Cassa Ceviche — Restaurant in Playa del Carmen

My husband and I visited Cassa Ceviche for our anniversary. I went once before during my bachelorette trip and liked it so much I wanted to return. Upon arrival, it was pretty bare but we took this as an opportunity to have the restaurant to ourselves for our anniversary. The interior is dark, woodsy and full of nature. The only seating is outdoors. For starters, we ordered the beef filet-antichuchos. In addition, we were provided fried plantain chips. Both items were really delicious. We also ordered a classic margarita and the house speciality cocktail. For entrees, we had the hot dish-seafood rice with shrimp and mussels only. It was really good. It came out piping hot. To finish the night, we had the choclo cake with ice cream. It was unique, yet flavorful dish. It reminded us of sweet cornbread. The actual dining portion was great and tasty. The star deduction comes from the WiFi connection not working on the card reader, so we provided our payment in Pesos. As we were leaving, the owner ran out the door to let my husband know the amount he provided in Pesos did not cover tip he , although we paid over the amount of our meal. We took it as he wanted to be paid in USD; however, it was out of our control that his machine wasn't working properly and that was our initial intentions. It was annoying because you would have thought that we cheated him in our payment for the bill, but in actuality he wanted more tip. This part took away from our overall dining experience because we felt harassed and embarrassed, thinking we had not paid the right amount for our food. Overall, I can definitely suggest this place for the food side, but I hope they get their WiFi connection working properly to prevent this type of situation happening...

Not a great meal. The food and the drinks all took way too long to come and nothing came together, all separately, including the drinks. I don't know about what the other people in my party had, but once my chicken teriyaki came (last and about 15-30 minutes after everything else came) I was sorely disappointed. Chicken was bland and tasteless, but the chips were pretty good. My drink was also pretty good too. From what little I tried from my brother's plate (I forgot the name of the dish) I discerned that it was delicious. Now, if only it could have all come together so we could've compared it. My main complaint here is just how long it all took to come. Look, I work a similar job to all this, and it takes me less time to get orders, serve drinks, dish up food, and start on serving desserts than it took you to prepare 6 drinks. I understand there's a routine that you follow and that you don't like deviating from this routine. Trust me, I'm the same. But you have to change it. I can tell you prepare food and drinks based on what's easiest to make, but to get less unhappy customers like us you've got to change the routine to preparing meals first come first served, per table. And another suggestion. Bring all the plates out together, not like two people get food, and then 10 mins later another three people in the party get their food, and then 15 minutes later the last person gets their food. Anyway, please take these suggestions into consideration. Lastly, I'll reiterate; the...

Randomly wandered into the neighborhood for an AirBnB and met someone who lived in the complex we wanted to stay. He was wearing a fishing hat and I happened to strike up a conversation on deep sea fishing.

Well he recommended this place to us. As we arrived they were just about to close, but fortunately they were super hospitable and took us anyway.

Boy we stumbled on a serendipitous "hidden gem!"

My best friend and I were looking for a local place with light and healthy food serving seafood.

We hit the jackpot!

Our waiter Diego recommended a trio of their dishes. We had their signature classic peruvian ceviche, ahi tuna, and octapus dishes.

In addition, he recommnended 2 craft cocktails to pair with the dishes:

They were pisco sour and mescal cocktails. The picso had a dehyrated lemon and had a unique fava bean extract to replicate the egg white froth and topped with bitters.

The mescal had a dehydrated pineapple and sweet brined hibicus and shaken with the fava been extract to give it the froth as well.

Edgar did an exceptional job with his mixology skills.

Overall, the dishes really were well balanced and satisfying. My favorite was the classic ceviche and the Pisco craft cocktail.

I highly recommend this place for it's ambiance, service, quality of food and craft cocktails.

Thanks gentleman for making our first experience unforgettable.

Definitely returning before we leave back to the USA.

Positive...