La Playita Restaurant Isla Mujeres — Restaurant in Isla Mujeres

We were excited to visit La Playita on Isla Mujeres because of its beautiful beachfront setting, but our experience was disappointing overall.

Service: Extremely slow when seated near the beach. We waited over 30 minutes just for our drinks. Food: Actually very good — well-prepared and tasty. Incident: While setting the table, the server accidentally knocked something over and broke my phone screen protector. I said nothing because I understand accidents can happen.

Where it got unacceptable was during payment. Our bill came to 820 pesos. I told the server I would pay by card and tip in cash, and gave him 100 pesos as a tip.

Later, a lady colleague came with the card machine. Without saying the amount, she asked me to tap. I did, only to realize afterward that I had been charged 984 pesos — meaning they added a 164-peso tip without my consent.

When I asked about it, she acted like she did not understand. The original server came back, apologized, and returned the 100 pesos I gave him earlier, but when I asked for the 164 pesos charged on card back, he gave it to me but then told me I never tipped him — which was completely untrue.

🔍 Advice for others ✅ Check the amount on the machine before tapping your card ✅ Avoid tipping twice — clarify your intention clearly ✅ Keep an eye on the service if you sit near the beach

This place has potential with great food and location, but unfortunately the service, honesty, and attitude ruined it for us. I hope this helps other travelers avoid...

This restaurant deserves no stars. Let’s start with the fact that we nicely asked our waiter to switch out our fish tacos because the fish did not taste good (something was off with it). The waiter said “ I suggest the shrimp instead” at no time did the waiter say if we switch the plate they will still charge you the full price for both the fish and shrimp tacos (We would have not order anything additional and left). The fish tacos had one bite taken from it and they still charged us for both plates. After speaking with the “manager”, who was extremely rude and proceeded to put her hand in my husbands face we paid and left because going back and forth was not getting us anywhere. Please be mindful if you eat at this restaurants and do no think something taste “fresh, okay, or whatever” they will still charge you for the plate. We are not people who return food to the kitchen often but if something taste “off, or simply not good” management should be a little more...

We stopped in today, let me start with the good. This place is beautiful, super friendly and helpful staff, fantastic service. Now the not so good. The catch of the day, gave it's life to be killed all over again, poor fish. While there was good flavor on the skin the poor fish itself was fried to death and hard. My mistake for getting it fried, but from the other pictures I saw, it's the same for those other options as well. The coconut shrimp were amazing the tamarind dipping sauce, YUM! the nachos were good as well, but even bad nachos are good. The steak... wasn't edible. It was probably stored frozen and thawed with fish, as it had an odd flavor and had no grill marks. Honestly, it almost looked boiled.... drinks were good and strong. Overall, I wouldn't return or recommend. Unless you're there for drinks waiting on the ferry. NOT GOOD PRICES EITHER. We spent 150.00 US DOLLARS or 2,800 pesos on mediocrity. I honestly...