Restaurant recommendations for dinner?

[Janie88]

Kooben Laab is my current favourite for modestly priced, well-prepared food (mostly pasta, sometimes risotto as a special, the odd meat or seafood special, fantastic desserts). Well run kitchen by Italian chef. On 30th and between around 5 and 7 (or thereabouts). We go there all the time. I have had a couple of good sushi dinners (and I am really picky about sushi) at Cozumel Dreaming. Beautiful presentation. But it's very small...as is Kooben Laab (which last year added seats on their roof).

Thank you! This is making me want to NOT do an all inclusive more and more. I love good sushi. Good Italian. Good food in general. I am a fairly picky eater. I don't go on vacation for the food, and usually it's for the diving, but good food and meeting new people is always a wonderful bonus.

 

[Janie88]

#1 Stall #46 at the market, making one of the many sope's I had there... delicious and only $1
#2 Price menu for stall #46
#3 The sope.
#4 Juice/ blended shake spot in the market... seemed like a gallon of 'blended juice' for a few bucks if I remember correctly...
#5 A Meal from another restaurant, sit down place, in the market. Likely less the $5 or $6, with a Coke.
#6-8 Las Palmas, not the tourist trap, the real one...
#9 El Moro... good spot, great spot if you're a diver (whice we all are on here )

**All pictures are from Jan. 2020... not sure who's still in business, but I'll find out in person this summer**

Wow. What great suggestions. Thank you to everyone for being so specific.

So getting a bit off topic but along with eating out and not staying at an AI:
1. Pesos - It looks like many people recommend not exchanging until you get to the island and going to one of the two main grocery stores? How much pesos do you recommend to have for the week of eating out? It would be two of us.
2. Rental car - do many of you rent a car while on island?

 

[Janie88]

#1 Stall #46 at the market, making one of the many sope's I had there... delicious and only $1
#2 Price menu for stall #46
#3 The sope.
#4 Juice/ blended shake spot in the market... seemed like a gallon of 'blended juice' for a few bucks if I remember correctly...
#5 A Meal from another restaurant, sit down place, in the market. Likely less the $5 or $6, with a Coke.
#6-8 Las Palmas, not the tourist trap, the real one...
#9 El Moro... good spot, great spot if you're a diver (whice we all are on here )

**All pictures are from Jan. 2020... not sure who's still in business, but I'll find out in person this summer**

The sope looks wonderful !! I have NEVER had one.

 

[Janie88]

#1 Stall #46 at the market, making one of the many sope's I had there... delicious and only $1
#2 Price menu for stall #46
#3 The sope.
#4 Juice/ blended shake spot in the market... seemed like a gallon of 'blended juice' for a few bucks if I remember correctly...
#5 A Meal from another restaurant, sit down place, in the market. Likely less the $5 or $6, with a Coke.
#6-8 Las Palmas, not the tourist trap, the real one...
#9 El Moro... good spot, great spot if you're a diver (whice we all are on here )

**All pictures are from Jan. 2020... not sure who's still in business, but I'll find out in person this summer**

Okay. I just scrolled through all the pictures. I don't think I want to do AI now. How expensive would you say it is to eat out for an entire week for two people, on average? I know it depends on where you go to eat, but what would be a comfortable amount to figure in your budget for a week's stay? I really don't plan on eating breakfast out and would either stay somewhere that included breakfast or stay at a place where I had a little kitchenette, enough to make oatmeal, toast in the mornings. We don't want a heavy breakfast anyway before diving.

 

[noj3333]

That would be Palmeras, formerly known as Las Palmeras.

Yes, you are correct, I edited my original post to avoid confusion. Thank you for pointing that out... I'm not sure how I made that mistake!

 

[noj3333]

@Janie88 I am far from a Cozumel expert, but I'll give some additional information from my experience.

I stay at Hotel Plaza Cozumel. It's dirt cheap, but the rooms are clean, and comfortable. The a/c there is ice cold, the internet is fast and reliable, and there's even a small roof top pool. As a bonus they include a very nice breakfast, with a small buffet of fresh fruit, juice, coffee, scrambled eggs, etc. With the breakfast they also let you order off a menu. I loved their huevos rancheros, it was delicious. I just booked another trip down and paid $33/ night.

As far as eating... budget some money for some more expensive meals. I loved the market and Palmeras, but I didn't eat their exclusively. If I was feeling like something different I'd hit up Le Chef dinner (meal for two would be $30-$40+), Crazy King Burrito for lunch (meal for two $25). The prices of the market and Las Palmeras are not reflective of the entire island, just an example of what you can get for a few bucks...

