El Meson Suizo

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Pan American Highway, Just Past The El Valle Turnoff, Coronado

240-8657

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Pasta Dish at El Meson Suizo Photo - El Meson Suizo, Coronado, Panama

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Disappointing Lunch at El Meson Suizo

by Mandan Lynn

Smithwick, South Dakota

July 3, 2013

Best of IgoUgo I had heard nothing but great things about El Meson Suizo, and we'd been meaning to try it for months. My aunt and sister were in town, so my boyfriend and I went with them and my boyfriend's dad to have lunch on a Sunday. I was really excited to ...Read more I had heard nothing but great things about El Meson Suizo, and we'd been meaning to try it for months. My aunt and sister were in town, so my boyfriend and I went with them and my boyfriend's dad to have lunch on a Sunday. I was really excited to finally try this place.

The setting is lovely -- a few tables on a covered patio. There was only one other person there when we arrived shortly after they opened.

The menu was more expensive than I was expecting, but I didn't mind -- it's worth it for a good meal! The descriptions were fantastic and I had a hard time deciding what I wanted. I thought about the pumpkin soup from the appetizer menu, but ended up going with the beef curry. There weren't a lot of non-meat options.

Each entree comes with a choice of side, and one of the words wasn't familiar to me. I asked the waitress what it was, and she said -- or I thought she said, as did everyone else at the table -- sweet potatoes. I figured that would be sweet potato fries, which are fantastic, so I made that my choice. Weird side dish for curry, but whatever.

We had the calamari and grilled avocado from the appetizer menu. The calamari was really good, and it came in a brown Thai sauce which was a nice touch, but it wasn't a very big portion to split between five people. The avocado was good, but it would have been very easy to make at home, and I probably will.

After a bit of a wait, the main dishes started to come out, one at a time. My boyfriend's dad's meal arrived first: chicken cordon bleu. I frowned a bit. It looked good, but the presentation was on par with the high school cafeteria. For a $17ish lunch, that's not really acceptable. Anyway, we told him to start eating, and he liked it.

Then my aunt's dish arrived. It was a traditional Swiss pasta with a name I can't remember, but basically it was $13 macaroni and cheese. I tried it -- it was tasty, but again, something you could whip up at home for a fraction of the cost.

Then my boyfriend's sausage arrived. There were two of them with a side of hash browns. I got really sad, because he and I had both ordered the same side dish, which we had believed to be sweet potatoes. Not so much. I don't even like hash browns for breakfast, and certainly not with my curry lunch.

My sister's meal arrived next -- she ordered the same thing I did. By the time mine arrived, I was devastated to have brought the whole family here to spend what ended up being nearly $80 on lunch. It was just beef in a sauce -- no vegetables, and it wasn't even especially curry-like. I would have described it as beef stroganoff.

Now, it was good beef stroganoff, for sure. But it wasn't good beef curry. That's the way we all felt about all the food -- it wasn't bad food, per se, it was just bad when you considered the price you were paying and compared it to the description and what you were expecting, not to mention the lousy presentation (hash browns never look nice).

So, now we know. We won't be going back.

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El Meson Suizo

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Disappointing Lunch at El Meson Suizo