1. Cancun is a fantastic food destination with diverse dining options.
2. Explore the explosive food scene influenced by international chefs and local flavors.
3. Discover top restaurants like Tempo by Martin Berasategui, Cocina de Autor, and Labna.
Mexico’s mega-destination has fantastic food. Here’s where to dine deliciously
Fact checked by
Patrice Williams
Cancun Is a Perfect Recipe for Distinctive Dining
Cancun is America’s #1 foreign travel destination for many good reasons. It’s close, it’s beautiful, it’s fun.
Here’s Why Cancun’s Foodie Scene Has Exploded
Cancun has become an international dining mecca, too. The ingredients of Cancun’s foodie boom:
• Cancun’s prosperity, which has made it a magnet for international chefs
• Mexico’s homegrown crop of gifted young chefs
• The rich traditions and unique flavors of Mexican cuisine
• Cancun’s local cornucopia of fresh-caught Caribbean seafood and exotic Yucatecan produce
• An array of hotels, both all-inclusive and a la carte, with the budget, clientele, and vision to support high-end restaurants
• A sociable, sophisticated dining festival, the Cancun-Riviera Maya Wine & Food Festival
Hungry Yet?
All this adds up to a win-win for gourmet travelers. These are the best restaurants in Cancun.
TEMPO by MARTIN BERASATEGUI
Foodies Everywhere Stopped and Looked
Address
Paradisus Cancun Resort, Km 16.5, Blvd. Kukulcan, Zona Hotelera, 77500 Cancún, Q.R., Mexico
Phone +52 998 881 1790
The opening of Tempo by Martin Berasategui in Gran Melia Paradisus Cancun hotel has raised Cancun in the esteem of foodies everywhere. The restaurant glitters with mosaic mirror walls, and the food is just as resplendent.
The Top Guy Here is One of Spain’s Reigning Celebrity Chefs
Tempo is helmed by superstar chef Martin Berasategui of San Sebastian, Spain. This restaurant showcases the master’s formidable technique and eye for striking colors. In my estimation, Berasategui is a genius, and Tempo perches at the very pinnacle of Cancun dining.
As a dining critic, I try not to rave uncontrollably. But this could be the best cooking ever seen in the Yucatan peninsula.
The Menu Is a Hit Parade
Tempo by Martin Berasategui offers an a la carte menu and a nine-course tasting dinner with wine pairings. How much dazzle can you take? Past menu highlights includes:
• A Basque-style dish of tomato stuffed with baby squid and matchless Iberian pork tenderloin (the chef’s heritage and name are Basque)
• Unforgettable desserts. Tempo’s colorful, flavorful Mexican chocolate brownie with citrus marmalade, yogurt sauce, and tangerine sorbet is a primal indulgence
COCINA DE AUTOR
Cocina de Autor: Swanky and Scrumptious
Address
Carr. Cancún – Tulum Km 62, 77710 Playa del Carmen, Q.R., Mexico
Phone +52 322 176 0237
This elegant downtown Cancun restaurant is set in the Spanish Colonial mansion. As of 2014, this elegant eatery is Cancun’s only recipient of the prestigious AAA Five Diamond designation.
With just 38 seats, Cocina de Autor is an intimate and private-feeling feast. There are two seatings per night, Monday through Saturday.
The restaurant offers pages of menu selections and varied dining environments. Diners may sup in Cocina de Autor’s chandelier-lit salon; in the Veuve Cliquot private dining room; or amidst flowering vines on the patio.
Cocina de Autor means author’s cuisine.
Expect modern fusion food, artfully cooked and gorgeously presented, progressive in approach yet full-flavored and hearty. The chef calls upon a world of ingredients including fresh-caught Caribbean lobster; Argentinean-Italian parmesan cheese; crunchy Mexican chapulines, and huitlacoche, often called “Mexican truffles.” The house bubbly is Champagne Veuve Clicquot from France.
Dishes to Try at Cocina de Autor
• Tuna ‘Kivi’ with couscous, Kalamata olives, capers, and corn
• Scallops roasted with portobello mushrooms
• Octopus carpaccio on greens with citrus vinaigrette
• Lechon roast piglet with Argentinean chimichurri sauce
• Huitlacoche ravioli with suckling pig
• Osso buco with three chilies
• Dessert trilogy
LABNA
What Did the People Who Built Chichen Itza Eat? Find Out Here (and Be Impressed)
Address
Calle Margaritas #25 Mz 20 SM 22, SM 22, Centro, 77500 Cancún, Q.R., Mexico
Phone +52 998 884 3158
Labna is named for mesmerizing Mayan ruins a few hours away, a satellite temple complex to the towering Chichen Itza. Labna is set in downtown Cancun, a 10-to-15-minute cab ride from the Zona Hotelera.
Labna’s atmosphere is nostalgic, with romantic low lighting, hand-carved Colonial-era Mexican furniture, and courtly, old-fashioned servers. Prices are as gentle as the waitstaff.
Many Mexicans Feel Mayan Cuisine Is Their Country’s Best
Labna is the very best of the few Cancun restaurants dedicated to the wondrous cuisine of the local region of the Yucatan. Comida Yucateca is arguably Mexico’s most flavorful native cooking style.
Yucatan cuisine is influenced by Mayan and Caribbean culture. It is fragrant with local spices, tart with local citrus fruits, red with annatto seeds (also called achiote), and spicy with fiery habanero chiles. Slow-cooked turkey and pork dishes are especially savory.
Marvelous Mayan Dishes to Try at Labna
• Poc chuc, pork baked with tart local oranges
• Sopa de lima, tortilla soup with lime and turkey
• Cochinita pibil, pork wrapped in banana leaves and baked with achiote and garlic, the signature dish of comida Yucateca
THE CULINARY CENTER AT THE RITZ-CARLTON, CANCUN
What’s for Dinner Tonight, Hon?
Address
Rtno. del Rey 36, Zona Hotelera, 77500 Cancún, Q.R., Mexico
Phone +52 998 881 0808
And now for something different: dinner that you help cook. One way to get off the restaurant grid, in a good way, is to take kitchen classes at the Culinary Center at The Ritz-Carlton, Cancun.
Here, Chef Mara-Isabel Barba entertains lucky vacationers with personal stories, cooking pointers, and simple yet perfect dishes. Chef Mara can work magic with a chicken and a bowl of peppers. Your own kitchen life could change.
And You Won’t Have Any Dishes to Do
The wine (and tequila) flow, and so does convivial conversation once dinner’s ready to be served and savored. It’s a great Cancun evening.
No doubt, you will enjoy your culinary evening at this classy yet lively hotel, whose walls are adorned with historic paintings of pre-industrial Mexico.
The Ritz-Carlton Cancun’s Restaurants Rock, Too
Should you decide to return for a restaurant meal at The Ritz-Carlton the property’s Mediterranean spot, Fantino, and its steakhouse, The Club Grill, are two of Cancun’s highest-rated eateries.
