Guide to Food & Restaurants in Ajijic & Lake Chapala, Mexico

Pastries, cakes, donuts, banana bread & more.

Pastries, cakes, bread & more at this “little house” of bread.

BBQ ribs, sandwiches, French toast, cinnamon rolls, grilled fish & more.

Pan dulce (sweet bread) & French-style bolillos.

Around a half-dozen varieties of European-style bread, plus sandwiches you can take to-go or can eat outside at the Centro Laguna.

Known for their BBQ ribs.

Restaurant/bar with burgers, soup & salad, fish & chips, wings, fajitas, sandwiches & Mexican food.

Pizzas, fancy salads & a bar inside a garden that’s across from the malecón in Chapala.

Beer store near the Ajijic malecón. On the weekends you can get micheladas, vampiros, rusas & other Mexican drinks to take with you while you wander the boardwalk. They’ll also deliver buckets of beer bottles on ice to your home or party.

This bar owned by Carlos Pantoja has been making drinks & music since 1994.

Burgers, sandwiches, seafood, pasta, salads. All kinds of drinks, which you can take with you to the malecón.

Beer, drinks, micheladas, with outdoor seating along the street.

This new bar in the Ajijic plaza replaces the old Music Box, which moved in 2020.

Bar with burgers, chicken wings, fish & chips, & nachos.

Chicken wings, burgers, French fries & drinks.

Beef, pork & chicken sold at two locations in Ajijic & Chapala.

Frozen steaks from Sonora & USDA meat from the US. Sonora is famous as the beef capital of Mexico.

The largest supermarket in Ajijic.

Breakfast & brunch, juices & coffee beans from Chiapas.

Breakfast & lunch with Mexican & American food. Espresso bar.

For 18 years, Francisco Martínez has been on the Ajijic highway selling coffee beans from his farm in Veracruz.

Traditional Mexican hot chocolate, plus chocolate desserts. Also serving breakfast, lunch & dinner.

Coffee drinks & full restaurant service with sandwiches, crepes, hamburgers, salads & more.

Serving breakfast & coffee drinks.

Mexican & international cuisine, plus espresso drinks & a bar.

Donuts, coffee, breakfast & brunch at this longstanding donut shop in Ajijic.

Mexican- & American-focused menu with an espresso bar.

Located half a block from the malecón in Ajijic, this café & restaurant serves up excellent espresso, as well as breakfast, lunch & dinner.

Sandwiches, salads, fish, shrimp, chicken, pasta, hamburgers, chilaquiles, eggs, hotcakes, enchiladas, fritatas & more.

Roasted chicken, hamburgers & more.

A national chain of chicken restaurants with 3 locations in the area. To-go & delivery only.

A national chain restaurant founded in 1975 that sells charcoal-grilled chicken, taquitos & sides, with sit-down, to-go & delivery service.

Fresh raw chicken, chicken burgers, nuggets, cordon bleu, bombonetes, ground chicken, chicken wings. Fried chicken on Saturdays.

The best roadside rooster in town.

A well-known chicken place with to-go & delivery service at two locations in San Antonio Tlayacapan.

A market with fried chicken & ribs.

Meet new people & learn about Indian food from a chef as he prepares the evening’s meal in front of you — then dig in & fill your belly.

Take a gastronomic trip through Mexico’s traditional foods with chef Ayrton Ruvalcaba.

National & international cheeses, cold cuts & fresh-baked bread. Get a sandwich to go & eat on the plaza nearby.

Cupcakes, cakes, cookies (but especially cupcakes) at this shop owned by 2 sisters.

Coffee drinks & full restaurant service with sandwiches, crepes, hamburgers, salads & more.

Donuts, coffee, breakfast & brunch at this longstanding donut shop in Ajijic.

Regional varieties of candies from 9 states in Mexico & the finest stone-ground chocolate from Oaxaca.

Pastries, cakes, bread & more at this “little house” of bread.

Cakes from a small chain of bakeries based in Guadalajara.

Fruits, Vegetables, grains, seeds & more

Buy your fruits & vegetables from one of the dozens of neighborhood fruterías in Ajijic, such as Frutería López.

Juan Carlos sells fruit outside of El Torito supermarket. Always fresh & beautiful fruits.

Fruits & vegetables plus a night-time taco stand out front. The tacos start at 7:30 p.m. & are served until closing at 1 a.m.

A small supermarket with fruits & vegetables, groceries, meat, dairy products & a little of everything.

Chiles, spices, nuts & grains. For adding the olé to your mole.

Goatmilk ice cream.

This ice cream has been pushed through the streets of Ajijic daily for the past 30 years.

Tacos, burritos, quesadillas & lots of varieties of aguas frescas. This is a small chain based in Arandas, Jalisco, with a location also in Ajijic.

This liquor & wine store has now gone out of business.

Beer store near the Ajijic malecón. On the weekends you can get micheladas, vampiros, rusas & other Mexican drinks to take with you while you wander the boardwalk. They’ll also deliver buckets of beer bottles on ice to your home or party.

