Cozumel Restaurant Reviews
***I used this board and others a lot to help decide where we should eat. Thats why I want to be sure to return the favor and add more input! There were many places we had hoped to try, but just didnt get around to doing because of all the diving we were doing. We did 17 dives in 5 days and ended up skipping lunch all days except for one! Our original plan was to try to go to many of the cheap places taco stands, pastores and such. Since we skipped lunch, we opted to go to some of the other more restaurant type places. We didnt really care how much we spent on dinner, since we hadnt eaten lunch. I was dying to try some pastores and tacos at certain stands, but because of the schedule we ended up on they were not open at that time. We tended to eat dinner very early (due to skipping lunch) at around 5:00 p.m. or 6:00 p.m. Many of these places dont open until 7:00 or 8:00. We were also usually the only couple or one of a few couples in the restaurants at this time also. I have many places still on my must go list for our return visits to Cozumel. For now, these are the places that we have been to I hope the information helps.
***WARNING this is quite long and you may be quite hungry when youre finished reading this! I urge you to go visit one of the places on this list when the hunger hits you!
7/19/03 Dinner at Ernestos Fajita Factory
We were very tired after our long day of traveling to get to Cozumel. This restaurant was fairly close to our hotel Caribe Blu (formerly Hotel Lorena). We had walked from Hotel Lorena to El Cid La Ceiba (20-minute walk) to go to Island Photo to get our underwater digital camera rental and saw Ernestos on the way. After the walk, we decided to just stop there on the way back to eat. We ordered an appetizer of Queso dip/chips/salsa to start off the meal. I really like Queso dip and was a little disappointed at the quantity that was served it was just a little round dish. The taste was ok. I think I was expecting it to be something different than what we have in the U.S. I swear they just mixed Velveeta cheese with Pace Salsa tastes just like what we make at home! This is not bad per say I just thought it would be better. We decided to share a meal and ordered the Chicken/Beef Fajita Combo. We also had 2 Cokes and 2 bottles of water. The fajitas were GREAT! Obviously thats why its part of their restaurant name this is the reason to come here. They were very flavorful and one order was enough for my husband and I to share. I have to say that the service was very good. Everyone was very nice and we received our food very quickly. The total price of our meal was $25 plus a $5 tip = $30. Out of 5 stars I would give them 3.
7/20/03- 7/26/03 Breakfast at Castaway Grill (right next door from Caribe Blu next to Blue Angel Dive Shop)
Again, after reading reviews on this board there were MANY breakfast spots I had wanted to try. However, due to our location from town, all the diving we were doing, and running back and forth to Island Photo it was just easier to eat right next door to our hotel. Plus my husband just LOVED Alicias cooking, so I couldnt pull him away from it if I wanted to! Their breakfasts were very filling (great for divers) this is another reason why we never ate lunch and also quite cheap. We had almost the same thing every day (minus a coffee or soda)! I would get the Divers Special, which consisted of pancakes, eggs, potatoes, fruit, and a glass of juice - $4. Ronny would have the Veracruz Breakfast. This was essentially egg enchiladas scrambled eggs inside corn tortillas, covered with sausage and sauce. It also came with potatoes. I think it was like $4 or $5. Some mornings we would have Cokes or coffee (my husband didnt like the coffee said it tasted weird) and other times just water and the juice that came with my meal. Our total bill was usually $9-$12 depending on the drinks we had and we would always tip her $2 or $3 so the total was between $12-$15 every day. Out of 5 stars we give Castaway Grill 5 stars for their breakfasts! They did also serve lunch, but we never ate it so we cant speak to that. If its anything like their breakfasts, Im sure its good. Other people we dove with at lunch there every day.
