De Local - Playa del Carmen — Restaurant in Playa del Carmen

It really pains me to say this. First the history. Lived in Argentina for years, travel there. Know Buenos Aires, Santa Fe, Entre Rios, Pampa and Patagonia, Resistancia blah blah blah ...

Playa is full of "Argentinian" restaurants that are not even close to Argentinian food. So when I found this place I was byond excited.

I went there two times. Sat next to the owner the first time, who I thanked for bringing a little bit of Argentina to playa. Got the Milanesa Neapolitana and two "picante" empanadas. The Milanesa was good, Argentina style. Wife got Risotto. Also good the empanadas were al horno (baked, I prefer fried) but had the right flavors. The chimichurri was amazing. It brought me back to Argentina.

So why 3 stars? Well first time it was good. But definitely not the best I've had in me life, I'd give it a solid 4 4.5. The second time was a disaster.

Ordered two empanadas de carne. The meat inside was cubed meat that was chewy and flavorless. My wife got the noquis (gnocchi) with pesto.

Wow. I can't believe the chimichurri was so good and the pesto so bad. Basically a cup of olive oil and some floating green sludge as pesto. No basil flavor. Maybe she got the skim off the top without mixing... either way...Tasted like oil. She ended up dumping all the chimichurri from the bread at the beginning of the meal on it to make it edible.

Here's why they get a 1.5 to 2 for. The second visit. I also ordered a choripan....

An Argentina staple! Sold everywhere!!! Always incredible, always grilled, always with chimichurri, always on Italian bread. Well it's actually Pan Criollo, (baguette) many times served on Pebete, but here, I got it on chabiatta.

The star of the choripan is not the bread btw, but here at de local, the chabiatta was the main ingredient.... It was also served with nothing on it but raw onions, tomatoes and lettuce. No chimichurri???? What!?!?!. Lettuce and tomato? It was a sausage burger, served with Mayo, yellow mustard and katsup. Maybe for the fries???? I don't know because if you put mustard and katsup on a choripan, they'll laugh out loud at ya, and might even kick you out of the country for sacralidge.

Not a choripan like I've ever seen ANYWHERE in Argentina. The boy serving us said it is traditional and that chabiatta is a Argentinian bread. (No it's Italian... Not Argentinian not traditional). It's also never served with mustard and katsup.

Didn't take even a bite. Was offered to take it home, change the bread, or throw it away, i chose the last option. Still got charged for it though.

We won't be back. Maybe the food and service is better when the owner is entertaining friends. But the food and experience the second time was like a different restaurant.

Sub par food, the "eh" attitude from the staff, and Argentina-fusion isn't what would bring people back. At...

The empanadas are great! Wasn't a huge fan of the house style but the rest are amazing. I also had the simple pork milanesa. The meat was super tough and chewy, that was a little disappointing. But it's still worth a visit....they have a lot of different milanesas and get a bunch of empanadas to go. Great prices too. One annoying thing is that the music from the place next door and thier music is bleeding together. It would be nice if the two restaurants just had an agreement and possibly switched days on who got to play music. It's was just battling baselines.

Update Aug 18th 2023 Very happy to say that I popped in here for some dinner on another trip to the Mayan Riviera. The food was still amazing! The milanesa is huge and super tasty and the empanadas are juicy and flavorful. The server was was quite friendly and attentive. Seriously can't recommend it enough, if you're around stop by here and grab...

So pleased to finally have tried this restaurant!!! Been passing by here for over a year now and it always caught my eye as it was always full of people. I finally came around to trying it and couldn’t be happier!!! The empanada were very tasty we had the mushroom one and the be local ones, I can’t wait to go back and try the other ones on the menu. The chicken chimichurri was the best chicken I’ve had in playa up to now!!! This restaurant is definitely a local joint even though it’s on 5th. They have a full menu from meats to pasta to risotto to pizza they have a wood oven for pizza. The service was great and the restaurant was very busy. Can’t wait to...