a few restaurant questions
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
gopbroek
Contributor
La Terrace perhaps?Had a great steak n town up on a second floor restaurant, but can't recall the name....ill have to ask the wifey.....she remembers everything
La Terrace, Cozumel - Restaurant Reviews, Phone Number & Photos - TripAdvisor
OP
Since I started this thread, I might as well post a food-centric trip report. On the whole, the recommendations here were right on the mark—just what we asked for. Our M.O. was to eat our “big meal” in the early afternoon after returning from our 2-tanker, and then go out for tacos in the evening. We rode bikes to go out to eat during the day. In the evenings, we walked into town and took a taxi back. (Taxi story later.) We took care of our own breakfast needs, typically some combination of papaya, pineapple, and microwaved quesadillas in our unit at Villa Aldora. Good enough—breakfast is not really a thing for us. This was our most leisurely Coz trip to date. On previous trips we crammed in three or even four dives a day, leaving not nearly enough time for eating Mexican food.
We hit some of the recommendations twice, they were so good. On the question of casual, homey places similar to our beloved Los Otates, those who recommended El Moro were right. We hit El Moro the evening we arrived in Cozumel--a Saturday night--and the place was surprisingly empty and quiet. El Moro’s menu appeared to offer a wider range of items than Los Otates’. Someone had recommended the fish en papillote Moro, so I ordered that, and my wife went with the shrimp a la Veracruzana. Both dishes were indeed what I’d call homestyle. Mine was a simple fish fillet cooked in aluminum foil with onions, peppers, etc.—very subtle and mild. Pleasing enough. My wife had similar feelings about her shrimp dish. We were ready to grade the place a solid B in our minds, until the waiter brought us a complimentary digestif (some kind of anise liqueur). Okay, that was really nice of them. B+
The next day, eager for more seafood, we ate at Pescaderia San Carlos, which people had recommended in response to our request for seafood cocktails and ceviche. It also fits the “casual, home-y” category. Loved this place. We selected whole fish from a cooler. We were not given the complimentary ceviche for the table on this first visit, but we were given it on our second visit, which was a Sunday. We ordered a couple of types of ceviche, and it was fantastic. Ceviche is apparently much loved in Cozumel, as it is in many coastal places in Mexico and throughout Latin America. You can even find several varieties of ceviche in the Mega supermarket. At Pescaderia San Carlos, even the “medium” portion of ceviche is huge. On our Sunday visit, the owner came by to say hello. It would only be a slight exaggeration to say I could eat here every day. My only gripe is the loud DJ music.
On the question of taquerias, we investigated two of the suggestions: El Pique and Los Seras. It’s hard to say which we preferred. El Pique sells beer, Los Seras does not. Los Seras felt like the kind of place I’d like to stumble into after a night of drinking. Los Seras had a more limited menu than El Pique. However, on neither of our visits did El Pique have any of the less common cuts, such as ojo, cabeza, sesos, or even lengua. We sampled their pastor, arrachera, chorizo, and pancita (pork belly?). For pastor, we decided we preferred Los Seras over El Pique. But really, it’s all good. I also have to mention that El Pique has the best charro beans I have ever eaten—loaded with meaty bits. We sampled charro beans at a few places, and these were by far our favorites.
The next day, we couldn’t resist the siren call of Los Otates. I don’t know what it is about this place. Maybe it’s that the owner seems to take pride in offering dishses from his native Jalisco, such as the red pozole. The tacos are absolutely standard, by-the-book taqueria tacos. Probably no better and no worse than tacos at places that call themselves taquerias, such as El Pique and Los Seras. But everything is done just as we would expect it. Someday we will try something other than pozole and tacos, I swear.
La Conchita del Caribe seems to be recommended in the same breath as Pescaderia San Carlos, and now I see why. “Whole fried fish you select from a cooler.” We did not have a chance to try the ceviche, but instead went with seafood cocktails. The sauce is on the sweet side, as it is everywhere else we had cocteles. If we had had one more day in Coz, we would have paid this place a second visit. There’s probably a lot of good stuff on the menu. It felt like our kind of place.
In the middle of our 8-day trip we took a day off for, uh, offgassing (aka drinking and eating). We rode our bikes south of town to Sky Reef, as recommended by El Graduado in response to our question about octopus. It wasn’t full of cruise shippers when we visited, but I can see how it might be. What a great place to hang out for an afternoon. I ordered the grilled octopus, and my wife had something with the intriguing name of “chicharron de pulpo.” Octopus chicharrones? Well, it’s fried chunks of octopus. We both loved what we ordered. Portions were generous. Our starter of ceviche, however, was ordinary.