7/20/03 Dinner at El Capi Navegante
We took a cab from Caribe Blu ($4 plus $1 tip =$5) to Especias. We were really hoping to try this restaurant, due to the good things we had read about it on various Cozumel boards. When we got there we found out they were closed on Sundays! So we decided to take a stroll and see what we came across. We walked by El Capi Navegante and decided to give it a try. I had heard good things about the food, but that it was not necessarily the cheapest place around. It was the most expensive place we ate at during our stay, but it was also one of our most favorite dinners. Again, since it was like 6:00 p.m. there was only one other table full of people in the restaurant when we were there. We started our meal off with two margaritas. They quite big, very tasty and quite potent! They do not skimp on the tequila here more on that later! We also ordered a bottle of aqua purificado and were promptly given a large bottle (more than enough for two people). They also brought us chips/salsa, bread and garlic butter before our meal. We couldnt decide what to get and so we decided to get two different meals and then share them, so we could taste more things. We had never tried conch before and when we were in Belize last year they kept telling us how good it was, so we decided to give it a shot. Ronny ordered the conch with garlic butter and I ordered the red snapper in garlic butter sauce. Our food arrived and looked beautiful! They both came with steamed veggies and cous cous (we think it was that or some other small rice). While we were eating a guy Fredrico - came in with his guitar and asked if he could play a song for us so we said, Sure, why not?! The weird/funny thing was that I swear that he was my Mexican grandpa! He looked exactly like my grandpa except that he was Mexican and had two gold front teeth (neither of which my grandpa is/has). It was strange! He was a very nice guy and I we gave him $5 to play the song for us. We really didnt know what the going rate was for this here in Mexico, but thought that this was probably fair or more than fair. We live in CA in a town where the population is mostly Mexican and therefore have quite a few authentic Mexican restaurants. Mariachi bands go through these and if you want them to play a song they charge you $10 per song! So we thought this must be ok to give this guy $5. After we finished eating Ronny started talking to our waiter about tequila. We wanted to buy a bottle for our neighbors back in CA, but theyre from Mexico so we wanted to make sure we got them something good! He suggested Don Julio, so Ronny ordered up a shot to test it out. Then somehow he ended up at the bar talking to both our waiter and the bartender. The bartender said that he thought that Sauza Hornitos was the best and promptly served Ronny up a free shot of it to try it. These shots were not SMALL either! Our waiter also gave us the scoop on where to get the best deal on liquor. He told us to go to Covi and explained where it was. We really loved everything about El Capi Navegante. Everyone in the restaurant was super nice and friendly. The food and the drinks were great! In our opinion, you cant go wrong with El Capi Navegante! Our total bill was $42 plus $8 tip = $50. We hadnt planned on spending so much and so we hadnt brought that much cash with us. We had enough for dinner, but had planned on going shopping afterward. Our waiter told us they could charge it for us, so we did that and it worked out fine. Out of 5 stars we give El Capi Navegante 5 stars!
7/20/03 Chedraui Market
After our dinner we walked around and decided to walk over to the big grocery store to get a few things for our room. We wanted to buy some sodas to keep in a cooler in our room at Caribe Blu. I was also on a mission to find something Id heard about on this website coconut limes. I heard that these were extra yummy. They were different than what I expected. I had read that they were limes stuffed with coconut and its kind of the other way around. It was interesting just trying to go through the grocery store to find these things, especially since neither one of us speak much Spanish! I thought they were in the Bakery area, so thats where we were looking for them. Ronny managed to ask the ladies at a very busy counter in broken Spanish Where are the coconut limes? They pointed us to a row of barrels. Inside one where these round coconut things that had lime parts in them. We decided that these must be it and ran off to the check out stands. I was really shocked by all the young kids that were working in the store not only that they were working, but also how late at night it was. I think it was at least 9:00 or 10:00. The boy that bagged our groceries was so cute and couldnt have been older than 7. I rolled up a $1 and gave it to him. I knew that this was probably a lot of money for him, but it wasnt anything to me and I wanted him to have it. Well, we noticed a bigger boy standing off to the side smiling as we did this and saw that he took it from him. We wanted to go tell him to give it back to him, but decided against it. This boy had been standing off to the side the entire time the little guy bagged our groceries, so I wasnt sure if he was a bagger in training or something. Like when you learn to waitress and you have to give your tips to the person whos teaching you. Either that or we thought it might be his big brother or that he was just a bully. We didnt really like not saying anything, but probably thought that was best since we didnt know what was really going on and we didnt speak much Spanish to find out. Twelve Coke Lights and two coconut lime things cost us $10.