 

[deepsea21]

1. Pesos - It looks like many people recommend not exchanging until you get to the island and going to one of the two main grocery stores? How much pesos do you recommend to have for the week of eating out? It would be two of us.
2. Rental car - do many of you rent a car while on island?

1) The bank ATM's at the Mega supermarket (think Mexican Walmart with piles of food) that is 2 or 3 blocks south of the Casa Mexicana and all bank ATM's tend to have limits on how many Pesos you can pull at once. I think the limit is generally around 6,000 to 7,000 so think about $350 US Max. We just pull the Max and use them for dining, shopping, tips, cab, fares, etc. We never use a credit card on the island other than to pay for accommodations and diving. I'd say pull 7,000 pesos to get started. Mega is also where you can pick up fruit, fresh bakery, anything for breakfast you may want if you don't want to squeeze in the free breakfast offered at the Casa or elsewhere.

2) Been traveling to Coz annually for almost 20 years and never rented a car... No need when staying in town. If you don't feel like walking to the distant restaurants there are taxi stands everywhere. $3 US or 60 Pesos will get you about anywhere you'd want to go "in town" including a tip if you don't feel like walking. As we dive with Tres Pelicanos, they offer free courtesy transport from their shop in town down to the marina where all the boats are. Remember, an in-town boat pick-up at the in-town pier sounds good but realistically it's faster to get driven down to the marina and get on the boats there as the best diving is further south... Cars move faster than boats and if it's cold or raining you'll be happier in a car being driven back to town than riding in an open boat all the way up to the in-town pier.

If you don't want to pay for international data and cell coverage on your smart phone, before your departure, download the free map for Cozumel from Google maps to your phone. I think the map resides in your phone's memory for 30? days before it self deletes. That way, when walking around you never get lost and can find every restaurant you are looking for.

I say stay in town. Those AI's may as well be land-based cruise ships in my opinion. One just misses so much staying at those AI's.

 

[cozcharlie]

I started typing this the got distracted. Basically agree with everything @deepsea21 said. Casa Mexicana or one of the B&Bs might be good for you if you want breakfast and want to stay in town. Someone posted on Hotel Plaza while I was typing this.

Food budget is really hard to say. If you are eating tacos it would probably as little as 100 pesos (5 USD) per person per day , if you are eating at nice restaurants and ordering wine you could average 700 pesos per person per day if not more if you drink a fair amount.

To give you an example of price —Cozumel Dreaming is around 430 pesos per person all you can eat. Probably figure 500 pesos per person including tip. I can’t remember if it includes a drink or not. I have primarily been ordering delivery due to Covid. (Eating at the restaurant is the way to go during normal times , but small indoor spaces not exactly high on my list right now ).

The flip side of this that is Mister Taco(decent walk from the waterfront , but the taco place I am most familiar with ) I think the tacos are in the 20-25 pesos range and average person probably gets 3 tacos (light eaters might get 2 and heavy eaters might get 4 or 5). Total average bill with drink probably less than 100 pesos

Given you are talking about 2 people for a week , I would probably just get 6,000-7,000 pesos my first day and see how long it lasts. I would just recommend a grocery store, but using one in a bank branch clearly works also. In addition to food, you also have dive tips and booze you can spend it on. The crews don’t really care whether you tip in pesos or dollars but it is easier for everyone if you just tip along the way rather than trying to do something on credit card at the end. At most shops your DM and captain will likely change during the trip so sorting out who gets what at the end can be a pain. Point is that if you aren’t spending as many pesos as expected for food/booze (a rare occurrence ), you can shift to using for tips. For two people diving a lot the tips can make a dent in your pesos fairly quickly, especially if you are doing 4 dives per day as I think you said was a possibility

I would lean against a car for the trip based on what you are saying. If you are staying downtown and diving with a shop that uses one of those piers it is clearly not necessary and more trouble than it is worth to rent a car for your entire stay. I actually haven’t dove from a downtown pier in 15+ years so don’t know who still uses those piers. Even you are leaving from marina, taxis are still very plentiful and pretty cheap (just ask the cost before you get in the taxi ). They are plentiful during normal times and now without the cruise ships the supply is 3X the demand. Only question would be your Covid risk aversion. You had said you were in medical field so assuming you have been or soon will be vaccinated so risk of your getting seriously ill here is low. However even if you have been vaccinated if you get a variant where vaccines are less effective you will test positive and get stuck here for a while (though most of the data says you will not be very sick in this case ).

I would consider renting a car for one day and going to the east side at some point during the trip, though this is something I would play by ear.

