The Joint Reggae Bar ‘n Grill — Restaurant in Isla Mujeres

We had high hopes for this restaurant because my husband and daughter are huge reggae fans. However, they had a live band that played about 4 reggae songs and then covers of pop music. That was confusing. Out of the hour and a half we were there we heard 4 reggae songs. It seems the only thing reggae about this establishment was the Bob Marley caricature that was honestly quite offensive. The food was sad. We ordered Thai peanut chicken skewers as an appetizer and got two two inch pieces of unseasoned chicken on an 8 inch skewer (it was clear it hadn’t been cooked on a skewer) that were literally just covered in peanut butter. My husband actually saw them bring the Jiffy peanut butter in. It had no other seasoning and was served on a bed of lettuce which was odd. Their “crispy fries” weren’t crispy at all. I tried to order one slice of a pizza with Alfredo and cheese only, which was on their menu. The menu also had a “per slice” price. Then they brought me a slice of pizza with tomato sauce and cheese. When I explained and pointed to the menu what I wanted to order they said, “we only make that if you order a whole pizza”. I said, “but isn’t this the per slice price?” The waiter said, “but we only make it if you order a whole pizza”. I felt like I was getting scammed into spending more money so I gave up. Two of us ordered chicken taquitos. How do I describe these? If you put chicken jerky into a overly crispy crumbly tortilla, covered it in cream and a small amount of flavorless cheese. It was difficult to chew needless to say. Basically our entire table just didn’t eat what we ordered. Speaking of ordering, one person in our party kept trying to order and the waiter just walked away. My husband went to the bar to put his order in and a man started yelling at our waiter to get back over to our table. Nobody seemed like they wanted to work there, at all. I’m giving 2 stars only because the drinks from the bar were decent. If it were available I would give a star for the cute dog that would be your friend if...

Very disappointed with this 'Joint'. The promise of a fusion of Jamaica and Mexico, under the banner of Bob Marley was, alas, too good to be true. The staff are friendly, but inattentive. While the live music was tuneful, in 90 minutes they didn't play a single reggae song (let alone a Marley cover). And the food...I ordered the Jerk Taco (apparently their specialty) and my wife got the Jerk Chicken Burger. It seems the cook has never tasted Jamaican Jerk. The sauce, on top of cubed chicken chicken in the taco, and a slab of dry chicken breast in the burger, was bland and vaguely sweet. There was nothing but chicken in the taco (so it looked like a cat food taco). The 'Jamaican salad' was a few scraps of salad doused liberally in balsamic vinegar. As for the burger, it was so bad that my part-Jamaican wife couldn't eat it. I don't know if there's anything to recommend this place. Maybe other items on the menu are tasty. But this is an insult to Jamaican food, Jamaican music, and Jamaican culture (they claim it's "always 420" at the Joint, but of course weed is illegal in Mexico. So no, it is NEVER 420 there.

EDIT: In response to the Owner's comments, I went to a bar/restaurant that plainly and clearly promotes itself as a Jamaican/Reggae establishment. As a customer it is reasonable for me to expect a Jamaican/Reggae experience without having to ask! Why should I have to ask the cook to make jerk chicken that tastes like jerk chicken when the menu claims that is IS jerk chicken? If your cook doesn't know what jerk chicken tastes like, why is he making jerk chicken for people who do? Why should I have to ask the band at a Reggae bar to play reggae music? If I wanted to listen to 70s rock covers I'd go to an appropriately-themed bar. It seems the owner of the Joint is comfortable with cultural appropriation whilst being...

Had higher expectations for this place based on the reviews but unfortunately. Party of 3 came to have some drinks after visiting Punta Sur - giving 2 stars for the drinks really - Tecate was cold and the mojitos were great! Came to pay the tab earlier than expected because the rock band that came on didn’t have a great singer and we were sat right next to the stage/speaker - couldn’t have a conversation. Handed our cash to the waiter and he insisted we give him the ticket also (which we never received), we had added up our own drinks because we kept a menu at our table in case we wanted more. Several waiters came into play insisting we had the ticket. We were never given a ticket, we just wanted to pay and head elsewhere. Again several waiters asked if we could check our pockets / bags, insinuating we had a ticket we were never given. I told the waiter what we had and to please check his stack of tickets at the bar where he was registering drinks, our ticket was there, we didn’t need change so he gave me the thumbs up and we left.

It was just a hectic experience and the atmosphere was not very enjoyable.

To leave on a positive: drinks were cold (mojito was great, can recommend) and the giant tree that covers the patio is great to sit under after being out in the sun...