We took a cab back to Caribe Blu from the grocery store ($4 plus $1 tip=$5).
7/21/03 Lunch at Papa Hogs Hogtown Café
This was the only day we ate lunch. We were not going to get dinner this night, because we were doing a 2-tank twilight/night dive and were meeting with our videographer at Caribe Blu after that. We decided to take a five-minute walk up the street and try Papa Hogs for lunch. I had heard that they had pretty decent food and that it was inexpensive. We sat on the balcony that overlooks the street, so we could people watch. Its very interesting to see all the people that go by. We especially liked seeing the scooters that had an entire family of FOUR riding on them! You would also see people on scooters drinking beers guess drinking and driving is legal in Cozumel?! That street out front there was really dangerous. People drove really fast and like maniacs. We also realized from our first ride from the airport to our hotel that pedestrians do NOT have the right away, like in the U.S.! Ronny and I decided that people must get killed all the time on this road. Anyway back to the meal! I ordered a Chicken Quesadilla Hogtown Style and Ronny ordered a Beef Chimichanga. They both came with beans, guacamole, and really good pico salsa. We also had 2 Coke Lights love that stuff! Its so much better than Diet Coke wish we could get it here! We both really enjoyed our meals and thought that it was a good place. The only thing I would warn is that I had some major stomach issues after eating here that afternoon. It could have just been me or else it was the seeds in the pico or Im not sure what. Ronny had no problems. Our meal was $15 plus $3 tip for a total of $18. Out of 5 stars we give Hogtown Café 3 stars.
7/22/03 Dinner at El Moro
This was a place that I really wanted to try. I had heard that they had really good seafood and we LOVE seafood. We took a cab from Caribe Blu all the way across town to get to this place. It was $6 plus $1 tip = $7. Since this seemed to be way out from where all the cabs were, we asked our driver if he would come pick us back up in an hour. He said that he would do that and showed us the number on his cab. Of course after eating there I realized that the restaurant would have called a cab for us if we had asked them. My husband didnt want to get stuck out there without a cab. I think he thought the neighborhood might be dangerous. I told him that I didnt think that was true, I thought it was just a poor neighborhood not a dangerous neighborhood (of course I was basing this on what Id read about Cozumel before going there please correct me if Im wrong).
Dinner was VERY good and we loved our waiter, Ray. Please tell Ray that Ronny & Nicole say Hola! if you go there. Youll know who he is, because of the big friendly smile on his face. I had the conch in garlic butter sauce and Ronny had the fish fillet (grouper I think) Veracruz. According to Ronny, Veracruz everything is the way to go! Our meal also came with chips/salsa/guacamole, tortillas, bread and butter. We also had two Coke Lights and one aqua purificado. Our cab wasnt there yet, so we decided to order desert. I asked them if they had bananas flambé and Ray said that they had something that was very similar, so we ordered it. Of course as soon as our dessert arrived our cab showed up. We asked him if he could come back in 20 minutes and he said that wasnt a problem. The dessert was to die for! It was similar to bananas flambé, but also had ice cream. There was a lot of it too we shared it and had more than enough. Our total bill was $30 plus $6 tip = $36. While we were waiting for the cab to come back Ronny decided to have a shot of Hornitos. They charged him $4 for the shot, which we kind of thought was a lot (they charged $1.50 at El Capi). We thought that this was a great dining experience. Ray was wonderful and the food was wonderful. Out of 5 stars we give El Moro 5 stars. We took a cab back to Caribe Blu ($6 plus $1 tip= $7).
7/23/03 No Food!