Just as further background—Parking is a lot more of pain than it once was, though there are lots but the hours can vary. Over the years, the municipal authorities have widened the sidewalks on some streets and put in bike lanes on others. I don’t mind the nicer sidewalks or the bike lanes, but took out a whole bunch of the parking on the island. I have my own car , but I generally hear good things about Rentadora ISIS. I actually used to rent from Hertz.

 

[Janie88]

I started typing this the got distracted. Basically agree with everything @deepsea21 said. Casa Mexicana or one of the B&Bs might be good for you if you want breakfast and want to stay in town. Someone posted on Hotel Plaza while I was typing this.

Food budget is really hard to say. If you are eating tacos it would probably as little as 100 pesos (5 USD) per person per day , if you are eating at nice restaurants and ordering wine you could average 700 pesos per person per day if not more if you drink a fair amount.

To give you an example of price —Cozumel Dreaming is around 430 pesos per person all you can eat. Probably figure 500 pesos per person including tip. I can’t remember if it includes a drink or not. I have primarily been ordering delivery due to Covid. (Eating at the restaurant is the way to go during normal times , but small indoor spaces not exactly high on my list right now ).

The flip side of this that is Mister Taco(decent walk from the waterfront , but the taco place I am most familiar with ) I think the tacos are in the 20-25 pesos range and average person probably gets 3 tacos (light eaters might get 2 and heavy eaters might get 4 or 5). Total average bill with drink probably less than 100 pesos

Given you are talking about 2 people for a week , I would probably just get 6,000-7,000 pesos my first day and see how long it lasts. I would just recommend a grocery store, but using one in a bank branch clearly works also. In addition to food, you also have dive tips and booze you can spend it on. The crews don’t really care whether you tip in pesos or dollars but it is easier for everyone if you just tip along the way rather than trying to do something on credit card at the end. At most shops your DM and captain will likely change during the trip so sorting out who gets what at the end can be a pain. Point is that if you aren’t spending as many pesos as expected for food/booze (a rare occurrence ), you can shift to using for tips. For two people diving a lot the tips can make a dent in your pesos fairly quickly, especially if you are doing 4 dives per day as I think you said was a possibility

I would lean against a car for the trip based on what you are saying. If you are staying downtown and diving with a shop that uses one of those piers it is clearly not necessary and more trouble than it is worth to rent a car for your entire stay. I actually haven’t dove from a downtown pier in 15+ years so don’t know who still uses those piers. Even you are leaving from marina, taxis are still very plentiful and pretty cheap (just ask the cost before you get in the taxi ). They are plentiful during normal times and now without the cruise ships the supply is 3X the demand. Only question would be your Covid risk aversion. You had said you were in medical field so assuming you have been or soon will be vaccinated so risk of your getting seriously ill here is low. However even if you have been vaccinated if you get a variant where vaccines are less effective you will test positive and get stuck here for a while (though most of the data says you will not be very sick in this case ).

I would consider renting a car for one day and going to the east side at some point during the trip, though this is something I would play by ear.

Just as further background—Parking is a lot more of pain than it once was, though there are lots but the hours can vary. Over the years, the municipal authorities have widened the sidewalks on some streets and put in bike lanes on others. I don’t mind the nicer sidewalks or the bike lanes, but took out a whole bunch of the parking on the island. I have my own car , but I generally hear good things about Rentadora ISIS. I actually used to rent from Hertz.

@cozcharlie: Thanks for suggestions on money/pesos. We do not drink alcohol so that saves a lot of money right there! Would probably eat at easy/economical places for the most part, maybe do a higher end dinner one night, maybe the last night of our trip.

 

[ggunn]

Wow. What great suggestions. Thank you to everyone for being so specific.

So getting a bit off topic but along with eating out and not staying at an AI:
1. Pesos - It looks like many people recommend not exchanging until you get to the island and going to one of the two main grocery stores? How much pesos do you recommend to have for the week of eating out? It would be two of us.
2. Rental car - do many of you rent a car while on island?

1. I find that the cost of eating out on Cozumel is very comparable with eating out in Austin where I live. The low and high ends of the spectrum are much the same. I think if you budget eating out every night on Cozumel as it would cost there in Columbus you won't be far off the mark.
2. I never rent a car on Cozumel. Cabs are cheap and plentiful, and dealing with parking is a challenge, plus there's the navigation through all the one way streets, the limited visibility at intersections, the hordes of scooters around town (many of them driven by gringos under the influence), and the difficulties if you get a parking ticket, get caught drinking and driving, get involved in an accident, or get snared by scams buying gasoline or getting blamed for damage to the car that you did not cause. We even hire a cab for the day to take my group around the island. If you are staying in town I see no need to rent a car.