500 GRAMOS Italian Steakhouse and Grill — Restaurant in Playa del Carmen

I’ll start with the good. If you’are looking for a good steak in Playa Del Carmen, this could possibly be the best place. We live in one of the most expensive places in the United States. That said, our restaurants have some of the best beef available. My world travels have taught me that beef in other countries is often bad by comparison. The beef at 500 Gramos is arguably the best I’ve had outside of the United States. My rib eye was a little tougher than I am used to, but totally edible. My kid had the filet and loved it. They had red wine by the glass that was acceptable. Good wine is hard to find in Playa Del Carmen because it’s expensive to have the means to store it properly (my guess). The French fries were really good, but I haven’t found bad French fries here. French fries are so easy to make well, I’m constantly surprised by restaurants that make them so poorly. So, my review of their food would be 4 stars in Mexico, 2 stars in America.

Now the bad. We had to wait 38 minutes for our food (I timed them). When our food did finally come, they gave my son the wrong steak that was for a different table. My son didn’t realize it wasn’t a filet because he’s a little kid. He cut into it and realized it was rare. He ordered his filet well done (I know, who orders beef well done?). Upon realizing they gave him the wrong steak, they brought his out, and took the other back to the kitchen, then promptly returned from the kitchen and placed the steak in front of a patron at the next table. This would be known as restaurant suicide. The patron immediately realized what they did, and demanded a new steak, which is totally understandable.

While we were dining, all kinds of different street people walked in between the tables trying to sell us trinkets, flowers or just beg for spare change. I know Mexico is a different culture. I get that. But if you are trying to attract the family looking for gourmet food and atmosphere, that is not part of the recipe. The tables are outside in a courtyard, so there is probably little the management can do to avoid this. Their interior space is very small and I’m assuming the kitchen is small as well. So to be fair, this little eatery has their work cut ot for them.

The woman who took our order treated us like we were lucky to be eating there. If you have never been to Mexico, this is not how you are treated by the locals. People are super friendly and very hard working. This woman was a mowhawk sporting pseudo elder hipster that I assume is the proprietor.The interior is inundated with self portrait paintings by Frida, which is awesome. Although I’m guessing here, perhaps the owner is a communist and is mad about the conditions of the people in Mexico. I would give her that. Also guessing, but given her demeanor, I think she is the one who responds to the Google reviews. There is a response to all of the reviews, which normally is smart. Another thing I noticed is that anybody who left a bad review was reprimanded for doing so. The review responder seems to think that blaming the customer for the bad review is a good idea. To be fair, we in the U.S. are very used to people in power being guilty of nothing and blaming others for everything. Our current president is very good at this. But that doesn’t mean that educated people fall for it. Reading the responses angered me immensely.

All in all, it is fair to say that running a restaurant in Playa Del Carmen has got to be hard. And I believe that part of why the wait is so long for the food here is understaffing, which is a common way to increase your bottom line, no matter where your business is. My biggest complaint here is severe distaste with arrogance. If you never make mistakes, then you will just keep making them. The world has enough people like that. My advice to the review responder would be to accept the criticism and profess your desire to try harder. And, if you have not noticed yet, most of their reviews are very positive. So a bad review here and there is inevitable. Even God gets a bad review from...

Service was excellent but unfortunately the food missed the mark. I cannot review the regular menu as this was the New Years Menu (2024-25) but I can review the famed steak as that was on the coursed meal.

A previous review said the pasta was fantastic but here's the thing, it's good for Mexico so take it with a grain of salt. The pasta often times here is best described as "durable". By that I mean it has a grainy mouth feel and is altogether too heavy vs. a light, elegant pasta that highlights the filling. This pasta is al dente but too much so. Not that it's undercooked, it's just the texture is too thick like they have too much flour in the mix. The ravioli was a lobster filling that lacked any punch or seasoning and it was served with a basic red sauce.

The wine pairing was a Mexican wine which was not terrible but not amazing.

Finally the steaks. The steaks, to me, seem like they are marinated in a salt bath and then pan seared, maybe grilled. The disappointment comes when you order "medium-rare" and you get "extremely raw". You end up with a steak that has been lightly browned on the edges but is completely raw from edge to edge. This is unfortunate because the steak would have been tender even if I had ordered well-done. So not a cheap cut. I wished the steak had a nice, deep brown crust but it had more of the texture of a steak that has been microwaved for 1 minute.

So in conclusion I would order off of the regular menu and be very specific as to what temperature you would prefer your steak cooked to.

Thank you to the owners for their response. When you pay about $550 USD for dinner that places the restaurant at a higher level of scrutiny. Please understand this.

To be clear I highly recommend you check out 500 G. Ours was a special trip and it was a miss but this does not mean they are bad. Check them...

In general terms, the place is good and the location is even better. A few steps from the 5th avenue but nice and calm. The food was good too, chicken parmesano was Deli, also they had two musicians playing covers with guitars, they are very talented and we enjoyed the show.

After saying this, we had an unpleasant moment that I’ll describe next. We joined some friends to have dinner past week…

First, nobody showed up to give us two extra chairs and the place wasn’t crazy full so we took it from the next table that remained empty. 5 minutes later a waiter approach to us in a really bad way and yelled us because we took those chairs for ourselves. He said that the table was taken but funny nobody showed up to that table over the night. Just to be clear there was two waiter and a waitress that night, and the one who did this was speaking spanish and I’m pretty sure he’s from Argentina.

It was super uncomfortable,specially for our friends that invited us but we decided to stay because our group was already having their food. Thank god the waitress took our orders and she was kind and nice.

We would deffinetey like to come back but it’s a real shame that the experience is ruined by employees with bad...