We didnt eat at any restaurants this day. We did the Domino Safari (see posting) with Blue Angel, so we didnt have much food (granola bars and such) this day and were not in Cozumel. The one thing I did eat this day though was fruit. I LOVE the fruit down there! It is sooooooo good! I had the best mangos ever. I ate a whole one on the boat during the Domino Safari. Then we were catching the ferry back from Playa del Carmen to Cozumel we walked past a bunch of ladies that had a stand with cups of cut fruit. I bought a cup of mango slices for $1. I was wishing I bought more as I ate it on the ferry! That fruit is sooo good! Once we got back to Cozumel I was searching every day for stands like this, but I could not find them. Do they have them there? If so where?! I did find a couple of carts in the main plaza square that had some sliced mango, but it wasnt quite the same. The ladies in Playa del Carmen had all kinds of fruit and a lot of it.
7/24/03 Dinner at La Perlita
This was a place that was highly recommended to us by Blue Angel and our videographer Joe Mendoza. They did not let us down! This was by far the best place we ate in Cozumel! It is kind of over in that same area where El Moro is located. We took a cab from Caribe Blu across town to La Perlita ($5 plus $1 tip= $6). The menu here is all in Spanish. However, our kind waiter spent a lot of time translating all the different things for us. Ronny ordered the grouper fillet grilled with garlic butter ($9) and I decided on the camerones de coco - I think thats what they called it ($13). That was YUMMY! It was shrimp with coconut milk (kind of like a curry), celery, carrots, and onions. It had rice in the center of it. This food smelled so delicious when they were cooking it and tasted even better! Our food also came with chips/salsa, bread (something about this bread it was so fresh and good) and we had 2 aqua purificados. I also had a margarita (ok, but El Capis is much better) and Ronny had a shot of Hornitos. Our total bill was $36 plus $6 tip = $42. This food was so good and the service was excellent. We definitely give La Perlita 5 stars out of 5 stars! The other thing to note about this place is that its right across from this house that has a bunch of chickens. Its pretty entertaining to sit there and watch these chickens run back and forth across the street. There was this chicken - Chicken Little as we liked to call him - that we were cracking up over. This poor thing had no feathers! He looked like a naked chicken running around. We were wondering if he had escaped from the chopping block. The waiter told us that the other chickens did it to him poor little fella!
We had our waiter call a cab for us. We took a cab from La Perlita to downtown to do some shopping ($5 plus $1 tip = $6). After buying a few gifts we took a cab back to Caribe Blu ($5 plus $1 tip = $6).
7-25-03 Dinner at Casa Denis
We were very sad because this would be our last dinner in Cozumel. We had planned on shopping in the downtown plaza that night to buy our remaining gifts/souvenirs, so we decided to eat at a place downtown. I wanted to try Casa Denis or Plaza Leza, since Id heard that they were both good. We took a cab from Caribe Blu to the downtown plaza ($4 plus $1 tip = $5). Once we got downtown we needed to use an ATM, because we were running low on cash. We had brought a bunch of cash with us (lots of $1s for the maid and taxis) the rest in $20s. After seeing how easy it was to use the ATMs in Cozumel, I would bring less cash next time and just use my card to withdraw as we need it. We first tried the Bital ATM on the corner of the square, but it wouldnt work for us. We walked around to the back middle of the square and found the Bancomer ATM. That one worked just fine. After getting our cash we decided to go to Casa Denis for dinner. We were not disappointed! Im pretty sure the menu was in Spanish. Our waiter was very kind translating for us and telling us what was in the various dishes. I told him I wanted some pork (I was craving those pastores all week!) so I asked what he recommended. We ordered our food off his recommendations and it was excellent! Ronny ordered the pok chuk, which was pork chops grilled with tomatoes, beans and tortillas. I ordered the Maya pork, which was chunks of pork in a red sauce and also came with beans, tomatoes and tortillas. We also got the standard chips/salsa with our meal. I think we both had margaritas and 2 aqua purificados. Our total was $31 plus $6 tip = $36. Out of five stars we give Casa Denis five stars. Good food, good service, and good location.
***That concludes our dining experiences of Cozumel! I hope this helps someone else in their dining experiences. We highly recommend El Capi Navegante, El Moro, La Perlita and Casa Denis. They are excellent restaurants and we would go back in a second! El Capi Navegante and Casa Denis are close to all the shopping, so they are convenient. El Moro and La Perlita are way off the beaten path, but definitely worth the journey! Happy Eating!
