Restaurant & Gallery Luz de Luna

Restaurant & Gallery Luz de Luna sits on the pedestrianised stretch of Calle 59 in Campeche's Centro Historico, the street that functions as the walled city's restaurant row between the Puerta de Tierra and the Parque Principal. The hybrid name is literal: the interior doubles as a gallery, with walls hung floor to ceiling in paintings, textiles, papier-mache and craftwork by artists from Campeche state and the wider peninsula, almost all of it for sale. The effect is dense, colourful and deliberately unpolished, and it makes the room one of the more memorable interiors on the street even before the food arrives.

The cooking is broad rather than specialised: regional Campechano plates including pan de cazon and Gulf fish sit alongside grilled meats, arrachera, shrimp dishes and a substantial cocktail list. Camarones al coco, the coconut-crusted shrimp served with a sweet chilli dip, is the most ordered dish, and the regional appetiser platter is a practical way for a table to sample several state specialities at once. Standards are good without being ambitious; the restaurant trades on setting, service and location rather than on the kitchen alone.

Most guests eat at the tables set out in the street rather than inside, which is where the atmosphere is. Calle 59 closes to traffic in the evening, the neighbouring restaurants do the same, and the whole street becomes a single open-air dining room with musicians moving between the terraces. Live music plays inside several nights a week. Dress is entirely casual and the noise level is high in a cheerful way, so it suits groups better than a quiet dinner for two.

Pricing is mid-range: mains generally MXN 170 to MXN 340, cocktails around MXN 90 to MXN 140, and a full meal with drinks in the region of MXN 400 to MXN 650 per person. Weekend evenings from about 8PM see the street tables fill, and a reservation is worth making for those; at all other times walking in is straightforward.