Fred's | The best seafood in Cancun — Restaurant in Cancún

I will preface this review by mentioning I have been to Cancun probably a minimum of 15 times and have been to Fred’s several times before on previous trips and enjoyed it - in particular, you used to be able to sit outside in your own palapa, which offered a respite from booming house music that all Anderson group restaurants seem to require throughout the dining area.

With that being said, when we arrived and were told there were no palapas, we told them that was fine but requested a quiet table. They acknowledged the request and then took us to a table seated next to 3 TVs blasting the Super Bowl at movie-theater level volume, but also next to the outdoor seating which features that signature booming house music. It was a sensory nightmare.

Ultimately the food was fine. The service was very, very disappointing. There is this odd phenomenon at Fred’s where multiple waiters attend to your table at once almost as a charade to suggest that the service is top-notch and you’re being heavily attended to, but all those people come by the table every 2 minutes and we still have to ask for a refill of water? Why are you not noticing we are out of water and just refilling it automatically? It’s really basic service that is just completely absent.

My impression is that they are attempting to present this atmosphere of upscale dining and attentiveness (I was probably asked by 4 different people if we had any food allergies - no, I don’t but thanks for listening to my reply the first 3 times you asked), yet when we were directly asked on two occasions how things were by staff and we gave an honest answer (that it was way too loud in here), the response was basically “yeah it’s the Super Bowl” - basically no apology or attempt to accommodate whatsoever. And again, for a place trying to be upscale, they really seem to struggle with service and pacing - constantly coming to the table to rush you through the meal but when they ask you how things are going, they are not listening to you whatsoever. It was super off putting and uncomfortable to have someone smiling and nodding while you tell them you’re uncomfortable - to the point that it almost made me want to rush too to get out of there. It comes off that they didn’t care how our experience was, they just wanted to get us out to turn the table over.

Unfortunately when you make a reservation online you have to put down a deposit of $100 per person, because we would have left after about 5 minutes if we hadn’t already paid $300 to hold the table, the service was that bad.

Long story short, the food is fine, the service was honestly so unbelievably awful - we come to Cancun every year and definitely will not be coming...

Sherry and I were staying at an all-inclusive resort for 5 nights and transferred to a Marriott for our final two nights.  After eating All Inclusive food for a week, we were looking for a nice meal at a place with great ambiance and service. We read about Fred’s on various sites and as it was right across the street, we decided to give it a try.

Firstly, the place is really pretty with plenty of small accents to see along the way.  We were seated on the patio facing the gorgeous lagoon just after the sun set.  We could see the city in the distance as the music played in the background.

Our wait team was Abraham and Oscar; two professional, attentive, helpful and friendly people.  They had great smiles and were there for our every need without hovering.

We got our drinks and shared a Caesar salad to start. Delicious.  Sherry then had a mixed paella and I had Caribbean lobster.  I’ve been waiting to eat it here all week.

The paella was perfect.  Very flavorful and more than enough.  It was filled with fresh clams and mussels along with squid, scallops, shrimp and meats.  Yum.

I had my 11 ounce lobster tail steamed.  That’s 11 ounces along with the weight of the shell.   It seemed small on my plate but I guess that’s what you get for the going rate of $75.  It was meaty and firm.  The flavor was okay.  I’m a New Englander so I’m used to Maine lobster, much more flavorful in my opinion.   Hey I can say I tried it.  It wasn’t Fred, it was just what the taste was for this type of lobster

After Abraham shared a video presentation of the desserts, we settled on the crepe cake.  Oh man, what an amazing dessert! Layers of crepes filled with chocolate, caramel, cream and nuts.  The presentation was even better with Abraham and Oscar lighting to silver boat filled with some sort of liquor.  They took great measures to theatrically pour it from one to the other and finally onto the crepe cake!  It was so freaking good!  And so big!  I’m glad we shared it.

Fred’s is casual fine dining and not cheap.  The lobster put it over the top but if I ordered a comparable dish as my wife,  it would have been just over $100 before tip.  Ours was $160 with the lobster.

Abraham and Oscar were part of the reason we loved the experience - great job!  On the way out we saw that the music was played by a couple of DJs.   Awesome job,  the music was perfect.

Try Fred’s, you won’t be...

We went here for our final dinner in Cancun. It had pretty good ratings, & the wife wanted seafood. I'd made reservations, but at first they said they only had availability inside. I said we were disappointed, as we were celebrating our anniversary & had hoped to sit next to the water. They asked us to wait a few minutes (we were 15 minutes early anyway), then sat us next to the lagoon.

Our server was very fast & very friendly. The wife doesn't usually get an appetizer, as she fills up & can't finish main meal, so she contented herself with bread while I had the lobster bisque. It was very nice, but I don't think it was the best I'd ever had. Maybe second best.

For the main meal, the wife got grilled salmon, which was a generous portion with some nice, spicy sauces. She enjoyed it very much. I'm not a huge seafood eater, so I went for the fish & chips, which were actually very nice, with a tangy tartar sauce & another mango-pineapple sauce. I didn't care for that too much as it was too sweet for my taste.

We weren't planning on having dessert, as we were going to stop back at the hotel restaurant for churros; however, the server brought over a little dessert cake with a Roman candle spraying out the top for our anniversary. It was topped with some biscuits, which I ate, because the cake itself was very sweet. Neither of us could finish due to the sweetness and being full. We were really full by this point, but they finished off the meal with two small coconut balls under a small palm tree.

Overall, it was a very nice experience; however, the food delivery was very slow. I'd say we sat well over half an hour before we received our main course. The manager did come over & apologize, serving us a complimentary guacamole dip with pork rind wafers. The place is pretty large & was very busy, with servers & busboys running around, but I guess the kitchen couldn't keep up. We heard another customer complaining about the length of time it took for her food. Still, we were in no hurry so we would definitely...