***I used this board and others a lot to help decide where we should eat. Thats why I want to be sure to return the favor and add more input! There were many places we had hoped to try, but just didnt get around to doing because of all the diving we were doing. We did 17 dives in 5 days and ended up skipping lunch all days except for one! Our original plan was to try to go to many of the cheap places taco stands, pastores and such. Since we skipped lunch, we opted to go to some of the other more restaurant type places. We didnt really care how much we spent on dinner, since we hadnt eaten lunch. I was dying to try some pastores and tacos at certain stands, but because of the schedule we ended up on they were not open at that time. We tended to eat dinner very early (due to skipping lunch) at around 5:00 p.m. or 6:00 p.m. Many of these places dont open until 7:00 or 8:00. We were also usually the only couple or one of a few couples in the restaurants at this time also. I have many places still on my must go list for our return visits to Cozumel. For now, these are the places that we have been to I hope the information helps.
***WARNING this is quite long and you may be quite hungry when youre finished reading this! I urge you to go visit one of the places on this list when the hunger hits you!
7/19/03 Dinner at Ernestos Fajita Factory
We were very tired after our long day of traveling to get to Cozumel. This restaurant was fairly close to our hotel Caribe Blu (formerly Hotel Lorena). We had walked from Hotel Lorena to El Cid La Ceiba (20-minute walk) to go to Island Photo to get our underwater digital camera rental and saw Ernestos on the way. After the walk, we decided to just stop there on the way back to eat. We ordered an appetizer of Queso dip/chips/salsa to start off the meal. I really like Queso dip and was a little disappointed at the quantity that was served it was just a little round dish. The taste was ok. I think I was expecting it to be something different than what we have in the U.S. I swear they just mixed Velveeta cheese with Pace Salsa tastes just like what we make at home! This is not bad per say I just thought it would be better. We decided to share a meal and ordered the Chicken/Beef Fajita Combo. We also had 2 Cokes and 2 bottles of water. The fajitas were GREAT! Obviously thats why its part of their restaurant name this is the reason to come here. They were very flavorful and one order was enough for my husband and I to share. I have to say that the service was very good. Everyone was very nice and we received our food very quickly. The total price of our meal was $25 plus a $5 tip = $30. Out of 5 stars I would give them 3.
7/20/03- 7/26/03 Breakfast at Castaway Grill (right next door from Caribe Blu next to Blue Angel Dive Shop)
Again, after reading reviews on this board there were MANY breakfast spots I had wanted to try. However, due to our location from town, all the diving we were doing, and running back and forth to Island Photo it was just easier to eat right next door to our hotel. Plus my husband just LOVED Alicias cooking, so I couldnt pull him away from it if I wanted to! Their breakfasts were very filling (great for divers) this is another reason why we never ate lunch and also quite cheap. We had almost the same thing every day (minus a coffee or soda)! I would get the Divers Special, which consisted of pancakes, eggs, potatoes, fruit, and a glass of juice - $4. Ronny would have the Veracruz Breakfast. This was essentially egg enchiladas scrambled eggs inside corn tortillas, covered with sausage and sauce. It also came with potatoes. I think it was like $4 or $5. Some mornings we would have Cokes or coffee (my husband didnt like the coffee said it tasted weird) and other times just water and the juice that came with my meal. Our total bill was usually $9-$12 depending on the drinks we had and we would always tip her $2 or $3 so the total was between $12-$15 every day. Out of 5 stars we give Castaway Grill 5 stars for their breakfasts! They did also serve lunch, but we never ate it so we cant speak to that. If its anything like their breakfasts, Im sure its good. Other people we dove with at lunch there every day.
