Simply Joyful in Ajijic

Finally made the trek up the hill to this place (on carretera in Ajijic, south side, to the east of the shopping center with Vinos Americas).  Many will remember it as the old El Serape place.

A bit upscale menu that they pulled off very well.

The duck confit was tender and the balsamic chicken thighs had a luscious sauce.  Dinner orders include 1 trip to their salad bar.  Portions of mains were good sized...I brought home 1 of the enormous chicken thighs.  

The only dessert offered last night was ice cream, including a huge portion of fried ice cream that came with chocolate sauce and raspberries.  

Prices fair given quality of food.  

The restaurant is also on Traitte for home delivery.

Here are their current menus; they are open Monday thru Friday 12 to 8.  

Thanks. Interesting.... to me.... that they would only be open during the week.

We walked up to Simply Joyful for dinner on Thursday at 6pm.  The adjacent parking lot where Vinos Americas is, had at least 6 slots open (about the same amount of parking in front of Paninos).  There is also some parking directly in front of Simply Joyful...those spaces require a bit more finesse as they are shallow.  Though at least 2 cars managed to back in successfully.  

The owner has changed her hours and open days a number of times as she gauges her clientele.  

She has run polls on her FB page and many of us (me included!) simply will not drive on weekends due to the gridlock on the carretera.  Hence her M-F hours (a fairly recent change).

She has tried to advertise to weekend Tapatíos but with little success.  Though when we were there last Thursday there were MXN's at 2 tables (based on language overheard).

Also a few take-aways and at least 2 Traitte pick-ups while we were seated.

The main issue for me is the noise from the carretera.  I think it'd be a successful operation at a quieter location.

Parking there was a problem even back in the El Serape days.... before the population expansion. Fortunately I can walk down from the Las Salvias neighborhood.

Fortunately, Ajijic Centro has so many amenities (including the 30 or more restaurants) that one truly doesn't need a vehicle. Having that RX across from the LCS now is wonderful. Not to mention the ATM within the LCS. If only Toritos was a little more central......lol.

CanuckBob wrote:Fortunately, Ajijic Centro has so many amenities (including the 30 or more restaurants) that one truly doesn't need a vehicle. Having that RX across from the LCS now is wonderful. Not to mention the ATM within the LCS. If only Toritos was a little more central......lol.

While tiny, Lopez's frutería on the Plaza now carries more Kirkland items as well as Half and Half (yippee!), cellophane bags of greens, etc.  Between Lopez, and the woman who sells fresh raw chicken in same block, and the carnicería on the other side of plaza I can do much of my food shopping on foot.  

And for those who don't live in Centro, look on Traitte for many Ajijic eateries including Simply Joyful.

Not sure how it compates to Lakeside, but where Iive in Sayulita, local stores charge double for what they buy at Costco. Even the big La Comer in Bucerias charges for one liter of half and half what I pay for 2 liters at Costco.

Since there are several ways to get Costco deliveries in our area the locals markup Costco items about 20%. Any more than that and people will order online. Does Costco deliver to Sayulita?

CanuckBob wrote: Does Costco deliver to Sayulita?

I've never asked, but I've never seen a Costco truck here. I've never been one of those people who walks out of Costco with an overflowing shopping cart- there's only about 10 items I regularly buy there, so a delivery charge probably wouldn't be worth it.
And I have to go to PV once every 10 days or so anyway.

Per Google maps, Costco is a 75 mile round-trip from Ajijic.  At 25mpg, that's 3 US Gallons (sorry I'm metrically-challenged!).  At 24p per litre for gasoline, that's about 275p per trip.  

We did trips to Costco when we bought our first house here in 2008...towels, sheets, housewares, even a patio set.  

In 2008 there weren't many local shops with good quality items and there was no Amazon MX.

The only things we buy regularly with Kirkland brand are TP and paper towels.  

Not having to drive nearly 2 hours round-trip to Costco is worth any local surcharges to me.

I joined Costco back when it first came to our city. Did buy some big ticket items so the fee made sense.  These days, not so much and we don't have a membership any more.  Cost benefit is just not there for us.  

IF we had access to Costco 'resellers' as is available Lakeside I'd jump on it. I assume that one does NOT have to have an individual membership to buy from them.... right?

Yes, it's a 2 hr. round trip to PV for me, too. Sometimes 3 hrs depending on traffic or road work. But I have to go there anyway for my upholstery work supplies, sometimes Home Depot, a dentist appt., etc. I usually have a list of about 10 stops and it takes all day. I don't even have time to stop for lunch.
I would never make that trip just to go to Costco. As you say, it would be more economical to buy that stuff locally, even if it's seriously marked up.

As far as the membership goes, you get 2 cards with every membership, so I split it with a friend- we each pay 275 pesos, so it's not a big expense. And as a Costco membership can be used anywhere, I can use it when I go to Canada for a few weeks in the summer, where a membership is more expensive.

I also like supporting local business and don't mind paying a bit more. When I had my house built, I bought almost all the materials locally, and while there isn't an appliance store in Sayulita, I bought my appliances from a mom and pop appliance store in Bucerias. I'm a serious comparison shopper on big ticket items and they were actually cheaper for the exact same fridge than the big box stores. And when I asked Home Depot in PV what they charge to deliver, they said 700 pesos. The mom and pop store said "Oh, we don't charge for delivery."

I've never been a big box store supporter, but in Mexico, I do like Costco for the things they carry that I can't find anywhere else. They are also one of the few places where it's easy to return things. And their employees seem to have a higher level of intelligence than those at the other big box places like Walmart or Home Depot. At Home Depot I've had employees tell me, "We don't carry that", then found it myself 2 minutes later in the same area we were looking.

My local Costco was Costco Pentagon, where I could make it over to shop, grab a few freebie samples and back to my office in under an hour.  

On 9-11 one plane was crashed into the Pentagon.  Costco called the locality (for which I worked) and told the County Manager that they would keep the store open for First Responders, including their kitchen.  Anything that was needed within the store was provided free of charge for weeks.  They even brought in some supplies from other stores.

Costco never sought nor got (to my knowledge) any publicity for these actions.  

Now THAT's a Corporation to be proud of.