What I ate in Cancun

If I had to sum up our food experience in Cancun in one word it would be guacamole. Thankfully I get a lot more words to tell you about all the delicious foods we had on our trip. I’m very fortunate that Josh and I are the same when it comes to eating on vacation. We both like to explore and visit an area through food. I’m not one to buy lots of nice souvenirs to take home to remember trips by. I usually try and grab a magnet and something unique and I’m good to go. I’d much rather spend my money eating at nice restaurants and sampling the local flavors. We did just that and ate so much good food while we were there.

On our first night there we took the advice of our airport driver and hotel concierge and decided to check out La Destileria. It was only a few minutes walk from our hotel, is right on the water, and came with free welcome drinks compliments of Westin.

The food was soo good! Josh and I were so nervous before coming to Mexico about what we could and couldn’t drink/eat. I’ve learned that the restaurants and hotels in the Hotel District are pretty much good to go. You can drink the water, have drinks with ice, eat salad, and whatnot without having to worry. It’s when you go into Cancun Central that you need to be careful.

La Destileria was the perfect place to start off our honeymoon. It was so good in fact we decided to  come back on our last day and get lunch.

We got appetizers for lunch so we would have room for dessert.

Josh loves tres leches cake. It’s not my most favorite dessert in the world but it was really good.

One of my favorite desserts is crepes! We got one at La Isla one night while walking around the mall browsing stores. We ran into an American couple that has been coming to Cancun for 15 years!

I told you the food word of the trip was guacamole right? Josh and I made a promise that we would eat guacamole every day of our trip. Not only did we succeed, but I usually ended up getting it multiple times a day. I got a to-go order of guacamole every day from our hotel to enjoy poolside. It’s the best guacamole I’ve ever had.

While we never ate lunch or dinner at our hotel we had breakfast every day at Oceano. They had a great menu with a lot of selections and an absolutely beautiful view. This was the granola pancakes.

Delicious Muesli.

A chicken and egg scramble.

And my favorite breakfast that I had my last morning in Cancun: guacamole and black beans. I’ve never had black beans that tasted this good. I must find out the recipe.

When we bought tickets to XCaret we were told that an all you can eat lunch buffet comes included with our ticket package. We chose the Mexican restaurant on premise for lunch and while I loved the setting I was not blown away by the food. This one was simply a meh meal for me.

While lunch came included in XCaret dinner did not. We could either buy it at a restaurant on premise or buy a four course meal ticket during the late night Mexican heritage show. I bet you can guess what we did. ;p The lighting was pretty dark during the show but the meals were amazing. Josh’s veggie lasagna was so good.

I loved my goat-cheese stuffed chicken, mushrooms, and sweet potato puree meal. It totally made up for the lackluster lunch.

We both really wanted to try an authentic Mexican meal on our trip, so we decided to venture into Cancun Central one afternoon. It was a completely different atmosphere than the Hotel District in Cancun. While we were able to pick up really cheap souvenirs and got to see a real Mexican grocery store, I much preferred the tourist area of Mexico to the real parts of Mexico. The food we got in town was super bland and boring. Even the guacamole was lackluster. We did get to try a Mexican coke though which was pretty cool. It tastes different than it does in the US because of the sugar.

We were a few hotels down from the Ritz Carlton in Cancun, and when looking at their menus noticed they have two AAA five diamond restaurants. We had never been to a five diamond restaurant before so we decided to try them. The first one we went to was Fantino. If you are in Cancun and are looking for a nice meal I 100% recommend going here. To say the service was impeccable is an understatement. The (multiple) waiters we had literally made my night. The food was exquisite and the atmosphere was beautiful. Our table had rose petals to mark that it was a festive occasion, we ate while listening to live piano music, and we were bid adieu to with a rose and some boxed up chocolates. It was a perfect night.

Our second Ritz meal was at The Club Grill. This was another beautiful dining atmosphere with delicious food.  I loved the strings band they had playing that night. If I had to pick (which lets be honest, you can’t go wrong with either one) I preferred the food at Club Grill while I preferred the service at Fantino.

We left Cancun stuffed and happy and with lots of guacamole in our bellies. There is a ton of good food in Cancun, it just comes at a price. I found the food prices very similar to Vegas, aka very high. I found the price totally worth the experiences that came with the food. That being said, if we go back to Cancun again we will probably make breakfast in our hotel room and do it up big like we did for lunches and dinners. This will take a little strain off both my wallet and my waistline.

Questions of the Day: What do you like to splurge on while on vacation? Do you like exploring a new place through food?