Tulum, Day 3

Coco
Yoga today was held at a place on the beach just right of Coco Hotel.  We went through the grounds of Coco Hotel to get there. 

Yogashack
Once you do that, you can’t miss the place.  A platform on the beach for yoga.  It is pretty sweet to do yoga in that environment. 

 
Postyoga
After yoga, we went back home for breakfast, coffee and of course a big nap on the beach. 

Cesnos
Feeling like we had to do some late afternoon activity we walked across the street to one of the many cenotes.  A cenotes is basically a swimming hole where you can supposedly snorkel and see fish.

Jo:vannesa
We walked through an area with small tents which I assume people rent for the night.  Then we got to the cenote.  Certainly not what we expected but the woman who ran the place gave us some snorkeling goggles and we jumped in.  I didn’t see a fish but the water was nice and at least we could laugh about the activity at dinner.

Gelato
Next stop was to check out the local gelato.  Not bad and a nice treat in the hot afternoon.

Hardwood
Dinner tonight was at Hartwood.  This particular restaurant was just written up in the NYTimes a few weeks ago.   Ex-NY chef opened up his own place around mid-December.  Previously he cooked at Peasant and Vinegar Hill.  He told us that he came down about a year ago, bought the land and built his own place himself.   Very cool life change. 

Bar
The setting is beautiful.  Big outdoor wood burning oven.   I particularly loved the huge table where food is plated and the boxes of fresh vegetables stacked in front.  Visually he did an incredible job. 

Pitchers
It would be helpful if he hired a few more people to help him.  This was actually a conservation we heard at yoga the next day too.  His wife is working the bar, tending to the seating and everything else so a drink order takes quite a while. 

Dipandbread
The table is given square pieces of crispy pitas and a bland bean dip.  Not so good. 

Lentil
Just like everything else in Tulum at night, the lights are quite dim.  Seeing your food was a challenge.  We each had a salad to start.  I went with the lentil salad.  A nice combo of flavors. The beet salad was also quite good.  Each salad had 5 different ingredients going on and were each really well done. 

Octo
The octopus salad was probably the best of all the salads.

Fish
I went with the whole fish.  Sliced fennel, a variety of different vegetables and some interesting fruits that are from Mexico.  The fish sits over the top.  Hard to eat a whole fish when you can’t see it.  Totally disappointed on the fish.  A really flaky tasteless fish is not what the dish calls out for.  A whole grilled fish needs to have some meat like a sea bass.  I barely ate mine.

A few people had the pork ribs with cole slaw.  The ribs had been roasted for hours and were really tasty and just fell off the bone.  The cole slaw had a nice kick and good flavors.  The osso bucco, I know not the smartest thing to put on a menu in heat, was interesting but not great.  The best things were the side dishes; eggplant, sweet potatoes and beet greens.

Cake
We did opt for dessert.  Olive oil cake with a cream cheese frosting and coconut which was moist and quite good.

Home to bed.  As I said earlier, you don’t come to Tulum for the food, you come to unwind.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments (Archived):

  1. Jlix

    our best meals in tulum: Suenos– a hotel near Las Ranitas that doesn’t have a real restaurant but the owner will cook for you if you ask him. Pizza at Zamas (and the whole fish there is more hit then miss) lunch or dinner at Dos Ciebas, tiny place near the biosphere, Mayan Grill (might be closed) literally 2 tables and fantastic food close to the ruins. La Naverre in town (all the in town places are better then the beach side ones– and cheaper!)

    1. Gotham Gal

      thanks for adding to this. for all you people going to tulum in the nextfew years this is great info.

    2. Dorothy McGivney

      I stayed at Suenos and really loved my time there, including the dinner I had. I also really enjoyed eating at Tablano and Casa Violeta, too. Some more notes here if you return: http://www.jauntsetter.com/