Mar-Bella Fish Market Isla Mujeres — Restaurant in Isla Mujeres

The space is fantastic and the food is honestly very fresh and good. All The dishes were truly good. It’s heart breaking to see the place so empty when all the other restaurants are so busy and the food is not half as good as yours.

I believe the way the menu is done is a big problem , not having prices for food and drinks menu make the costumers uneasy. Dont understand the benefit of not having a drink list in writing ? Waiters gave us different prices for the same drinks ( in the end our drinks were cheaper than quoted 🤔) I would have order way more

The waiters struggled to explain the concept. Whereas I understand the market concept I think most of the costumers don’t and many of them won’t visit because of that . Fluctuating prices make the restaurant look cagey. Also if it’s a concept we’re the fish goes by weight ( before cleaning the fish ) this is to be done in front of the costumer , you can’t charge by weight if we don’t know what’s the weight

The prices are the end are not unfair ( 2,000 mxp for 2 with great food and 5 drinks) I would have order way more if I would have known what my bill will be. And I would be back next day !

Would the owners consider having 2-3 sizes for the portions at a fix price ? Starters at a fix price ? Fish for mains by weight with a scale ? When most of the tourist goes online the first thing they look believe or not is the menu and prices and compare restaurants. The moment they don’t see yours they simply move on into another restaurant. The biggest issue, we restaurants can have is not high food cost but empty tables ! Many tables won’t be filled because of this, think how much fish another 30 costumers will allow you to buy ;)

Lorenzinos in Cancún is a great example , they are not cheap but they are a great value and transparent. Most of the dishes have price and few signatures goes by weight , you go pick your fish , weight it and be hoy it

There is a lot that can be done to make this the best restaurant here .

You got everything right besides the menu structure ! Cmon get this easy thing right and run an amazing business ,...

Extremely poor experience. The place looks very promising, its cozy and have beach front. But yet all other it's one big disappointment. Make sure to check your bill DOUBLE (about this it's written in the end). We were prepared that prices are depends on the weight of fish / seafood that you order. We didn't have one waiter, there were plenty people running around restaurant without any organisation. It tooks around 45min that anyone came to take an order (restaurant wasn't ocupated). Anyone couldn't say differences beetwen fishes - so basically if you don't have any idea about these, it's like a fish roulette. In the end they said the fresh what they have it's 'catch of the day'. It makes me confused about other positions (are they frozen?). In the end we decided to take 'catch of the day" and octopus. Both was really fresh. However my fish was nothing special, while octopus was like a gum. Stuff it's very lazy and not interested on the guests. I needed to ask couple times for mine drinks - 4 times for my water and glass of wine. But in the meantime you can see how they chatting and joking beetwen eachother just giving damm about guests in restaurant. Aha, one more thing - if you want fillet from the fish you'll pay for a whole fish and extra for a fillet. In my case whole fish was 600 plus 210 for fillet. Here we got to the finall: check your bill DOUBLE or even TRIPLE!!!! First of all they add some extra beverages to the bill which we haven't had. Secondly they give you TWO PRICES on the check. One it's your finall price and below its suggested price with the tip (which was 25% of all). Remember that there it's not tip included but you don't need to take price which they suggest you to pay - especially with this quality of service. I like good food and nice service, doesn't matter of the price, but I really hate when someone want to cheat on me and make you feel like you...

The servers are very attentive but we were the only table so they were a little overly attentive. The ordering process and pricing is confusing and while the server claims fair market value of the fish, it is extremely overpriced ($950/kg of lobster when I had been in town earlier in the day and saw live lobster for much less).

Once you choose the main dish you want, you then have to decide how you'd like it prepared. Again, there is no menu for this, you have to interact with your server and hope you paid attention to the options. It literally feels like the servers are making up the menu as they go. There is also no mention of the cost to prepare your meal. Long story short, my husband and I spend over $1850p on a cocktail, two beers, ceviche, 6 oysters, and a butterflied hogfish. I never got an itemized receipt so the server may have made up a total just as it seemed he did the menu options. We wanted to tip cash instead of putting it on a card We felt pretty ripped off and had no intention of overtipping, so we asked our server to break a larger USD bill. Our server told us he had no change until we told him we wouldn't be able to tip 10%. He suddenly had change for us and proceeded to encourage us to tip even more, assuring us the tips are plit between servers, the bar, and the kitchen. For the money, these guys really oughta be making wages paid by Mar Bella. The server also constantly reminded us about the beautiful view, which is everywhere on the island. The food was decent but not worth the trouble, the haggling, or the realization that we spent twice what we intended to for a somewhat mediocre meal.

My husband did rave about the oysters though. I don't eat oysters but it seemed somewhat...