If you’re like me, you have grandkids. And if you’re like me, you’re constantly (and usually unsuccessfully) trying to lure them down to San Miguel de Allende.

“But, Grampie, there’s no sand, no sea.”

I’d been almost ready to try a somewhat shady tactic.

“You come to San Miguel and I solemnly promise I’ll take you to the sea, take you to what we in Mexico call La Mar.”

Somewhat shady? Make that super shady. You see La Mar is about 600 clicks from the nearest ocean. La Mar is actually a restaurant. Actually, a new San Miguel restaurant. And actually, a very good restaurant. I think my grandkids might even like it there. Though what they may like may be a lot different than what I like.

La Mar bills itself as a “Desayunos & Mariscos” restaurant. Apart from a couple of kippers and eggs mornings in my distant past, I struggle to put breakfast and seafood in the same sentence but, believe it or not, at La Mar, it seems to be working.

When I’d walked by the place over the previous couple of weeks it had always been busy. Maybe not busy on the inside. But busy on the outside. And this place has had a history of being a patio place.

The location goes back quite a few years, all the way back to a guy we called the supremo of sausage, a guy called Barbecue Bob. La Mar is at least the seventh restaurant to to try to make a go of it at number six on that somewhat shabby strip called Salida a Celaya. It may be seven times lucky.

It was my oldest of all San Miguel friends, Cactus Jack Jacobs, who led me there. He invited me to lunch and gave me a choice: “Raices, La Mar or Petanque?” I chose La Mar because, like my grandkids and that old music-hall song, I do like to be beside the seaside.

Jack and I met up at La Mar at 1:00 pm and, at the next table, there was a 30ish guy eating waffles and a 20ish woman eating what looked like octopus on toast. My grandkids would like those waffles I thought. I would like that octopus I thought.

We opened the menu. It does divide breakfast and lunch into separate areas but we were treading a little water in the seafood section when Jack did a “hey look who’s coming out”.

It was Arturo Sandoval, the chef from Atrio, one of San Miguel’s most celebrated and successful restaurants. 

“He’s one of the owners here”, said Jack.

“Let’s make him make up our mind”, said Don Day.

Arturo recommended the seafood tower, the paella and the octopus. Alan, our server, took the order without writing it down. I like waiters who take orders without writing them down.

There’s not even a mention of any wine on the menu (perhaps La Mar needs to hear Anthony Bourdain’s “you’ve got to tell it to sell it”, advice). But that server, Alan, who we were liking more all the time, brought out a few possibilities. Now I hate asking prices because it makes me feel cheap. But I am cheap. So I did.

Most of the wines had one two many digits on their price tags but there was a Pedro Domecq from Valle de Guadalupe that was affordable ($600) and worth a try.

I think Verdejo is the freshest friend that seafood’s ever had and Domecq blends the grape with Chardonnay to add a little more character to the mix. I liked it enough that, when I got home, I checked who retailed it.

We asked Alan to serve “al estilo familiar” (though there’s probably a more trendy term for it these days) but bring the dishes one at a time, placing them in the middle of the table for us to share. First up was the tiradito de pulpo.

Presentation was a wow. The skinny slices of tender octopus swam in a light broth that the Peruvians call tiger’s milk. The next layer was dabs of basil aioli and a purée of sweet peppers. Jack wouldn’t hazard a guess as to what the crispy shavings on the very top were. I guessed leeks; I guessed wrong; they were sweet potatoes. They were a suitable crown for the achievement.

The price of the pulpo was also a wow. 180 pesos. This was a serving for one. It was more than enough to serve two. And Jack and I are very healthy eaters.

For the arrival of the second course, I should have had my phone set on video not photo. The second course started as pure showbiz. The menu calls it torre del mar. I call it the seafood tower. And I also usually call it a bit too gimmicky but this worked.

Alan slowly lifted an upside down pail and, apart from one runaway tentacle, there sat a flat top tower of raw delights.

Raw fish is all about freshness and, when it comes to freshness, the nose knows. I lifted the plate (you don’t have to lift a plate far to reach my nose). Nothing. Niente. Nada. Not even the odor of vinegar…which can be just as big a problem as the smell of fish.

There were generous amounts of tuna, very generous amounts of octopus and extremely generous amounts of shrimp. Five or six of the shrimp were what people in the fish biz class as “colossal” plus there was another layer of “extra jumbos”. Those colossals retail at about 50 pesos each yet the cost of the torre del mar is just $380. I said the octopus dish was enough for two. The seafood tower might be enough for four.

The third of La Mar’s recommendations was their paella, always a great measuring stick for the abilities of a kitchen. Chef Sandaval makes his with sausage and shrimp as the prime ingredients and, again, the size of the shrimp was impressive.

The second of La Mar’s three owners and another guy with Atrio on his resume, Joel Orozco, told us that they source seafood from the Gulf coast and there is “nothing more important than it being fresh, very fresh”.

“Do you have room for dessert?”, I asked Jack.

“Nah, I don’t think so”, he replied.

“Do you have room for a carajillo”, Jack asked Don Day.

“Always”, I replied.

I’d never tasted a carajillo until a couple of years ago. In fact a bottle of Licor 43 that someone had gifted me sat on the liquor shelf for a couple of more years longer than that. Now the carajillo is my digestif de jour and Jack and I both agreed that La Mar makes one of San Miguel’s best and both agreed that we had to have just two more.

Though it may never compete with a visit to Cancun in my grandchildren’s opinions, I could almost hear the waves, smell the surf, feel the sand between my toes at La Mar. If I’m successful in ever getting my grandkids to the restaurant, the waffles, French toast and smoothies might even take their mind off the ocean for an hour…OK, maybe half an hour.

The restaurant seems a bit stuck in the middle of deciding if their focus is classy (fancy flatware) or casual (paper serviettes); drinking (2-4-1 all day, every day, margaritas) or dining; breakfast or lunch and, as La Mar’s third partner, Erika Reséndiz informed us, “We’ve changed our closing time from 5:00 to 10:00 pm; we’re now also open for dinner.”

Whatever their focus, La Mar is one of San Miguel’s most impressive debuts in quite a while. Particularly when you consider the price.

La Mar is located at Salida a Celaya #6 in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. The restaurant is open from 9:00 am to 10:00 pm, seven days a week.