Since everyone seems to love the Mission restaurants, we tried to find what’s left of the one that sounded most appealing to us: Parilla Mission. It turns out it is not only no longer in its old location, but it’s no longer in the newer location mentioned in this thread, the palapa behind Casa Mission. Now, it’s even more integrated with Casa Mission. They seated us outside on the verandah/terrace. I LOVE a good arrachera, and I thought it was a good sign that their menu offers takeout arrachera by the kilo. However, I was disappointed. My arrachera platter arrived hardly lukewarm, and without any accompaniments, such as guacamole or cebollitas. We even had to request salsa! My arrachera sat there getting colder as we waited for an order of guacamole. When it arrived, it wasn’t just a side of guac, but rather a plate with chips stuck in it. My wife enjoyed her chile relleno, but said she can make a better one. The charro beans sucked, too. As we had never been here before, we obviously can’t say if Parilla Mission has gone downhill. In any case, the experience left us with no desire to try the other two Mission restaurants.
Last but not least, La Perlita. We were only able to visit once on this trip, but we will be back. Apparently, this is THE place for lionfish. I had the lionfish fillet in a mild red chile sauce, and my wife had the coconut-crusted lionfish fillet. Both were good. However, as good as the coconut-crusted lionfish was, I think it proves we’re just not into coconut-crusted anything. Invariably too sweet for our tastes, even the subtle version here. Really, if it’s a good piece of fish to begin with, then the less stuff between me and my fish, the better.
Oh, I forgot. We also had breakfast on our offgassing day at the Municipal Market. On previous trips we never had enough time to check the market out. The market itself looks great—everything a cook could need. Instead of eating at one of the busy stalls inside (next time!), we opted to have a leisurely more egg-centric breakfast at one of the restaurants on the perimeter. The Filipino/Malay/Indonesian place looks intriguing for next trip, too—we can’t get good Filipino food in Atlanta.
The taxi story. One evening we hailed a taxi, and instead of just handing the guy a 100 note on arrival at our destination, looking like we knew what change to expect, as we typically did, for some reason this time we asked him how much. His reply was 10 pesos over what the same fare previously had been at the same time of day, etc. When we asked him why that was, he hemmed and hawed and eventually came up with: “We have to pay for the wall, don’t we?” Great answer! We actually had a couple of taxi drivers who were fun to talk with in our Spanglish.
We hit some of the recommendations twice, they were so good. On the question of casual, homey places similar to our beloved Los Otates, those who recommended El Moro were right. We hit El Moro the evening we arrived in Cozumel--a Saturday night--and the place was surprisingly empty and quiet. El Moro’s menu appeared to offer a wider range of items than Los Otates’. Someone had recommended the fish en papillote Moro, so I ordered that, and my wife went with the shrimp a la Veracruzana. Both dishes were indeed what I’d call homestyle. Mine was a simple fish fillet cooked in aluminum foil with onions, peppers, etc.—very subtle and mild. Pleasing enough. My wife had similar feelings about her shrimp dish. We were ready to grade the place a solid B in our minds, until the waiter brought us a complimentary digestif (some kind of anise liqueur). Okay, that was really nice of them. B+
The next day, eager for more seafood, we ate at Pescaderia San Carlos, which people had recommended in response to our request for seafood cocktails and ceviche. It also fits the “casual, home-y” category. Loved this place. We selected whole fish from a cooler. We were not given the complimentary ceviche for the table on this first visit, but we were given it on our second visit, which was a Sunday. We ordered a couple of types of ceviche, and it was fantastic. Ceviche is apparently much loved in Cozumel, as it is in many coastal places in Mexico and throughout Latin America. You can even find several varieties of ceviche in the Mega supermarket. At Pescaderia San Carlos, even the “medium” portion of ceviche is huge. On our Sunday visit, the owner came by to say hello. It would only be a slight exaggeration to say I could eat here every day. My only gripe is the loud DJ music.
On the question of taquerias, we investigated two of the suggestions: El Pique and Los Seras. It’s hard to say which we preferred. El Pique sells beer, Los Seras does not. Los Seras felt like the kind of place I’d like to stumble into after a night of drinking. Los Seras had a more limited menu than El Pique. However, on neither of our visits did El Pique have any of the less common cuts, such as ojo, cabeza, sesos, or even lengua. We sampled their pastor, arrachera, chorizo, and pancita (pork belly?). For pastor, we decided we preferred Los Seras over El Pique. But really, it’s all good. I also have to mention that El Pique has the best charro beans I have ever eaten—loaded with meaty bits. We sampled charro beans at a few places, and these were by far our favorites.
