We arrived in Playa Del Carmen pretty late last night so by the time we got to our hotel, La Tortuga, it was close to 10pm (which is 11pm EST). Starving (shared a sandwich on the plane) and tired, we decided to just hit the hotel restaurant. During our check-in, while sipping our sweet, mixed, fruit drinks, they told us that we get 50% off the hotel restaurant, El Bistro, for our first night. Sweet!
We sat down, poolside (the pool is a nice lagoon design) to some chips and dip. The dip was extremely thick and creamy with a taste we knew but couldn’t identify immediately. After asking our waiter what was in it, it made sense. He said something about chicken soup, cheese cream, some other stuff, then cream. The two types of cream explain the ultra cream taste of it and we’re guessing that “flavor” is canned soup. Yea, not so good, and the chips were hit or miss too. Some pieces seemed freshly fried while others were stale.
I ordered the Shrimp and Huitlacoche Bisque, totally excited that I was going to try huitlacoche (we had just seen this on TV). Ok, so it’s a corn disease, described by words like tumors, fungus, and blue-black spores, but it’s a delicacy in Mexico. The best way I can describe the taste is it’s mushroom-y in a very earthy way, but also has a blue cheese quality to it. We’re not sure if we like it enough because the soup was really too concentrated, more like sauce than soup, so I wasn’t fond of it, but I may like it more if it was used more delicately.


El Bistro is also where we had breakfast this morning because it’s included in our hotel stay. For an included breakfast, it’s nice that it’s not a buffet. I get really sick of those on vacation. They offer something called fruit water, in a wide variety of flavors, so I tried the papaya. It’s basically fruit puree in water… I guess. Lon had juice, also offered in tons of flavors, but his peach was so sweet, he couldn’t drink it. I also had a latte that was too watered down.


Hope you guys have a great trip!
Also, your comment about Chinese takeout is esp. funny considering the “mexican” restaurants all around nyc that are run by asians.
Thanks Emily, you know, perhaps I have it backwards? Either way, there seems to be a lot of overlap.