7/20/03 Dinner at El Capi Navegante
We took a cab from Caribe Blu ($4 plus $1 tip =$5) to Especias. We were really hoping to try this restaurant, due to the good things we had read about it on various Cozumel boards. When we got there we found out they were closed on Sundays! So we decided to take a stroll and see what we came across. We walked by El Capi Navegante and decided to give it a try. I had heard good things about the food, but that it was not necessarily the cheapest place around. It was the most expensive place we ate at during our stay, but it was also one of our most favorite dinners. Again, since it was like 6:00 p.m. there was only one other table full of people in the restaurant when we were there. We started our meal off with two margaritas. They quite big, very tasty and quite potent! They do not skimp on the tequila here more on that later! We also ordered a bottle of aqua purificado and were promptly given a large bottle (more than enough for two people). They also brought us chips/salsa, bread and garlic butter before our meal. We couldnt decide what to get and so we decided to get two different meals and then share them, so we could taste more things. We had never tried conch before and when we were in Belize last year they kept telling us how good it was, so we decided to give it a shot. Ronny ordered the conch with garlic butter and I ordered the red snapper in garlic butter sauce. Our food arrived and looked beautiful! They both came with steamed veggies and cous cous (we think it was that or some other small rice). While we were eating a guy Fredrico - came in with his guitar and asked if he could play a song for us so we said, Sure, why not?! The weird/funny thing was that I swear that he was my Mexican grandpa! He looked exactly like my grandpa except that he was Mexican and had two gold front teeth (neither of which my grandpa is/has). It was strange! He was a very nice guy and I we gave him $5 to play the song for us. We really didnt know what the going rate was for this here in Mexico, but thought that this was probably fair or more than fair. We live in CA in a town where the population is mostly Mexican and therefore have quite a few authentic Mexican restaurants. Mariachi bands go through these and if you want them to play a song they charge you $10 per song! So we thought this must be ok to give this guy $5. After we finished eating Ronny started talking to our waiter about tequila. We wanted to buy a bottle for our neighbors back in CA, but theyre from Mexico so we wanted to make sure we got them something good! He suggested Don Julio, so Ronny ordered up a shot to test it out. Then somehow he ended up at the bar talking to both our waiter and the bartender. The bartender said that he thought that Sauza Hornitos was the best and promptly served Ronny up a free shot of it to try it. These shots were not SMALL either! Our waiter also gave us the scoop on where to get the best deal on liquor. He told us to go to Covi and explained where it was. We really loved everything about El Capi Navegante. Everyone in the restaurant was super nice and friendly. The food and the drinks were great! In our opinion, you cant go wrong with El Capi Navegante! Our total bill was $42 plus $8 tip = $50. We hadnt planned on spending so much and so we hadnt brought that much cash with us. We had enough for dinner, but had planned on going shopping afterward. Our waiter told us they could charge it for us, so we did that and it worked out fine. Out of 5 stars we give El Capi Navegante 5 stars!
7/20/03 Chedraui Market
After our dinner we walked around and decided to walk over to the big grocery store to get a few things for our room. We wanted to buy some sodas to keep in a cooler in our room at Caribe Blu. I was also on a mission to find something Id heard about on this website coconut limes. I heard that these were extra yummy. They were different than what I expected. I had read that they were limes stuffed with coconut and its kind of the other way around. It was interesting just trying to go through the grocery store to find these things, especially since neither one of us speak much Spanish! I thought they were in the Bakery area, so thats where we were looking for them. Ronny managed to ask the ladies at a very busy counter in broken Spanish Where are the coconut limes? They pointed us to a row of barrels. Inside one where these round coconut things that had lime parts in them. We decided that these must be it and ran off to the check out stands. I was really shocked by all the young kids that were working in the store not only that they were working, but also how late at night it was. I think it was at least 9:00 or 10:00. The boy that bagged our groceries was so cute and couldnt have been older than 7. I rolled up a $1 and gave it to him. I knew that this was probably a lot of money for him, but it wasnt anything to me and I wanted him to have it. Well, we noticed a bigger boy standing off to the side smiling as we did this and saw that he took it from him. We wanted to go tell him to give it back to him, but decided against it. This boy had been standing off to the side the entire time the little guy bagged our groceries, so I wasnt sure if he was a bagger in training or something. Like when you learn to waitress and you have to give your tips to the person whos teaching you. Either that or we thought it might be his big brother or that he was just a bully. We didnt really like not saying anything, but probably thought that was best since we didnt know what was really going on and we didnt speak much Spanish to find out. Twelve Coke Lights and two coconut lime things cost us $10.
