What to eat in Comala
Comala’s food scene runs on one great idea: the botana system on the plaza. You sit down, order drinks, and rounds of free small plates keep arriving, so the meal is really about drinking slowly and letting the kitchen feed you. Get that ritual right and you barely need to order a proper meal all day. Comala is one of the west’s genuine food stops precisely because of this quirk.
The botana rounds, the main event
At the Los Portales restaurants under the arches on the Jardin Principal, and at the second-row places a block off it, you order drinks and the kitchen sends waves of Colima-style bites: sopitos (small fried masa cakes topped with shredded beef, salsa, onion and cheese, the local signature), local pork and longaniza-style sausage, chicharron, cueritos (pickled pork skin), beans, tostadas, and whatever’s running that day. The plates rotate and keep coming as long as you keep drinking. The only skill is pacing: order drinks slowly and steadily so the food flows without burying you, and you’ll eat a full, varied meal for the price of the drinks alone.
Timing matters. Botana hours run roughly 2 to 6 pm; this is an afternoon institution, not a breakfast or a late-night thing. Come hungry and don’t eat a big lunch first.
What to drink
- Ponche de Comala. The town’s fruit-based liqueur, sold in flavors like tamarind, pomegranate, coffee and blackberry, and poured across every botana table. It’s also the souvenir bottle everyone carries home; buy it from the small ponche shops around town, tasting first, rather than paying restaurant markup.
- Local coffee. Comala grows and roasts its own beans on the volcano’s slopes. A morning cup, especially with the peak in view, is a genuine pleasure and a different daypart from the botanas.
- Beer, tequila and mezcal drinks all work too; the botanas come with whatever you’re drinking, so order what you actually want.
Where to eat
- Los Portales, front row. The classic first-timer spot under the arches on the plaza. Atmospheric, busiest, priciest, best for your first botana afternoon and the people-watching.
- Second-row and side-street botana places. A block off the square, cheaper, calmer, food rounds just as good. Where Colima regulars actually sit. See where locals go.
- A morning cafe for coffee and pan dulce before the day-trippers arrive, to bookend the botana afternoon.
Approximate prices
Because the botanas are free with drinks, your bill is essentially what you drank. Budget roughly 40 to 90 MXN per drink (approximate) depending on whether it’s a beer, a ponche or a cocktail, so a long, lazy two-to-three-hour session lands somewhere around 200 to 450 MXN a head (approximate), food included. A take-home bottle of ponche runs roughly 120 to 250 MXN (approximate). A morning coffee is a handful of pesos.
Order this, not that: don’t try to order a big separate main dish to “make sure you eat”, you’ll drown in food you’re paying for on top of the free rounds. Just order drinks steadily, let the botanas do the work, and if you’re still hungry at the end, add the sopitos by the plate. That’s the local move, and it’s the whole reason the system exists.