Drive down N. Classen Boulevard every Saturday and Sunday, and you’ll see little packs of people waiting under the red awnings of the Victoria Building for their turn at a table. All are patient, knowing they’ll soon be inside the cozy, casual café, sipping Guatemalan coffee. It also gives them a chance to play the game everyone plays at Antigua: How will I decide between my favorite items? Can I convince my tablemates to order some of the other things I want so I can
One game you don’t really have to play is the waiting game. Antigua uses Yelp’s Waitlist feature, so you can put yourself on the list and arrive just in time to be seated. This came in particularly clutch recently, when I somehow pulled up at the exact moment the text came through that my table was ready.
I’ve been coming to Antigua since the Valdez family opened the café in 2007. In that time, it’s
While the two restaurants are equally delicious, there’s something about the workaday nature of Antigua that makes it
Guatemala is known worldwide for its coffee; the country is the fourth-largest exporter of Arabica coffee. Antigua’s little coffee bar is a busy, busy place, cranking out everything from perfect cortados and americanos to mazapan (marzipan’s peanut cousin) lattes and vanilla chai. I prefer the shot in the dark: a single shot of espresso in a cup of Guatemalan coffee.
Be prepared: Ordering a specialty coffee of any kind can put a hitch in the giddy-up. Several times, I’ve had my food long before my drink arrived. The servers are just as busy as the baristas, and it’s just not the kind of place where anyone has the time to think about courses. If you want to avoid digging into your meal before you sip that spicy mocha — and you’re not in a hurry — wait to place your food order until the server brings your drink. Doing this during peak times is kind of a jerk move, so on the busiest days, I just order a standard cup of coffee, and I’m never disappointed.
It’s also busy enough that it is not uncommon for them to forget to put in an appetizer or a drink. A timely reminder will remedy the situation quickly; a reminder at the end of the meal, and the missed item is removed from the ticket. It’s not a big deal, but it is definitely something that happens during the busiest times.
While the menu is broken up into breakfast and lunch, these distinctions seem ambiguous. Perhaps it’s a cultural difference, but there’s a massive smothered burrito on the breakfast menu that feels very much like lunch to me. The lunch menu features the suave amanecer: two scrambled eggs with black olives, red bell pepper, chive, onions and tomato served with a cup of mosh (a milky oatmeal beverage), toast and fruit. I would place it pretty firmly in the breakfast camp: suave amanecer translates to “gentle sunrise,” for goodness’ sake. While I pay no mind to these headers when ordering, for the purposes of this review, I’ll defer to their distinctions.
The breakfast menu is robust, but there are definitely some standouts. Once you’ve had the motuleño, it is hard to order anything else: black beans and two eggs atop a handmade corn tortilla, topped with avocado, feta, parsley, queso fresco and chirmol, served with corn chips. It’s the chirmol for me: a Guatemalan salsa made with adobo, tomatoes, onion and lime juice. It’s also the presentation: Give me this over tweezer-placed microgreens any day. The tiniest parsley confetti adds a celebratory feel to the bright and beautiful dish.
A spicy motuleño is also on the menu, but this version features the fierce cobanera chili pepper — native to Guatemala — and is served with your choice of chorizo or longaniza. For those who like it spicy, this is the ticket. The other dish I just can’t seem to pass up is the migas: eggs scrambled with jalapeno, tomato and corn chips, served with refried black beans, two fresh tortillas and a side of fruit. It’s become a comfort food for me, and no other migas are equal in my mind.
If you’re doing lunch, here’s my guidance. Start with the flautas: two corn tortillas stuffed with picadillo and potato, then rolled and fried. Served on lettuce with chirmol, feta and parsley, plus black beans and rice, these never disappoint. Next up: Mayan rice. This lunch dish is so large, it is served on a platter rather than a plate. The fluffiest white rice and whole black beans serve as the bed for a plentiful serving of either grilled chimichurri chicken or pork chops. I get the chicken, and even after having it a dozen times, I’m still always shocked by how flavorful it is.
In the event you have any room left for dessert, you can’t make a mistake when choosing
Antigua is the answer for so many occasions: work lunches, volunteer committee meet-ups lunch with an old friend. It’s affordable, they make it easy to split checks and it’s centrally located. It’s also the answer to my aversion to all things trendy. No big, dumb hats here, no cheap mimosas, no peacocking. You’re very unlikely to get caught in the crosshairs of a bachelorette party, though on a Sunday you may stumble across a hungover straggler from one. Here you’ll only find good food, a hot cup of Guatemalan coffee and yet another reminder that it’s the diversity of our people and the cultural treasures they share that makes Oklahoma City a special place to live.
This article appears in OKC Ballet Shorts.