Papaya Slice | Pizza Playa del Carmen — Restaurant in Playa del Carmen

I've lived in playa for a little over 3 years now. Moved here from Washington DC. Spent most of my adult life on the east coast eating NY style pizza.

My wife and I have made a fun game out of trying all the pizza locations in PDC.

We made it to Papaya Slice because our first choice was closed...life always seems to direct you where you need to go not necessarily where you initially wanted to go.

It was extremely hot inside the restaurant and very humid outside as it rained earlier in the day.

Eating and sweating is like trying to sleep while sweating...very uncomfortable experience.

The pizza was $35! The most I've ever spent on a pizza was maybe $18 back in america and that was for authentic NY style pizza.

So far it was a hot, sweaty, and extremely overpriced experience.

Then the pizza came....

The heat and sweat became a non factor, the price...who cared...this pizza was sexy! It was the best looking pizza I've ever seen in mexico.

The first bite...Sensational!!! Very few words to describe my appreciation of finally finding my go to NY pizza place in PDC.

The pizza was crispy with leopard marking on the bottom. The tomatoe sauce tasted fresh and sweet. The pepperoni had little to no grease, the basil was fresh and help to cleanse the palate with each bite.

The crust was thick...crunchy, charred just like it should be.

1st slice destroyed in moments

2nd slice...took my time, gave a few extra chews, closed my eyes and captured that experience in my memory.

Wife had 1 1/2 slices and we had a box left to take home weighing around 3 lbs... cold midnight pizza is going down at my house tonight no doubt.

I gave 5 stars for the service because the young lady who waited on us was very courteous, timely, great communication, always bringing us napkins and checking on us even though she had around 5 othet tables. Service was exceptional, great job to the management team and their training / setting expectations.

I gave the food 5 stars. Don Mario's, La Famiglia, and my all time favorite pizza in PDC Perche No were all my go to places... its not even close. Papaya Slice is easily the best pizza Ive had in playa...again not even a conversation or argument to be had. The quality was exceptional.

Gave the atmosphere a 3 because nobody could actually sit inside the restaurant...it was easily 85 inside with no air movement. Outside was really humid as well...its the beach so I 100% understand. If the inside had air conditioning I would have given 5 stars.

Overall I had a 8.5 out of 10 experience and am still kinda shocked at how impressive the food was.

Go check them out if you...

I have had pizza in New York hundreds of times. I’ve had pizza it in Italy hundreds of times and many other places around the world. If I get the chance to try some pizza I will so this place opened up and I had to try it.

One of the things I love about Playa, that I never knew, was the area had a huge emigration of Italians decades ago, and that influences the food to this day. I would’ve never thought Italian food in Mexico.

The pizza and Italian food in Playa is better than any I’ve had anywhere else in the world. I’m not joking. The crust, the brick oven, the sauces, pasta etc are all amazing everywhere I’ve tried it in Playa.

Why 3 stars? Because this is not the best pizza in playa. Its not New York style either. New York style, Look it up, is thin crust. It folds easily. That’s a New York style pizza slice.

I will say this crust is good, the dough is great. The flavors are there in the ingredients. It’s just not New York style. So don’t call it that.

Next, it needs a little more tomato sauce. I had the classic pepperoni mushroom, delicious flavors you could taste were fresh but with all that think breading it needs a little more tomato sauce please. Otherwise again a very good slice of pie.

We had the Mescal Mule for drinks. My friend was a bartender for over 20 years. And I’ve been drinking at least that long. We could not taste the Mezcal at all. There was no smoky flavor piece. We tasted tons of ginger which left behind a bad ginger flavors, basically was drinking a ginger beer.

They have seating both inside and outside. Seating is limited so come earlier or come late. The place is packed because again the pizza is good but they need to work on those drinks and not called a New York slice because that’s not what it is, but it is a delicious piece of pizza. 👍🏽

Will I come back heck yeah...

I am all for supporting new restaurants in the area and of course opening weeks are always a little bumpy but I found it odd the restaurant advertised free pizza on Saturday if you came at 5pm. Upon arrival we asked about trying the pizza and I placed a cocktail order for an Aperol Spritz which was over priced at $150 pesos, basically all ice. After waiting over an hour we touched based with the server who said the chef only prioritzed sending pizza out for those guests who paid for their pizza. Had I known this I would have just ordered and happily paid full price. The restaurant created a promo advertising to come down and grab a free pizza and beer ( which I declined and instead bought the cocktail). In short a small 2 bite sample came out and regardless we still ordered a full slice. It is delicious pizza, a little on the expensive side,1 slice at $75 pesos and an additional $30 pesos for some pesto drizzeled on top. The awakardness of the server making us feel bad for coming down to support the business and the manager basically saying " I normally work at Mu Burger" instead of just bringing some pizza out basically made the establishment super disorganized. I also saw other people asking about the promo who basically were told nothing really was coming out. In short pizza delicious, drinks overpriced but the staff and flow of service need some serious work. I normally would not complain as a former hospitality worker myself but I...