La Docena Guadalajara, MX

Located on Calle São Paulo in Providencia, Guadalajara is a popular sea food restaurant named La Docena. Famous for their amazing seafood dishes, quality and ambiance.

La Docena is located in Guadalajara, Mexico. The name translates to "the dozen", like a dozen of oysters. There are two locations in Guadalajara one in the mall Andares, and another in Providencia next to the hotel NH. La Docena was named one of the top 50 restaurants in Latin America. According to theworlds50best, The decor of La Docena is like the inside of an old mansion in southern USA, with a relaxed atmosphere set to a Seventies funk and soul soundtrack.

When I walk into La Docena it feels as if i'm walking into a seafood store. They have on display the fresh oysters chilling on ice. I use to not like oysters.In fact, the first time I tried one I slurped it down thinking I was a pro and then it came right back up. But, as I've gotten older and less picky I have found out that I actually love Oysters... or maybe I just like the taste of the lemon and salt that I drown the oyster in before eating.

The restaurant is opened up allowing fresh air into it. Half of it is split off as a smoking only area, which people take advantage of. Sometimes I feel like I can see a cloud of smoke hanging above the people who sit in that area. If you were to walk by La Docena you would see the overflowing restaurant and hear the blaring conversations. Every time I have gone to eat here it's been late, around 10, and they'd still be a full house.

Now since it is a restaurant, let's talk about their food. They're known for their fresh seafood but that's not the only thing they serve. They serve many dishes such as, aguachiles, hamburguesa clasica, and volcan de dulce de leche.

Aguachiles is a dish that contains shrimp that are submerged in lime, seasoned with chili peppers, cucumbers, salt, cilantro and slices of onions. The shrimp is raw and "cooks" in the lime juice and as it cooks it soaks in all the spices and flavors from the cilantro, onions, and cucumber. The aguachiles from La Docena are a little bit different because they're in a tatemado sauce which is grilled peppers. The peppers they use in this aguachile here are tomatillos.

Even though La Docena is known for their seafood, they have an amazing burger as well. My dad claims it's the best burger he's had in his whole life, but he says this about many things. The burger comes in a sesame seed bun with bacon, Swiss cheese and arugula. The only real way to eat a burger is with a medium-well patty, even if you like your burgers well done the meat somehow is still juicy and full of flavor.

Now for the best part, dessert. I'm not exaggerating when I say this is the best dessert I have ever tasted. After I first tried it I craved it for weeks after. It's called Volcan de dulce de leche, which means sweet/candy milk volcano. Dulce de leche is Latin America's version of caramel. It has a similar taste to caramel except it's just not as thick. Back to the volcan de dulce de leche, it is a fried pastry with a hollow inside that is then filled with the dulce de leche and served with vanilla ice cream and toasted almonds.

Credits to moodforkfood on instagram.

La Docena is my all time favorite restaurant. Every time i'm in Guadalajara I make sure I stop by. Now that I've talked about my two favorite restaurants in Guadalajara I think it's time we visit another town in Mexico for my next blog, Arrandas.