When you are slow traveling long-term, keeping your living expenses under control is key. And food expenses are a big part of that. One might be tempted to think that since stepping out on our own in Latin America we’ve been subsisting on a diet of rice and beans to maintain our $2500 USD/month budget. Nothing could be further from the truth. Since we thought you all might find this subject interesting, we’ll show you how we eat well on a budget in Guatemala!
About Our Eating Habits…
We love eating like locals in the countries we visit, and consider this to be an essential part of the travel experience. You’ll never see us in global chain restaurants (like McDonald’s or KFC) unless the international version of that restaurant is cheaper than local options and has an interesting local twist.
You may recall from past posts that we only eat two meals per day: lunch and dinner. For breakfast, we usually only have black coffee, which we make ourselves.
Of the two meals we eat each day, we eat out at least once and have had no trouble staying well under budget. It just requires a willingness to do some research and/or eat at restaurants frequented by locals to pull it off.
And knowing some basic Spanish really helps too.
Let’s look at some examples of how we eat well on a budget in Guatemala!
Case Study 1 – “Menu Del Dia” Lunch at a Restaurant Locals Like
This is one of our favorite ways to eat well on a budget in Guatemala.
But knowing some Spanish is a good idea, as the staff generally don’t speak English.
A “menu del dia” is basically a set lunch menu for a very reasonable price. During our time in Antigua Guatemala, we’ve had these on nearly a daily basis and always come away completely stuffed.
Here are examples of two of our favorite local lunch places that offer this.
La Casa del las Mixtas
La Casa de las Mixtas is a small family-run eatery that is only open for desayuno (= breakfast) and almuerzo (= lunch).
And although they have a normal menu as one might expect, we always seem to cave and get the menu del dia for lunch. It is so good, has multiple courses, and costs only 20 quetzales ($2.58 USD)!
Here is one example:
Buttered and toasted bread, asparagus soup, and watermelon/strawberry juice in the first course.
Grilled, seasoned chicken, seasoned pasta, tortillas, and a pureed pineapple dessert for the second round.
Shockingly good and shockingly cheap!
Rincón Antigüeño
Rincón Antigüeño is another local gem, embedded more deeply in the touristy areas of Antigua Guatemala. The prices reflect this, but compared to other restaurant options in the tourist district, they are still really reasonable.
The quality is excellent!
Notice how many locals are here, and this is before prime lunchtime. If you don’t get here early you may be waiting in line for a long time.
Here is a high-res image of their menu, which you can click to enlarge.
And we almost always go for their menu del dia lunch option. Our favorite is offered on Domingo (= Sunday), which includes Pepian soup (a distinctively Mayan dish), grilled chicken, tortillas, and homemade lemonade (with refills).
Soooo good! The bowl on the left is pepian, which is basically concentrated umami. And the bowl on the right is fried bananas with chocolate mole sauce for dessert!
Their menu del dia price is a little higher (35 quetzales/$4.52 USD) but still reasonable, especially considering we are so full afterward that we don’t need to eat dinner.
But we do anyways.
Case Study 2 – Fancy Dinner Atmosphere Without The Fancy Prices
Make no mistake, there are many expensive restaurants offering Westernized dining at crazy expensive prices. Think 150 – 250 quetzales/$19.36 – $32.27 USD per entree. Or more!
Way too expensive for us, even when we had careers.
The one nice thing about many of these expensive places is that they often have a nice city view, or have a beautiful garden area that you can dine in. Still too rich for our blood!
Thankfully, if you do a little internet research, you can find restaurants where you can eat in a posh environment without paying so much.
Here is one of our favorite dinner places where we do just that!
Toku Baru
Toku Baru is noteworthy for its reasonably priced vegetarian and non-vegetarian options, especially if you love curry-based dishes!
I think of this place as an Indian/Mediterranean/Guatemalan fusion restaurant, although I know that this isn’t 100% accurate.
Although their menu is a little expensive for lunch (we don’t like to spend much more than around 35 quetzales/$4.52 USD), it is very reasonably priced by dinner standards.
Here is their current menu as of the date of this post:
Their tikka masala and dahl entrees are out of this world and are nothing like what you might find in a western Indian buffet restaurant. And at 49 quetzales/$6.33 USD per curry entree, it isn’t a budget buster.
But what makes this place really special, is that they share a beautiful garden dining area (complete with live music, bonfire, and mood lighting) with the ritzy 4-star restaurant next door! So you get 4-star ambiance for 2-star prices.
Toku Baru only has 4 tables available in this garden area, so we come before 6 pm to ensure we get a table.
Otherwise, we’d be stuck in the indoor dining area which is far less inviting!
Case Study 3 – Street Food!
The ultimate way to eat well on a budget in Guatemala!
But you’ll definitely need to be able to communicate in basic Spanish.
There are a number of places where you can go for street food in Antigua Guatemala, but we have been favoring the stalls that come out at night at the Plazuela de Jocotenango.
We prefer this area because we are usually the only non-locals within 2 kilometers! So we know the prices will be good.
Early Saturday evening when the stalls are starting to gather.
Fried chicken? Hand-cut french fries? Burritos? Tacos? Shucos (= sub sandwiches) as long as your forearm? Barbecue? Tamales? Grilled corn? Pastries? Fruit smoothies made to order using purified water?
The list goes on.
And prices range from 5 to 20 quetzales ($0.65 – $2.58 USD) depending on what you get, at least based on what we have eaten so far.
When we go, we eat like kings for very little money and usually get a variety of foods that we share. Sort of like dim sum, Latin America style!
But what about gastrointestinal distress?
The answer to this is simple, based on your answers to the following questions.
Does the street food stall have a line of locals at it? – If so, the vendor likely has a good reputation.
Can you see how the vendors cook their food before you order it, in a way that convinces you that it is cooked thoroughly? – If so, they likely killed any bad microbes that would affect you.
If you can’t see how the food is cooked, are you familiar enough with the food preparation process that you are confident everything will be fine if the food is piping hot? – For example, tamales, chuchitos, and fried chicken?
If the answer to these common-sense questions is yes, you will likely be fine.
Or just as fine as any other restaurant you might eat at.
In the nearly three months we’ve been in Guatemala, we have yet to have an incident of Traveler’s Diarrhea because we follow common sense rules for what food we choose to eat when we are out and about.
That, and we’ve learned from bad past experiences years ago.
We’ve had Traveler’s Diarrhea before. Twice.
Once, when traveling in Costa Rica and once when traveling Ecuador. Both instances were because tourism-based restaurants undercooked our food, and we didn’t have the experience to appreciate the consequences of not sending our food back.
And to be completely honest, Traveler’s Diarrhea can happen anywhere.
We’ve been hit with it at different points in our lives while living in the USA, so really the same rules of hygiene can be broken wherever you may be.
Wrapping Things Up…
We hope you have enjoyed reading about how we eat well on a budget in Guatemala!
To be honest, I don’t see our dining out process changing much as we follow our 1-year plan.
In fact, I suspect the costs of eating out will actually godown in the other countries we visit if expense reports from other travelers are accurate.
We’ll see! Until next time…
Thanks for reading!
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