Wine, liquor & beer.

Chiles, spices, nuts & grains. For adding the olé to your mole.

Shop local & purchase your weekly groceries while joining in a tradition that goes back to indigenous times.

Cereals, seeds, condiments, grains & more.

A small supermarket with fruits & vegetables, groceries, meat, dairy products & a little of everything.

A supermarket with fruits, vegetables, meat & everything else.

A small supermarket on the highway in Ajijic.

The largest supermarket in Ajijic.

Mexican & international food open for breakfast & lunch.

Known for their BBQ ribs.

Restaurant/bar with burgers, soup & salad, fish & chips, wings, fajitas, sandwiches & Mexican food.

An Argentinean steakhouse with a large menu that includes pizza, pasta, fish, salads, chicken. Full bar.

About a dozen varieties of pasta sauces that you can combine with your choice of fresh pasta such as spaghetti, fettuccini & rigatoni.

Breakfast & brunch, juices & coffee beans from Chiapas.

Seafood tacos (fish, shrimp, octopus, oyster, marling), tostadas, aguachile, ceviche, fish & chips, shrimp & chips, & more.

Birria with handmade tortillas.

Bistro-style food with a small menu, fresh ingredients, wine.

Elegant/casual dining with a menu that changes up daily & can include fried chicken, roast turkey, corned beef, coq au vin, zucchini parmigiana, shrimp, lobster.

This family-run steakhouse has been around since 1985 & is now in the hands of a third generation.

This restaurant with a backyard garden is a quiet place to eat a great home-cooked breakfast or lunch.

Breakfast & lunch with Mexican & American food. Espresso bar.

Pizzas, fancy salads & a bar inside a garden that’s across from the malecón in Chapala.

Traditional Mexican hot chocolate, plus chocolate desserts. Also serving breakfast, lunch & dinner.

Traditional Mexican Food since 1973

For 50 years, one family has been making the basic antojitos which define Mexican street food in this dinner-only restaurant, where you you have 5 tasty à la carte choices.

Roasted chicken, hamburgers & more.

Fresh, authentically delicious & always popular, makes this the top spot for Vietnamese food at Lake Chapala.

A mix of international cuisine from north of the border, Europe, Mexico and other parts of the world.

Longtime breakfast/brunch place on the highway in Ajijic.

This restaurant has been serving up hearty American- & Mexican-style breakfasts & lunches 7 days a week for the past 20 years.

Serving breakfast & coffee drinks.

Breakfast & lunch with soup, chilaquiles, eggs & other dishes. (The “Deli” stands for “delicioso,” not delicatessen.)

Mexican & international cuisine, plus espresso drinks & a bar.

Shrimp, ceviche, aguachile, burgers & other seafood are served at this weekend food truck.

Donuts, coffee, breakfast & brunch at this longstanding donut shop in Ajijic.

International & Mexican cuisine inside the Donaire Hotel Boutique.

This extremely popular restaurant serves some of the best Mexican food in Ajijic.

Mexican food, steaks, pizzas, pasta, burritos, tacos, salads & more.

Steakhouse with chicken, fish, Mexican food & wine.

A national chain restaurant founded in 1975 that sells charcoal-grilled chicken, taquitos & sides, with sit-down, to-go & delivery service.

A little food stand just across from the Ajijic Telmex office where you can get lonches, burritos, hamburgers, tacos, sincronizadas & salads.

Mexican-American cuisine.

Mexican- & American-focused menu with an espresso bar.

International fusion fine-dining in Ajijic.

Wonderful Mexican food at excellent prices at this homestyle fonda.

Family restaurant/bar with five separate little restaurants serving burgers, chicken wings, steaks, seafood, ribs & more.

A small chain of Argentinian steakhouses.

Sandwiches, salads, eggs & omelettes, pancakes, french toast, steak, hamburgers, pork chops, chicken, shrimp, fish & other seafood.

International cuisine created by Ismat Jivani who has 40 years of experience as a chef in Europe, Canada and the US.

Specialty hot dogs, plus hamburgers, chicken wings & more.

Hot dogs, hamburgers, French fries and, on weekends, chicken wings.

Hot dog, burgers, tortas, burritos, French fries.

Tex-Mex. Hot rods. Vroom vroom. Burritos, enchiladas, nachos, chimichangas, shrimp, fish & more.

Meat & vegan curries that are gluten-free.

Food delivery in Chapala with a menu that changes daily.

Prime rib, pasta, pizza & more often with live music.

A longtime German restaurant in La Floresta with bratwurst, fish, steaks, schnitzel, hamburgers & other plates. Outdoor lawn seating available.

An Arab taco truck on every corner – especially this one, where you can get Middle Eastern-influenced Arabic tacos (originally from Puebla) & the kamello (from Torreón).

Pizza place on the highway in Ajijic.

Pasta, pizza, soup, steaks, chicken, fish, shrimp & hamburgers. Often hosts dancing & live music.

