Porfirio's Playa del Carmen | Restaurante de comida mexicana — Restaurant in Playa del Carmen

You may read this and assume I am elderly, or just grumpy.. this is not the case and this restaurant is way overhyped.

Go somewhere else, literally anywhere else. If you ignored this review and then went to Porfirio's, I told you so. You probably sat their with your girlfriend and pretended it was super fun. You know it sucked, the food was mediocre, your ear drums are still recovering, and your girlfriend was suddenly "really tired" when you got back to the room. I tried to warn you. You didn't listen, and now your sad and lonely. That's on you bro.

If you want a cool location with great food, look up Lido. It's just down the street on the beach. Get the hummus to start, everything on their menu is fantastic. You are welcome!

There are much better options than Porfirio's for the price. The menu options are ok, again there are much better options near by.

This place employs all the sales tactics of the tourist shops along this road: be louder than everyone else ✔️ sell you "culture", we've got mariachi ✔️ ignore you once you've shown disinterest ✔️

This place is obnoxious, the music alone is crazy loud, then the mariachi band starts to blast their instruments in competition with the restaurant's music. We were seated along the outer edge of the restaurant. Passers by on the street relentlessly tried to sell us roses, staff did nothing to stop these street sales people.

The menu is limited for the price. Looking around the restaurant most people looked more like they were stuck than enjoying the atmosphere, food, and experience. We had a glass of wine and chose to wait on placing a food order to see if it is bearable to sit through the mariachi. The mariachi seem to be trying to get the attention of people on the street making it way too loud inside the restaurant. We finished our wine and requested the bill. The staff were exceptionally rude after we declined to order food and requested the bill. Our waiter brought the manager over and she asked why we were not ordering food. I told her the atmosphere is not for us, it's too loud. She said we should not have taken the table if we did not intend on ordering food. I tried to explain that as we walked up the music did not seem that loud and the mariachi were not playing. We had passed by the restaurant during the day, and heard good reviews from people in the area. Being there, it just wasn't for us. The manager asked that we follow her to a host stand to pay the bill. As we got to the stand the manager ignored us, talking into her headset and nearby staff. We waited, standing next to the manager, for 3 minutes before I told her we were going to leave regardless if the bill was paid or not. It was at this point she printed our bill and...

So after reading and seeing all the amazing reviews we picked this for our first night in playa de carmen, waa waa waaaaah 🎺

So first of all if you’re fancying a chill, relaxing quiet bite or dinner…think twice. It’s insanely loud, not a chance of hearing each other as you can barely hear yourself think. The staff I have to say are delightful and and very attentive, the service was the best part of this place.

Secondly, and probably most importantly the food…I didn’t take any photos but the food was presented nicely. However the actual quality of the food and flavour was totally flat. Classic case of style over substance. We had the baby calamari and Gouda to start and they’re served with tortillas. Not bad but the calamari lacked any real flavour and even my lime on the side didn’t taste of much. The Gouda was okayyyyyyyy but fairly unremarkable. For mains we had the skewered prawns, and the salmon. The salmon was a weird one, they asked how you’d like to cooked and perhaps being European we misunderstood as a grilled salmon where we’re from is usually cooked…you know…all the way through. To avoid contracting various illnesses and bacteria but we’ll accept we may have miscommunicated that part of the order. Sort-of cooked salmon is quite unappealing so something to consider if salmon is your mind. The prawns were prepared table side and the fella doing it made a wonderful show, was very entertaining and he was very sweet. The actual flavour of the dish was so so, prawns may have been slightly undercooked but I guess I’ll find that out for sure in a few hours once my stomach has digested them. Wish me luck on that one.

Thirdly, drinks wise, I will say they made a pretty tasty margarita and give you a cheeky tequila shot at the end which is a nice touch, although not sure how that will sit the undercooked fish in both of our stomachs, might be a fight to the death for the loo but we’ll see.

Overall, if you’re after a loud, so-so and possibly (almost definitely) overpriced meal, you’ve found the right place. If your priority is to eat great food and enjoy conversation and experience, keep walking huns. The two stars are solely for the service, they...

we went to this place because it was recommended to us by staff in the hotel. we knew that it was going to be expensive but we also expected the food to taste great which was not the case. food needed more flavor. it’s too expensive for low quality food just go somewhere where you’re going to get good service and good quality food.

we also ordered some drinks and in my moms drink there was a fly. we told a staff member and he gave us attitude and tried to blame it on my mom. then i ordered picańa and i asked for it well done because i get disgusted seeing blood or pink in my meat. when i got my meat it had blood so we kindly asked the same guy if they could send it back to put it a bit longer, he agreed but gave us attitude once again.

service was terrible. a guy came to clean our table and the guy that was giving us attitude earlier also came up behind him and started whispering to him about my mom, very rude and disrespectful. and he was treating us badly acting like we didn’t have money to pay for the stuff.

they also sat us near the edge and a lot of vendors come and ask for money and they insist for you to give them money even after you deny, and the restaurant staff does nothing about it. and it’s annoying for people to be asking you for money while you’re eating, you can’t enjoy your meal in peace. i was sitting down and a vendor came to touch my arm insisting for me to buy him some bracelets and did not want to leave. the place is super loud and just not a nice atmosphere.

when we were paying the guy that gave us attitude told us that 15% of tip was included in the bill but that it was only for the people that cooked and if we wanted to add 5% for the servers, we felt uncomfortable since he did put us on the spot , we felt like we had no choice other than to say yes. we also feel like it’s unfair how 15% it’s already added to the bill. i feel like a tip is earned and should not be an obligation, and clearly the tip was not earned in this case. we feel scammed and as if we were robbed.

i really don’t recommend this...