It doesn t take too long to learn to distinguish restaurants that accept dollars. By in large they are state run, but there are a few private-owned restaurants. Once you choose a restaurant the next question is what do they really have for food. We learned very early into our trip that despite being given a two or three page menu, most restaurants only have three to four dishes to choose from. And at state run restaurants, its usually the same things at each restaurant.
Snack bars offer ham and cheese sandwiches, ham and cheese pizza and fried chicken.
State run restaurants usually offer spaghetti, fried chicken and fried pork. Of course this is the generally rule. Some state restaurants provided more choices and some were actually tasty but these were the exception to the rule. We found this to be very frustrating. Having just spent close to two months in Mexico, we are used to eating at street stands or the Mercado with so many choices that we often have a hard time deciding what to eat.