Guaymas = excellent

      Finally had a chance to visit Guaymas, the well-known high-end
Mexican eatery in Tiburon, last night.  Found it to be not really all that expensive, and excellent in every way.

      My friend Karl and I were doing some work right nearby, so we
ended up in early-bird mode, which was great as the place really packs 'em in, even on a Wednesday night - by 7 p.m. there were a dozen or more folks waiting for tables in this quite huge restaurant.  As it was, we were seated around 6, and had our choice of tables near the blazing fire, or along the windows fronting on the Bay.  As the day had been surprisingly warm, the ringside window seat, with clear view of the City skyline, was an easy choice.

      This place is very spacious, with at least 3, maybe 4 feet between
chairbacks.  In other words, you're never hearing conversations or bumping chairs with folks nearby.  They have no Mexican beers on tap, in fact no beers on tap at all, but a pretty good selection in bottles, so we tipped a couple as we immensely enjoyed the three salsas (a green tomatillo, a pureed fruit/chipotle, and a pico de gallo) that were brought out, with a stack of warm house-made (they even grind the corn!) tortillas.  You tear off a chunk of tortilla, and dip it in the sauce of choice.  Kind of a nice alternative to the usual fried chips.  While house-made, the tortillas are quite thin and delicate, with really good flavor.  When you run out, they're happy to bring another cloth-napkin-wrapped stack.

      Many interesting things on the menu.  We opted for a tamale
appetizer, which was decent, although instead of two pork and two chicken as promised, what came ended up being three pork and one chicken.  These were just little morsels of masa with somewhat nondescript filling, but tasty with sour cream and some of the tomatillo salsa.  OK but not a high point of the meal.

      I was really in the mood for shrimp, so I chose the 1/2 lb "peel
and eat" grilled shrimp, with cilantro/lime/butter sauce.  This was an excellent choice.  Two huge skewers of piping hot, shell-on shrimp tails, with a bowl of the sauce and a generous side plate of black beans and "spicy green rice" a la Mark Miller's Coyote Cafe cookbook (one of my favorite rice recipes), for $12.95.  These were very thin-shelled shrimp. I ended up eating them shells and all, except the tails - munching a few au naturel, then making plump little tacos with the rest.  There had to have been at least 25 shrimp, not tiny ones, either.  An excellent deal - they were grilled to perfection, and the sauce was just right.  Karl went for a combo plate that included the skewered shrimp, plus skewered and grilled chicken and steak.  This plato was $17.95 but he felt that it was also an excellent deal.  The service was excellent throughout - attentive but not obtrusive.

      As we dined, the sky grew fully dark and the city lights were
twinkling away.  Both of us resolved to return soon, with our SO's.  It's easy to see why Guaymas has become, and stays, such a popular spot with the locals.

Will