Review: Tikal Cafe is the Naples spot for three cuisines: America, Guatemala, Honduras

Tikal Café has a different fan base for each meal. Some are there for its hearty soups at lunch. Others come for karaoke night, which apparently fills its two dining rooms on weekends. We've always loved its breakfasts, however.

We have yet to try the two-for-one weekend American special because I’m stuck on its Honduran huevos rancheros ($11.95): Two eggs cooked in a seasoned tomato sauce, then buddied up to black beans and a slender square of white cheese. On the side are several sugar-shelled nuggets of plantain, avocado slices and meat. The virtuous can skip the eggs and meat and opt for the desayuo Centroamericano ($8.95). 

Breakfast may be the restaurant’s most quiet time of day, when you can spread out your work over a glass four-top with currency and photos from Guatemala and Honduras —home to its co-owners — underneath as table decor. 

You’ll have plenty of time to do your work. Food is satisfying, but not swift — breakfast may be 10 to 12 minutes away after you order. In the meantime, you can content yourself with a cup of coffee  and inspect its folk decor — souvenirs and photos that line the wall, folksy glimpses of both countries.

TV and music are in español, which adds to the sense of being there. The restaurant's facade, in fact, advertises that is specializes in food for the chapin and catracho, colloquial for Guatemalan and Honduran.

In fact, diners coming in to sample dishes that sound Mexican, such as tamales ($7.95), should be warned that these, like the huevos rancheros, have their own Central American personality. Tamales come more like packet of meat and potatoes and spices, with little extras such as peppers and raisins, wrapped in a banana leaf.

Tikal seems to have progressively mastered American while it juggles cuisine from three countries. My dining partner, no stranger to its omelets, says they’ve gotten more moist and fluffy. On this particular day, his Rainforest omelet came crammed with bacon, chorizo, peppers and cheese, a carnivore’s delight at $9.95.

He shared his home-fried potatoes — browned mounds fried with seasoning and paper-thin strips of onion that went home with him (me) because the omelet was so filling.

Tikal’s huevos rancheros breakfast ($10.95) comes with meat, and I tried its Costilla adobada (pork), which turned out to a slab of three spare ribs. You’re not getting the sweet barbecued concoction, but pork roasted in a tomato-based puree. They’re meaty but a little chewy for my taste at the breakfast table. (They joined friends in that to-go container for later consumption.)

Carne asada (fried steak) is an option that might suit American tastes better. Or just give me more of those plantains instead: Tikal Café produces tender, deep brown plantains, fried with a bit of sugar that hardens to a crunchy coat. 

If you’re among the enlightened, the Central American breakfast comes without meat in a version called the Rainforest Breakfast ($8.95).

If you can’t get over American breakfasts, the selection is limited but reasonably priced: two pancakes ($4.95), French toast ($5.95) and several types of omelets ($7.95-$9.95).

Did we mention you should bring a to-go container? Tikal Café serves up helpings of potatoes that would be two in most other restaurants, and one of my poached eggs, with its companion portion of black beans, came home as well.

Lunch at Tikal is a guessing game as to which sopa, or soup, is coming out of the kitchen, because they're so popular. Americans would call these rich concoctions stews. They range from the $10.95 chicken and $12.95 beef to an $18.95 sopa de mariscos, the Central American answer to cioppino.

Chunky with local vegetables — mini-cobs of sweet corn, potatoes — and south-of-the-border starches like nopales, plantain and cassava, the soups are also brimming with protein. At least that's the case with the sopa de mariscos, which had a half-dozen large shrimp, three clams, and hearty cuts of salmon and white fish that took two bites to consume. 

The sopa's tomato-coconut milk base lends an Asian air to it, with the right amount of after-nip in that broth. Extend the delight by sloshing spoonfuls over the accompanying mold of rice. We'd pass on the cassava in the soup; it seemed a bit fibrous to us, but the nopales and plantains were a tasty alternative to carrots and turnips.

The seafood soup is decidedly the most pricey thing on the menu. But you can comfort yourself over the price with the knowledge you're getting two meals here. Your co-workers will be green watching you dig into half of the sopa de mariscos as an elegant second-day lunch. 

For the cautious, there are grilled meats with vegetables ($9.95-$15.95), pasta with various meats and sauces, sandwiches and even that American staple, the BLT ($5.95). But live a little: Try a baleada con todo ($5.95), reminiscent of a soft taco loaded with fried beans, eggs, sour cream, avocado and steak.

The Naples Daily News pays for all meals for dining reviewers. 

Tikal Cafe

Where: 107 Radio Road, East Naples; entrances are from northbound Airport-Pulling Road and eastbound Radio Road

When: 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays and Sundays; until 9 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays

For information: 239-304-9019

Prices: Appetizers $4.95 for a corn tamale to $11.95 for a mixed quesadilla; breakfasts $3.95 for a baleada with beans, sour cream and cheese to $11.95 for huevos rancheros; lunch and dinner, $5.95 for a BLT to $18.95 for sopa de mariscos

Rating: 4.5 forks out of 5

Something else: Beer and wine are available; large groups should phone ahead