We took a cab back to Caribe Blu from the grocery store ($4 plus $1 tip=$5).
7/21/03 Lunch at Papa Hogs Hogtown Café
This was the only day we ate lunch. We were not going to get dinner this night, because we were doing a 2-tank twilight/night dive and were meeting with our videographer at Caribe Blu after that. We decided to take a five-minute walk up the street and try Papa Hogs for lunch. I had heard that they had pretty decent food and that it was inexpensive. We sat on the balcony that overlooks the street, so we could people watch. Its very interesting to see all the people that go by. We especially liked seeing the scooters that had an entire family of FOUR riding on them! You would also see people on scooters drinking beers guess drinking and driving is legal in Cozumel?! That street out front there was really dangerous. People drove really fast and like maniacs. We also realized from our first ride from the airport to our hotel that pedestrians do NOT have the right away, like in the U.S.! Ronny and I decided that people must get killed all the time on this road. Anyway back to the meal! I ordered a Chicken Quesadilla Hogtown Style and Ronny ordered a Beef Chimichanga. They both came with beans, guacamole, and really good pico salsa. We also had 2 Coke Lights love that stuff! Its so much better than Diet Coke wish we could get it here! We both really enjoyed our meals and thought that it was a good place. The only thing I would warn is that I had some major stomach issues after eating here that afternoon. It could have just been me or else it was the seeds in the pico or Im not sure what. Ronny had no problems. Our meal was $15 plus $3 tip for a total of $18. Out of 5 stars we give Hogtown Café 3 stars.
7/22/03 Dinner at El Moro
This was a place that I really wanted to try. I had heard that they had really good seafood and we LOVE seafood. We took a cab from Caribe Blu all the way across town to get to this place. It was $6 plus $1 tip = $7. Since this seemed to be way out from where all the cabs were, we asked our driver if he would come pick us back up in an hour. He said that he would do that and showed us the number on his cab. Of course after eating there I realized that the restaurant would have called a cab for us if we had asked them. My husband didnt want to get stuck out there without a cab. I think he thought the neighborhood might be dangerous. I told him that I didnt think that was true, I thought it was just a poor neighborhood not a dangerous neighborhood (of course I was basing this on what Id read about Cozumel before going there please correct me if Im wrong).
Dinner was VERY good and we loved our waiter, Ray. Please tell Ray that Ronny & Nicole say Hola! if you go there. Youll know who he is, because of the big friendly smile on his face. I had the conch in garlic butter sauce and Ronny had the fish fillet (grouper I think) Veracruz. According to Ronny, Veracruz everything is the way to go! Our meal also came with chips/salsa/guacamole, tortillas, bread and butter. We also had two Coke Lights and one aqua purificado. Our cab wasnt there yet, so we decided to order desert. I asked them if they had bananas flambé and Ray said that they had something that was very similar, so we ordered it. Of course as soon as our dessert arrived our cab showed up. We asked him if he could come back in 20 minutes and he said that wasnt a problem. The dessert was to die for! It was similar to bananas flambé, but also had ice cream. There was a lot of it too we shared it and had more than enough. Our total bill was $30 plus $6 tip = $36. While we were waiting for the cab to come back Ronny decided to have a shot of Hornitos. They charged him $4 for the shot, which we kind of thought was a lot (they charged $1.50 at El Capi). We thought that this was a great dining experience. Ray was wonderful and the food was wonderful. Out of 5 stars we give El Moro 5 stars. We took a cab back to Caribe Blu ($6 plus $1 tip= $7).
7/23/03 No Food!
