Here is our Playa Del Carmen Mexico Cheap Eats report. We didn’t receive anything for reviewing these restaurants. They didn’t even know we were reviewing them.
We hadn’t been to Playa Del Carmen in 3 years so we had to rediscover where to eat. Many of our favorite restaurants had closed under the weight of the pandemic. Here are the ones worth mentioning, both good and bad:
Juices (Restaurante Nativo): Where we get our pure fruit and vegetable juices with no sugar. The breakfast is okay also. Juices are 40 Pesos ($2 USD) per liter.
23 Pesos Food and Booze (Cervecería Chapultepec) Almost everything on the menu including food and alcohol drinks, is $23 Pesos ($1.10 USD) each. There are 5 locations, just look for the orange sign or Google search for “Cervecería Chapultepec near me.” The food is pretty good for $1 USD and the booze is way cheaper than anywhere in Playa except for grocery stores.
Hippie Cafe (Choux choux cafe): The coffee, croissants, and salad were fine but the breakfast was dry, overpriced and no integrated flavor.
Pesto (Don Mario): I had beautiful pesto pasta and Qiang had a ricotta spinach ravioli. We love the food though it was expensive at 200 Pesos ($10 USD) per entree.
Mexican Home Cooking (Dona-Paula Restaurant) Authentic Mexican food made by the owners and served by the owners. 40 to 65 Pesos ($2 to $3.50 USD) for complete meals including soup, salsa, and tortillas, and entree.
Get in Line (El Fogón): Qiang loved her meat tacos and especially for the money but the only vegetarian thing on the menu for me was boring.
Best Cheap Tacos in Playa Del Carmen (La Cochi Loka): I loved the vegetarian tacos and Qiang loved her meat tacos. Since Tacos are only around 20 Pesos ($ 1 USD) and this place is open late at night (for walk-up) you are sure to cure your late-night hunger here. But even when sober, the tacos are the best in town, especially for the money!
Cheapest Quesadillas in Playa Del Carmen (Las Quekas): A nice assortment of vegetarian and meat quesadillas for 15 Pesos ($0.75 USD) each.
Biggest Disappointment in Playa Del Carmen (Restaurante Ambasciata D’ Italia): This Italian place is right on 5th Ave and was decorated first class, so we hoped they could make a nice Margherita Pizza and Caprese Salad. Both were terrible. And to rub salt in our wounds, it was the most expensive meal we ate and the biggest disappointment. The tomatoes on the Caprese were not ripe, the dough on the pizza was undercooked, and both the cheese and the tomato sauce on the pizza had zero flavors. The waiter never even returned with the change from our bill. I guess he just assumed that 30% is what he deserved? We just laughed and walked away after waiting about 10 minutes.
We forgot our camera so these last three are not in the above video:
Best Pizza in Town (Trattoria del Centro): We forgot the camera so we did not film this place, but this was the best pizza we had while in Playa del Carmen.
Cafe Andrade: Very nice Mexican food almost as low as Mexican prices. We had some very nice Huevos Rancheros and Green Enchiladas. You will be surrounded by locals who know quality.
El Sangha-Rito: Cheap and quality. If you think $$ equals quality every time, you may need to listen to someone else. They have great traditional Mexican meals for less than $5 dollars and delicious juices. This is a Mexican family place that really cares about quality and delivers every time, so far. No booze, sorry kids.
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Thanks for reading my post–Playa Del Carmen Mexico Cheap Eats
This is Dan of Vagabond Awake, the YouTube Channel for Vagabond Buddha. The world is your home, what time will you be home for dinner?