Casa Sofia — Restaurant in Playa del Carmen

I'm not one to leave bad reviews, but this experience was a major let down! This was the number one recommendation from our Air BnB host and we were so excited that we walked 30 minutes to get there. When we got there it looked promising because since they were packed. We put our name on a wait list and sat on the curb, there was only one bench for waiting and it was occupied. ( okay not a big deal but not a good start) once we were sat it was at a table in the middle of the restaurant ( not ideal). We sat for 20 minutes while the staff attended to every table around us, they has to of seen us but did not acknowledge us. Finally the manager came to greet us and took our drink and appetizer order. It was a disappointment that they only offered one white wine and 2 red wines. The charcuterie plate was actually nice, but it took almost 30 minutes to come out. Our waiter finally came after about half an hour. We were hoping for a little help in deciding on the meal since the menu is a bit complicated. There are about 50 pastas and 20 sauces to choose from and we weren't sure what would pair best. Our waiter spoke almost no English and was no help. We finally decided on the salmon stuffed gnocchi with a seafood sauce, and a meat and spinach stuffed ravioli with a tomato and pesto sauce. The entrees took almost an hour to come out. When I went out to smoke a cigarette because I was getting frustrated, the manager was having a conversation, smoking a cigarette, and drinking a martini ( no wander the service was lacking) My ravioli was just okay, but the gnocchi was God awful! The clams and crab had no meat, there was no salmon in the gnocchi and the sauce tasted like it was made from sea salt and toothpaste. We needed an extra plate for the clam and crab shells, but no one asked us if we needed anything, we had to flag down the busser for some napkins. I asked the waiter for the bill before we finished eating. He did not ask if we wanted a box, or if we enjoyed anything. The bill was just over 600 pesos and I gave him 1000. He had the audacity to ask if I...

Usually the food is pretty good and I have no complaints, but there was a situation last night with terrible tasting wine that means I won't be returning. We asked for a glass of the rioja by glass, once it arrived it smelt and tasted like it had been open and warm for a week or more, terrible smell and taste. I asked for a replacement, the "capitan" came with a taster of a different one (this time a malbec, wasn't great but light and day from the first), so I said yes this please, he then returned with the exact same wine as the first time. I'm 100% sure they tried to serve me the same wine twice and got me to taste a different one. The wine was terrible and there is no way a malbec and a rioja taste EXACTLY the same in the same terrible way. Obviously he then denied that they served me the same.

Additionally, when I mentioned the wine was very acidic and tasted old his only comment was "the wine is good I don't know why you don't like it". It wasn't good, and there was no need for sarcasm either.

Overall, the capitan ruined the experience and I won't be back again. If you do go, I don't recommend you drink their wine by the glass because it's the worse tasking wine I've tasted.

Oh I forgot to mention, in the middle of this I was left waiting for the replacement wine for more...

Had the prosciutto and mushroom pizza. It was actually pretty good. I don't normally rate poorly because of service because sometimes a server just has a bad day. It happens. But this terrible service experience was OUT OF THIS WORLD. We spent over 3 hours there essentially just waiting for service. We waited an entire hour, no exaggeration, just trying to pay the bill. We flagged server after server after server until finally the guy running the host stand came over and got us the bill and added a 10% discount because of how long we had waited and how many different people we asked to help us pay. We were served exactly one drink throughout the entire ordeal because after multiple requests i also could not get anyone to bring me water. We contemplated leaving without paying, not out of spite, but literally because we felt like hostages. We had no idea when we could leave because no one would bring us the check. Try this place at your own risk. Perhaps the entire staff was just having a bad day, who knows. But the experience was so absolutely awful I won't be returning (and that's saying something considering that my service expectations in Mexico have drastically dropped and this place was able to get lower than the already floor level expectations...