We didnt eat at any restaurants this day. We did the Domino Safari (see posting) with Blue Angel, so we didnt have much food (granola bars and such) this day and were not in Cozumel. The one thing I did eat this day though was fruit. I LOVE the fruit down there! It is sooooooo good! I had the best mangos ever. I ate a whole one on the boat during the Domino Safari. Then we were catching the ferry back from Playa del Carmen to Cozumel we walked past a bunch of ladies that had a stand with cups of cut fruit. I bought a cup of mango slices for $1. I was wishing I bought more as I ate it on the ferry! That fruit is sooo good! Once we got back to Cozumel I was searching every day for stands like this, but I could not find them. Do they have them there? If so where?! I did find a couple of carts in the main plaza square that had some sliced mango, but it wasnt quite the same. The ladies in Playa del Carmen had all kinds of fruit and a lot of it.
7/24/03 Dinner at La Perlita
This was a place that was highly recommended to us by Blue Angel and our videographer Joe Mendoza. They did not let us down! This was by far the best place we ate in Cozumel! It is kind of over in that same area where El Moro is located. We took a cab from Caribe Blu across town to La Perlita ($5 plus $1 tip= $6). The menu here is all in Spanish. However, our kind waiter spent a lot of time translating all the different things for us. Ronny ordered the grouper fillet grilled with garlic butter ($9) and I decided on the camerones de coco - I think thats what they called it ($13). That was YUMMY! It was shrimp with coconut milk (kind of like a curry), celery, carrots, and onions. It had rice in the center of it. This food smelled so delicious when they were cooking it and tasted even better! Our food also came with chips/salsa, bread (something about this bread it was so fresh and good) and we had 2 aqua purificados. I also had a margarita (ok, but El Capis is much better) and Ronny had a shot of Hornitos. Our total bill was $36 plus $6 tip = $42. This food was so good and the service was excellent. We definitely give La Perlita 5 stars out of 5 stars! The other thing to note about this place is that its right across from this house that has a bunch of chickens. Its pretty entertaining to sit there and watch these chickens run back and forth across the street. There was this chicken - Chicken Little as we liked to call him - that we were cracking up over. This poor thing had no feathers! He looked like a naked chicken running around. We were wondering if he had escaped from the chopping block. The waiter told us that the other chickens did it to him poor little fella!
We had our waiter call a cab for us. We took a cab from La Perlita to downtown to do some shopping ($5 plus $1 tip = $6). After buying a few gifts we took a cab back to Caribe Blu ($5 plus $1 tip = $6).
7-25-03 Dinner at Casa Denis
We were very sad because this would be our last dinner in Cozumel. We had planned on shopping in the downtown plaza that night to buy our remaining gifts/souvenirs, so we decided to eat at a place downtown. I wanted to try Casa Denis or Plaza Leza, since Id heard that they were both good. We took a cab from Caribe Blu to the downtown plaza ($4 plus $1 tip = $5). Once we got downtown we needed to use an ATM, because we were running low on cash. We had brought a bunch of cash with us (lots of $1s for the maid and taxis) the rest in $20s. After seeing how easy it was to use the ATMs in Cozumel, I would bring less cash next time and just use my card to withdraw as we need it. We first tried the Bital ATM on the corner of the square, but it wouldnt work for us. We walked around to the back middle of the square and found the Bancomer ATM. That one worked just fine. After getting our cash we decided to go to Casa Denis for dinner. We were not disappointed! Im pretty sure the menu was in Spanish. Our waiter was very kind translating for us and telling us what was in the various dishes. I told him I wanted some pork (I was craving those pastores all week!) so I asked what he recommended. We ordered our food off his recommendations and it was excellent! Ronny ordered the pok chuk, which was pork chops grilled with tomatoes, beans and tortillas. I ordered the Maya pork, which was chunks of pork in a red sauce and also came with beans, tomatoes and tortillas. We also got the standard chips/salsa with our meal. I think we both had margaritas and 2 aqua purificados. Our total was $31 plus $6 tip = $36. Out of five stars we give Casa Denis five stars. Good food, good service, and good location.
***That concludes our dining experiences of Cozumel! I hope this helps someone else in their dining experiences. We highly recommend El Capi Navegante, El Moro, La Perlita and Casa Denis. They are excellent restaurants and we would go back in a second! El Capi Navegante and Casa Denis are close to all the shopping, so they are convenient. El Moro and La Perlita are way off the beaten path, but definitely worth the journey! Happy Eating!
