Alux Restaurant Bar and Lounge — Restaurant in Playa del Carmen

Waist of time and money. The food is nothing special , the service was very slow and rude , it is a place to take pictures and they are more concerned on you to take pictures and doing a tour after dinner to make free marketing and advertisements for them.

If you are looking for fine dining food well done don't go there. If you want to know the experience please Reed the following story: I arrived they escort me at the table and left me there with no menu after 10 minute nobody came so I start to call the attention off the waiters (many) all inattentive and very bad organized . For what you pay you expect at list the basic of restaurant service. Finally after waiving my hand to all the stuff , one of them came and didn'even ask sorry for the d but was actually annoyed by the fact that I called him , probably because it was not his station.he send me the head waiter which take another 10 minute to bring me the menu and some water. I am a fine dining and professional chef and when I go to this kind of place normally I don't eat all day so I can try as many thing as possible . I normally go starving and eat really a lot!!!! And drink a lot since I love good wine A place like this with the wine list on crappy paper all broken and no wine by the glass on it. The waiter verbalized the 2 white and 2 red that they have . So you have no much choose and don't know how much you gonna pay unless you ask. I ordered my first glass of Sauvignon Blanc Wich was tesltless and hot. I am just mansion that was hot since I don't like to complain the guys say that he will have make it cooler .... I said sorry but the wine is dead .... No flavor probably open 3/4 days ago. They have no knowledge about wine in this place so he was upset that I asked to change it for a chardonnay, no bad . First course arrived after 50 minutes I was there, a cheviche . Nice plaiting with some avocado pure on top and couple of micro greens and flower... Testless . Come with a super sweet sauce thanks good I stop the waiter before he puts everything on the dish and ruins it completely . I asked for salt and a spoon . Came back after some times ... Seams that they have no back up station and they have to walk the entire place to get something . As I said very bad organisation for this kind of place and money they charge . The wine puring was very little . And I was wondering how much was a glass if a cocktail was around 25 usd$ I decide to ask before get a bad surprise. 17/22$ for a glass of white cheap wine in mexico is crazy. The most disappointing thing was that when I said that the wine was not good he didn't change it without saying anything, he rolled his eyes and called the manager to pour the next glass. Second course arrived . Roasted coliflowers 4 way. Was disgusting,really. The pure was sweet, the roasted part was probably just boiled and then chargrilled on the plancha for some color. Was just wrong the entire dish. As I said I was starving so I added salt and I ate it. He came to ask if everting was ok after I finished already so I told him the thru. It was not good .... He called the manager , I explained why and instead of said I am sorry, he said that never happen before....That everyone love the food there. And it was me that didn't understand the dish.I was so mad.I just wanted to leave. But I was still starving and already wasted 2 hours in that place for 2 appetizers so I decided to stay and eat my last dish and leave. The last dish was octopus with potato pure, some Persian cucumber and radishes ...make no sense this dish! Octopus was cooked good thanks good and the flavor also good but raw cucumber and raddish with octopus and potato... why????? End of the story If you are a person that has money to throw in the trash for expensive wine and food (more than new York prices)and you care more about your Instagram story, than is the place for you. If you want good food and great service for what you pay then really don't put yourself in this trap. UNFORTUNATELY I ALREADY STARTED TO EAT THE COLIFLOWER DISH. IT LOOKS A...

Please read this review & other low reviews. I wiah I would have did my own research instead of taking hotel concierge suggestion. 3 drinks & water $130.00!!!!!!! Ruined my bday! Hotel concierge suggested this place for me to celebrate my bday. When we arrived we were surprised by all of the stairs we had to take, there were no handicap accessible ramps, I assumed there would be ramps/elevator so that is on me for assuming. If you have any kind of knee issues please beware that you will need assistance. Our reservation was for 7 guest at 7p. Check in process was slow, Ive never experienced anything like it...that should have been my clue to run! While I understand its a cave, its humid in there & they should invest in mounted fans instead of box fans randomly being placed throughout the restaurant. Round box fans dont go with the fine dining experience. Approx 715pm we are seated. Naturally the waiter makes sure we have the QR codes for wifi & the menu, he offers us water while we are all getting the wifi & menu pulled up, and of course we naturally were drinking the water that was poured from a regular metal pitcher. 3 of us ordered alcoholic beverages, 1 passion fruit martini, & 2 cadillac margaritas with our dinner orders. We had to ask for ice for our water bc it was teetering on the room temperature side and again it was warm in there...we had to ask 5xs for the ice! Drinks arrive & while they were not bad, they are NOT worth $28 USD each. Approx 745pm the waiter comes to the table and apologizes for the wait on the food, and states it will be about 7 more minutes, we were patient and kindly tell him "ok"...keep in mind you dont get any complimentary chips/bread/salad/crudite. After the waiter said that he never returned to the table. Fast forward to 8:25pm a waiter comes by our table & ask were we ok and we said no bc we hadnt received our food, he leaves to check on it and maybe 5 minutes later our original waiter comes to tell us that tickets were backed up in the kitchen, he said something to the effect of the ticket printing had stopped working. We advised him that we would just like our ticket so that we could pay & leave. He then sends the manager over with the same pathetic excuse as to why we had not been served. I want to mention that it was not a packed house, there were patrons but not a packed house. We advised the manager we would like our ticket to pay, approx 8mins later our waiter returns with a complimentary bottle of cheap champagne and offered it to us, by then 3 of the guest had left to go outside to wait on our driver, they hadnt ordered drinks & only had water...we kindly said thank you but declined, 5 mins later a lady comes to the table with our ticket and what do you know our ticket was $127.50!!! They charged us $30 for water! I want to reiterate this water was not poured from a special bottle, we were never asked if we wanted any special water. That was the last straw. It made no sense to offer us champagne but then charge for water. We paid and gtf out of there. We were robbed without a gun! Ive dined all over the world and never in my life had such piss poor service. Ruined my special birthday dinner. We were fully prepared to pay for our 3 overpriced, overhyped drinks, but to charge for regular degular water, the water that sits in metal pitchers readily available for any and all guest is utterly ridicolous. We paid, we left, we told our private driver & said he suggested this place to others before & they had a similar experience, he thought it was a 1x event but now he said he thinks its done purposely & a tourist trap. My advice is not to go, after the amusement of the cave you will be hungry, & jipped...this place is hype. Oh lastly they have a bat/bats that fly over your head which we thought was weird, its not constant but nevertheless weird. Go at your own risk!!!!! FYI: After reading some other low reviews I think they charged for the water to get a tip, dishonest business practice. We should of protested, but we were starving & just wanted...