The next day, we couldn’t resist the siren call of Los Otates. I don’t know what it is about this place. Maybe it’s that the owner seems to take pride in offering dishses from his native Jalisco, such as the red pozole. The tacos are absolutely standard, by-the-book taqueria tacos. Probably no better and no worse than tacos at places that call themselves taquerias, such as El Pique and Los Seras. But everything is done just as we would expect it. Someday we will try something other than pozole and tacos, I swear.
La Conchita del Caribe seems to be recommended in the same breath as Pescaderia San Carlos, and now I see why. “Whole fried fish you select from a cooler.” We did not have a chance to try the ceviche, but instead went with seafood cocktails. The sauce is on the sweet side, as it is everywhere else we had cocteles. If we had had one more day in Coz, we would have paid this place a second visit. There’s probably a lot of good stuff on the menu. It felt like our kind of place.
In the middle of our 8-day trip we took a day off for, uh, offgassing (aka drinking and eating). We rode our bikes south of town to Sky Reef, as recommended by El Graduado in response to our question about octopus. It wasn’t full of cruise shippers when we visited, but I can see how it might be. What a great place to hang out for an afternoon. I ordered the grilled octopus, and my wife had something with the intriguing name of “chicharron de pulpo.” Octopus chicharrones? Well, it’s fried chunks of octopus. We both loved what we ordered. Portions were generous. Our starter of ceviche, however, was ordinary.
Since everyone seems to love the Mission restaurants, we tried to find what’s left of the one that sounded most appealing to us: Parilla Mission. It turns out it is not only no longer in its old location, but it’s no longer in the newer location mentioned in this thread, the palapa behind Casa Mission. Now, it’s even more integrated with Casa Mission. They seated us outside on the verandah/terrace. I LOVE a good arrachera, and I thought it was a good sign that their menu offers takeout arrachera by the kilo. However, I was disappointed. My arrachera platter arrived hardly lukewarm, and without any accompaniments, such as guacamole or cebollitas. We even had to request salsa! My arrachera sat there getting colder as we waited for an order of guacamole. When it arrived, it wasn’t just a side of guac, but rather a plate with chips stuck in it. My wife enjoyed her chile relleno, but said she can make a better one. The charro beans sucked, too. As we had never been here before, we obviously can’t say if Parilla Mission has gone downhill. In any case, the experience left us with no desire to try the other two Mission restaurants.
Last but not least, La Perlita. We were only able to visit once on this trip, but we will be back. Apparently, this is THE place for lionfish. I had the lionfish fillet in a mild red chile sauce, and my wife had the coconut-crusted lionfish fillet. Both were good. However, as good as the coconut-crusted lionfish was, I think it proves we’re just not into coconut-crusted anything. Invariably too sweet for our tastes, even the subtle version here. Really, if it’s a good piece of fish to begin with, then the less stuff between me and my fish, the better.
Oh, I forgot. We also had breakfast on our offgassing day at the Municipal Market. On previous trips we never had enough time to check the market out. The market itself looks great—everything a cook could need. Instead of eating at one of the busy stalls inside (next time!), we opted to have a leisurely more egg-centric breakfast at one of the restaurants on the perimeter. The Filipino/Malay/Indonesian place looks intriguing for next trip, too—we can’t get good Filipino food in Atlanta.
The taxi story. One evening we hailed a taxi, and instead of just handing the guy a 100 note on arrival at our destination, looking like we knew what change to expect, as we typically did, for some reason this time we asked him how much. His reply was 10 pesos over what the same fare previously had been at the same time of day, etc. When we asked him why that was, he hemmed and hawed and eventually came up with: “We have to pay for the wall, don’t we?” Great answer! We actually had a couple of taxi drivers who were fun to talk with in our Spanglish.
Last edited:
El Moro = Xtabentun is the liquor. You really should have had Ray tell you the story. Oh, wait, here it is:
DjDiverDan
Contributor
What, no photos? Where is my Cozumel Food Porn?
morecowbells
Contributor
Just returned from a wonderful week in Cozumel. Hands down the best meal we had was at Cielito Lindo. Every dish tried from this place was flawless. In the past we always enjoyed a meal from Los Otates. Seemed lackluster this time. Food was spicy but not much on flavor or complex seasonings.
OP
Tacos look like tacos look everywhere. A fried fish on a plate looks like a fried fish on a plate looks everywhere.
mikeycanuk
Contributor
I've never taken a picture of my food, ever.
I did take lot's of pics of the decor at El Morro however, lol.
I did take lot's of pics of the decor at El Morro however, lol.
Katch
Contributor
Lionfish ceviche at La Perlita:
Very good, but I think I liked the grouper ceviche better (also at La Perlita).
Steve
Similar threads
