El Canton

With a name like El Canton Cafeteria y Restaurante, you would expect Chinese food. Cantonese Chinese might be going a bit far, but at least Chinese. I was finally in the mood for Chinese food and near the restaurant so I decided to give it a try.

The menu starts off with two Chinese choices: chop suey corriente and something else that sounded about the same. That's it. That's the end of the Chinese part of the menu. The rest of the menu has items typical of the high-end restaurants in town. That is, not gallo pinto and cuajada but fried chicken, fish and shrimp dishes, hamburgers and other dead animal plates.

I settled on curvina en salsa mixta (why is that curvina here and corvina in Costa Rica?) and a refresco de pitayah. First came a salad and two slices of white bread with butter which made me realize that, yes, it was a Chinese restaurant in Nicaragua. The salad had no lettuce (which is good--it usually sucks as it is not what people eat here) but onion, tomato, beet, cucumber and carrot and included a half a lime to squeeze on it.

The main course was a large plate with a huge chunk of curvina with a sauce of onion, chiltoma and tomato. The fish was lightly breaded (I expect they bought it frozen that way) and was cooked just right. Also included were french fries and a bowl of rice with a bit of carrot in it. All in all, a totally decent meal. C$70 for the fish and C$5 for the drink. Tax included and the receipt is signed as well as stamped paid.

The restaurant is clean and while not fancy it is presented in a comfortable way. Service was excellent. I felt is was a good value. It is located "productos BRIOMOL 75 vrs. al Sur". That probably means little to people who don't live here. That's maybe six blocks south of the park, one street east of Calle Central.