I would do the sandwich approach for this review (good-bad-good); however, there are simply not 2 good things to encase the bad.

The ambiance is STUNNING!! Truly, we could barely contain our enthusiasm when we entered the cave. This is where the favorable portion of the review ends.

We paid extra for the special, exclusive table but this detail was lost. They did correct it and we loved the private cavern experience.

On to the food. We are self-proclaimed foodies, most times choosing several dishes to share and experiment. We go in knowing that we might order something that is prepared well, but our tastes might not enjoy it. We would NEVER complain in those situations.

We first ordered the special drink of the day, the Golden Dream. It was tasty; however, the portion was small for the $25 price tag. Next, the service was a bit strange. Normally, we are used to ordering starters then upon getting starters we place an order for main dishes. The waitress insisted we order everything at once. While we found that odd, we thought perhaps she knew the kitchen best or maybe it's customary in Mexico to do this?? Looking back, we think she might have been trying to avoid us leaving after our starters, knowing that people often complain about the food. So here is what we ordered:

Smoked Beet Salad - The beets were not smoked nor carmelized, in fact, they were nearly raw. The dressing was undetectable. Couldn't get past the star of the dish to even taste the goat cheese and tomatoes.

Passion Fruit and Pineapple Aguachile - basically, expect a pineapple salsa. This is not how desribed, could not taste any of the fish or shrimp, and the blue corn tortillas were bland. This was still the best item of the night.

Grill Oyster (6) - HORRENDOUS. We've had oysters all over the world and these made us sick. We each had one and the taste that I used to describe it was "like the smell on my aunt's cow farm, a mixture or manure and hay"

Fresh Oyster (6) - EVEN MORE HORRENDOUS. The accoutrements did nothing to hide how horrible the oysters were. I could still taste them upon arriving back to our condo. One of the ladies in our party had to go to the restroom and bring them back up, immediately after eating them.

Tomato Tartare - think salsa, but with only tomatoes and no seasoning or other vegetables at all. Mush. Yuck.

Salmon Tartar Alux - Was this even salmon? I get tartare EVERYWHERE that has it. This was the absolute worst and 2 bites were all I could attempt.

Homemade Bread - I mean, it's bread. How can you really mess up bread. It was fine.

8 Hours Pork Belly - we are not even sure this was actually pork belly. It was flavorless.

Alux Burguer - Immediately sent this back, it was supposed to be well-done; however was red completely throughout. The waitress even protested a bit that the cook on it was fine. It was certainly not.

Beef Filet with Wine Sauce - again, the meat was questionable. Why do we need a saw to cut through a filet? I took one bite and had to spit it out. It was inedible, no seasonings and so tough, it was like chewing on a baseball mitt. Plus THERE WAS A BUG CRAWLING UNDERNEATH A BRUSSEL SPROUT LEAF!!!!

Taco de Lomo Alux - We didn't even attempt this dish. By this point, our disappointment had completely derailed our highly anticipated evening.

The night ended with the manager, Alessio, visiting our table to review our bill and discuss which items he is agreeing to remove. Alessio was fantastic, extremely apologetic, and interested in our feedback, stating that it is necessary for them to improve. Even after removing all of our mains and one set of oysters, our bill was nearly $300. We still tipped the waitress $40 cash, because it is not her fault the chef is non-existent, even if the service could also use some improvement. I feel horribly for her to be the ambassador that presents this bottom of the barrel food to customers. We left and ate frozen pizza back...