La tarraya — Restaurant in Playa del Carmen

Fantastic food Fantastic place Best cheap prices in the town

Horrible but really horrible service

The choice is yours. Despite hating the service, the prices and the food were so good that I kept coming to this place. For more details keep reading.

This restaurant is in an amazing area. It is situated next to the beach with amazing sea foods and more impressively it is one of the cheapest restaurants I’ve been in Mexico.

However, they have a big problem:The service. This is by far the worst service i encounteted in any place in Mexico. I visited there twice. The first time, it took 20 minutes for a waiter to even look at me. In every other restaurants in Mexico once you sit in a table they cover the table with tortilla chips, totopon and sauces. Here if you don’t ask they don’t bring anything. Second time, i was there again. 20 minutes passed before i even could make contact with server and they charged me for ice which i couldn’t believe and while writing this review I asked a piece of lemon for my coke and i was told that i need to pay as well. The servers are very rude and uninterested. They told me this is a very cheap place so that’s why i have to pay for everything else but a piece of lemon and ice come on?

Plus the service was not slow only for me but everyone seemed to complain. Actually while i am writing this review i am still in the place. I read some of the previous reviews and i can’t believe how people said like the service was so great. Maybe in the past yeah but as of December 2019, the service is the worst I encountered in whole Central America and Mexico.

At the end, the waiter even argued with me about the tip. I was still planning to come here because of the great food but I think this is it.

The...

My partner has been on the hunt for whole fried fish. After this experience I promise you he will never hunt again. El Pirata (really good) too far of a walk for us at lunch time as it looked like it was getting ready to rain. It’s been raining all week. Chac Pel Tacos de mariscos (our favorite) has been closed the last few days. Google Maps tells us this place is a local legit spot. Reviews are high for he fried fish so we are like “okay.”

Yeah, um no. Cheap(er) that other spots, yes. But a total waste of money because the food lacks any concept of taste. Mexicans are known for spice. This ain’t authentic nothing. Worse than fast food.

Service was decent but then I’d say no as they seated everyone, despite not being busy all, in one section and it wasn’t Covid compliant. We were not 3 meters apart. My partners back was touching the neighbors and they were smoking. We asked to move. But this really should have indicated this wasn’t the venue for me.

The guacamole was alright. Not the best and not the worst. The view was decent once you see that past all of the beach chairs in front of you. We ordered fried fish and shrimp tacos. Shrimp was cut up into little teeny pieces and had a weird sauce on top. They were not good. The fried fish was the most tasteless piece of seafood I’ve had while in Mexico. Like I tried salt, and the red sauce and even tried to make a taco with the left over guacamole. Nope! Nothing worked. I left with an upset stomach. While eating we were attacked by a hoard of flies. It was horrible and we could hardly eat our meal which might have been a good thing because it just was not good. At least the flies enjoyed it. Come at your own risk. I hope you find this review helpful. If so, give me...

I just left this restaurant and cannot tell you how absurdly expensive it is. My wife and I ordered two tostada entrees and one mixed drink each checking the cash in our pocket, because the waiter stated we need to pay only cash, to ensure we would have enough money to cover the bill. We were both carrying credit cards as well. After finishing the meal I asked for the check and our waiter "converts the peso to us dollar at 16-1. I asked him how he came up with this price and he replied "it is the price". No where in the menu this is stated and that meant we did not have enough to cover the meal. 70.00usd for tostada's and drinks....that is higher than I would pay anywhere in the US unless we were in NYC. I asked him to explain the exchange again and he said "that is the price". After twenty minutes back and forth he agreed to 68.00 USD and we left without drinking the remainder of our drinks because we were so pissed off. In short this place is a tourist trap that creates exchange rates on the spot. Avoid this place at all cost unless you are ok to pay outrageous prices for mediocre food and drinks with almost no alcohol in them. Absolute garbage...