I’d more than earned a nice dinner out, so I made a reservation for one at 6PM at the nearby Italian Bistro “Maasai Maya.” I’d been there with V and F and it had been really good, with great portions and prices and a wonderful ambiance, so that made more sense than trying to hunt down something in Chelem or even as far afield as Progreso. Talk about convenient for living in the middle of nowhere! 🙂

I headed out a little earlier than needed so I could test Moya. Just getting out to the main road, I saw a difference and when I made her do a bunch of turns in Chuburna, she was once again purring. Ah… peace of mind is a lovely thing. 🙂

The entrance to the bistro is right off of Calle 21, the principal highway, then you wind and wend through deep brush a very short distance to get to the restaurant. This is the inviting entrance and that’s their poor pizza oven wrapped in a tarp because of the weather we’ve been having.

It’s an open-air restaurant decorated in bright colours. The owners are expats (American, I believe) and the name of the bistro is in honour of a family member who was Maasai.

They don’t have a liquor license and make a wonderful bottomless limonada for just $25 so that’a a nice treat instead of just having water. Their menu is really lovely and reasonably priced. It includes salads, pizzas, pastas, panini, and more, but the best bang for your buck are their calzones, which are basically like a folded over pizza. I had their meat one last time and so ordered their Alfredo today, which has bacon, chicken, and broccoli in a cream sauce

It comes with a garden salad. You have a choice of a few dressings. I had ranch last time, so I went with vinaigrette this time.

Here’s my limonada, which had the perfect balance of sweet and tart:

You really feel like you’re in the middle of the jungle at Maasai Maya!

I love this M*A*S*H or Watson Lake inspired sign post. One of the slats has the info for Richmond, VA, practically where my best friend lives.

Here is half of my calzone, complete with marina dipping sauce. I asked to have the other half boxed up straight away to ensure that I’d have room for dessert. This was to be a very special meal, after all. 🙂

Here are the yummy contents. There’s pretty much all my favourite food groups. 🙂 I can’t believe I have another half to enjoy tomorrow or Sunday!

Dessert is double chocolate cake with your choice of ice cream. I went for cappuccino. 🙂 This was way too much for me, but I soldiered through. 🙂

My bill came to $180 — $90 for the calzone, $25 for the limonada, and $65 for the dessert. So $200 with the tip and I have leftovers for a substantial lunch another day. What amazing value! I think everything on the menu is reasonably priced, but the calzone is definitely a real deal if you take half home

Service at Maasai Maya is warm, like being invited into someone’s home. I’m glad they are so close by for when I need to get out of the house and try someone else’s cooking! They do takeaway and I have a menu, so I may order a pizza to go next time!