Photogenic Vacation Food & Drinks
You may have read (or…at least partially read) my long recap of our recent Tulum vacation. In it, I mentioned that I wanted to do a separate post with food and drink photos so that my recap wouldn’t get even longer than it already was. So, here I am with said post.
Non-Foodies on Vacation
John and I do not identify as “foodies.” We aren’t the type of people who research the “best” restaurants in a given area. I say “best” in quotations because IMO, best is totally subjective. We don’t make reservations at the hottest, trendiest spots in town. We have no interest in multi-course, expensive tasting menus. Most of the time, I feel like fine dining is overrated, not that memorable, and therefore not worth the price. So, we’re pretty basic in terms of our food interests. I’m perfectly happy to eat pizza and quesadillas.
We didn’t go to Tulum with any particular dining plans, though we knew we would try the Thai restaurant at our hotel, Mezzanine Hotel. We ended up eating there quite a bit (including three dinners there), and literally everything that came out of the kitchen during our whole week was so good.
Because I took lots of photos, I’ve collected them into a random slide show of the tastiness at Mezzanine. We ate there for breakfast, afternoon snacks (we’re not big on lunch), and dinner multiple times throughout our trip. Some of the items you see below were John’s, some were mine.
Outside Meals
Of course, we did eat outside of our hotel too. For our first meal outside of Mezzanine, we dined at Mi Amor, under the same umbrella company as our hotel. I started with a yummy purple cocktail called the Pin Up to toast Tr*mp’s criminal conviction:
We decided to share four vegetarian small plates, which ended up being too much food for the two of us to finish. Everything was beautiful and tasted good, starting with this fancy-looking guacamole:
The next dish that came out was Black Babaghanoush. While it was unique, it was our least favorite of the four dishes. The black garlic in it was a little much for me, though I did love that it had cheese hidden at the bottom:
Small plate number three was probably the most interesting: Red Dzikilpak, described on the menu as “Flavor packed local delicacy, creamy and earthy spread of ground pumpkin seeds and roasted tomatoes.” This was really delicious! The spread was so smooth:
Our final dish was Sweet Potato and Burrata (the burrata is hiding under those greens). I was pretty full by the time this came out, but I did still eat a bit of it and really enjoyed it. The burrata was what I was most excited about in this meal, and it did not disappoint!
Dinner on the Beach
Outside of Mezzanine, our favorite place to eat was Casa Maria Mexican Restaurant, located at Hotel Diamante K. We had peeked at the menu while walking to Mi Amor and decided we needed to eat there after we saw they had pizza.
What we hadn’t known until we arrived was that the restaurant’s outdoor dining tables are literally on the beach. So we had a front row seat to the sunset colors along the ocean as we dined with our toes in the sand. A fantastic setting!
I started with the Yaax cocktail: mezcal, controy, jalapeno, cucumber, and mint syrup, frosted with seed salt. SO GOOD.
John got fish ceviche to start:
We split a pepperoni pizza, which was exactly what I wanted after our cave cenote adventure that morning!
Japanese Dinner in Mexico
The next night, we decided to walk in the opposite direction for dinner than we had gone the couple nights prior. We decided on Kogure Japanese Resaurant at PocNa Hotel and sat on their beach patio. I forget what my drink was exactly—some type of margarita, I think with passionfruit or mango. It was pretty good with the spicy rim, but I didn’t end up loving the fruity flavor, whatever it was.
For dinner, I got the vegetarian poke bowl. It tasted fine but was pretty minimal, and the tofu was unseasoned and therefore uninteresting. Some cucumber and avocado would have been good additions to this bowl:
Not our favorite meal, but it was perfectly passable.
Back to the Beach
We enjoyed our time at Casa Maria so much that we returned for a second dinner there. This time, I got the vegan birria tacos—I figured I should eat tacos at least once while I was in Mexico!
The tacos were stuffed with flavorful mushrooms, and were somewhat of a disappointment because they didn’t come with anything besides the garnishes you see on the plate. I wish I had asked to de-veganize them by adding some cheese. The tacos needed a little something extra, but at least the mushrooms tasted good.
When you’re eating dinner right on the water, though, a not-super-exciting dish isn’t the worst thing in the world.
That just about does it for a dining show and tell from our Tulum vacation! Like I said, I did not expect to eat as much Thai food in Mexico as we did, but it was all so great. Tulum is one of those wellness vacation destinations (lots of hotels with yoga programs), so many of the restaurants are vegetarian and vegan friendly and have dishes marked as such on their menus. I believe I saw gluten free items marked at some places as well. There’s also an abundance of fresh juices, smoothies, and functional drinks or mocktails in addition to the cocktails.
Definitely check out the Thai dinner at Mezzanine Hotel if you’re ever in the area! I would absolutely recommend Casa Maria as well, even if you’re just grabbing a drink on the beach.
Hope you enjoyed a Tulum dining roundup from a non-foodie. 🙂 I’m not finished with Tulum just yet…a post about our souvenirs is coming soon.