Located half a block from the malecón in Ajijic, this café & restaurant serves up excellent espresso, as well as breakfast, lunch & dinner.

Breakfast place with waffles, pancakes, eggs, etc. This is a chain of about a dozen restaurants in Jalisco that opened its first location in Ajijic in 1997.

Mexican food at the Centro Laguna: pozole, tacos, enchiladas, carne en su jugo, tamales & more.

Under the palapa tree just you & me (plus a couple hundred weekend visitors from Guadalajara).

Baja California-style seafood including tacos, sopes, oysters, tostadas, quesadillas.

American/Mexican-style breakfast & lunch in a beautiful palapa-style building on the lakefront.

Large selection of pasta, lasagna, pizza & more.

Primarily a hamburger joint that also has steaks, fish & chips, grilled salmon & other dishes.

Tortas ahogadas & tacos delivered in Ajijic on Fridays, Saturdays & Sundays.

17 mostly hard-to-find types of tacos, tostadas & other seafood in a garden setting.

This restaurant next to the Ajijic plaza serves great homecooked-style Mexican food seven days a week.

A breakfast place with Mexican food, specializing in molletes (a type of open-faced sandwich served for breakfast).

Steak, chicken, seafood, pasta, salads.

Pizza place.

Vegetarian, vegan & organic food.

More than 30 years serving Mexican, Italian & other European cuisine in Ajijic.

Decent food, great views of Lake Chapala from the malecón.

Shrimp & fish tacos & tortas, pachola, chilaquiles, eggs & other items make up the menu at this small kitchen on the highway in Ajijic.

Steaks, shrimp, fish, burgers, enchiladas & more.

Fish, shrimp & other seafood at this longtime restaurant in East Ajijic.

Mediterranean & Italian food, pasta, lasagna, pizzas & more.

Burgers, sandwiches, seafood, pasta, salads. All kinds of drinks, which you can take with you to the malecón.

Cheesesteaks, ribs, chicken, BBQ, lasagna for delivery-only, available only on the weekends. The small menu changes each weekend.

American breakfasts & brunch: pancakes, eggs, salads, sandwiches, etc.

Pizza delivered on the weekends.

BBQ ribs, sandwiches, French toast, cinnamon rolls, grilled fish & more.

Sandwiches, salads, fish, shrimp, chicken, pasta, hamburgers, chilaquiles, eggs, hotcakes, enchiladas, fritatas & more.

Ramen restaurant with delivery-only service that’s open only on Saturday afternoons & early evenings. Use Essnap to place your order.

Open for breakfast & lunch, serving a variety of omelettes, desserts & more.

French cuisine. Often hosts live music, dance & other events.

Fruits & vegetables plus a night-time taco stand out front. The tacos start at 7:30 p.m. & are served until closing at 1 a.m.

Mediterranean food.

Around a half-dozen varieties of European-style bread, plus sandwiches you can take to-go or can eat outside at the Centro Laguna.

American-style breakfast & lunch, salads, sandwiches, desserts & more.

This “little kitchen with love” has Mexican food, hamburgers, enchiladas, salads and daily specials.

40 authentic dishes prepared by a Thai chef now living in Ajijic. Pad Thai, curries, soups, spring rolls & much more.

Wood-fired pizza.

Pizza place next to the big church in Ajijic.

Pizza & calzones at the Hotel Italo.

Pizza for pickup or delivery only.

Pizza, pasta & other Italian food.

The crust, sauce, cheese & toppings – everything comes together to make this the best pizza in Ajijic & Lake Chapala.

Chinese food buffet or order from the menu. Also offering non-Chinese food breakfast.

Country-style Mexican restaurant with lots of grilled meats & traditional Mexican plates.

Mexican & international foods at this longtime restaurant open since 1999 in the west end of Ajijic.

Casual dining, sometimes with live music, at Plaza Bugambilia. Stir fry, pizza, pasta, chicken, steak, salads, fish.

BBQ-smoked ribs, brisket, sandwiches, pulled pork, hamburgers.

Delicious sushi, tempura, rice bowls & teriyaki — yes, smack in the heart of Mexico.

5 types of paella, salads, steaks, appetizers & more.

Seafood & Mexican food, tortas, cocteles (shrimp cocktails), and tacos with fish, shrimp or bírria (Mexican beef or goat stew).

Tacos, burritos, breakfast burritos, quesadillas. This is a small chain based in Arandas, Jalisco, with a location also in Chapala.

Tacos, burritos, quesadillas & lots of varieties of aguas frescas. This is a small chain based in Arandas, Jalisco, with a location also in Ajijic.

Lonches & tacos with beef, barbacoa & more.

These barbacoa tacos are served until 3:00 p.m. Since 1987.

Tacos with carnaza, labio, cabeza.

This taquería has been serving tacos on the Ajijic plaza at night since the late 1970s.

Tacos with pastor, bistec, chorizo or carnaza.

Long-time taco place in Ajijic in business since 1994.

Tacos & lonches with adobada, beef, chorizo & other choices.