architecture soars in a way the colonial cathedral doesn’t. Maybe it’s the verticality, or the way light filters through the stained glass, or just the audacity of building something like this in the 20th century when that style had long fallen out of fashion. Whatever it is, it works.
We attempted to visit Museum Codise A.C. Museo Memoria LGBTTTIQ México but found it closed, so we walked to MAKALÁ GALERÍA 21 instead. Afterwards we stopped at Mis Negras Intenciones—a shop specializing in Mexican chocolate—and bought some to bring home. We checked out Cafetal 97, which is a restaurant/gallery. They had live music and some great pieces focused on the male body. I had a mezcal Negroni that was very good.
Evening was Bruna, the restaurant we’d reserved back in the States. The space is extraordinary. There’s a gallery integrated into the restaurant in a way I’ve never seen before—not just art on walls but the entire design concept built around the idea of curation, of careful selection and presentation. It’s ambitious as hell. The food matched the space. Here is a description from their menu of what we ordered:
- Papas Bruna — A mix of roasted potatoes with olive oil and a secret house sauce. Addictive heat balanced with subtle acidity. The kind of dish that sounds simple but reveals layers of technique.
- Mole sampler platter — A chance to taste the range of what mole can be. Each one distinct, some sweet and complex, others earthy and bitter, all of them showing the depth of this tradition.
- Pato Poblano — Confit duck with mole poblano and berries, served with a tamal de masa colada and fried hoja santa. Rich without being heavy, the berries cutting through the fat of the duck.
- Pesca del Día — A baked sea bass loin over asparagus cream and white butter with pink peppercorn. Delicate, restrained, the kind of preparation that trusts the fish to be the star.
Here’s the problem: all four dishes arrived at once. There was no pacing, rhythm, or sense of building through the meal. We had to eat them out of order because the fish’s beurre blanc was already cold—not just warm and broken, but truly cold, suggesting it had been sitting out. The mole was fine at room temperature, but the fish suffered.
Service was similarly lacking—not rude, just absent. There was no attention to timing or reading the table. The cocktails were complex, but not my style—too sweet and theatrical, with each trying to make a statement instead of supporting the food.
Bruna is worth visiting for its space and ambition. The food can be excellent when served at the right temperature. However, execution issues prevent it from being fantastic. The duck was the best and most innovative dish.
Next: Guadalajara – Day 3