Samurai Japanese Cuisine - The Reef Coco Beach — Restaurant in Playa del Carmen

Not a reflection on The Reef Coco Beach – but the Hibachi restaurant experience was disappointing.

I brought my daughter to this resort for her 10th birthday. It was our final night in Playa del Carmen, and she was especially excited about dining at the Hibachi Grill—she loves the fun, interactive experience. When we checked in, we were told it’s best to book the restaurant in advance, so we did—four days ahead of time.

When we arrived for our reservation, we were abruptly told by the hostess (who also claimed to be the manager) that “no children are allowed at the Hibachi Grill” and that we would need to sit at a regular table instead. We were confused but agreed, though the wait to have our order taken was excessively long.

What made the situation worse was when the same hostess then seated another family—with even younger children—at the Hibachi grill. When I questioned this, I was told, “they booked the grill.” I explained that we had too, and her response was that I would need the other family’s permission to join them. Thankfully, the family had no issue with it and welcomed us, but by that point, it was clear the hostess had been dishonest and inconsistent.

The grill experience itself was what you’d expect—typical jokes, a few laughs, and the kids had fun. However, I did end up getting sick the next day, likely from the shrimp.

Final thoughts:

The restaurant staff made us feel unwelcome.

The hostess was rude, confrontational, and deceptive.

We were clearly treated differently as tourists.

While my issue is not with the overall resort, I would not return to this restaurant again. The poor treatment and inconsistent behavior from the staff overshadowed what was meant to be a memorable...

We (a group of 5) have been a total of 4 times in this restaurant during our stay in the accompanying hotel. 2x we participated in the live cooking show, which is very entertaining and a lot of fun. 2x we went for the Sushi all-you-can-eat. We were handed two large plates of delicious Sushi and once these were finished we got new plates of the same size until we could not eat anymore. The cooks and waiters in the restaurant had a lot of fun doing their job and were constantly refilling our drinks. I can only recommend going to this restaurant while you stay in...

made a reservation 2 days in advance and then day of "you can't order off the sushi menu we only have hibachi" but it's a sushi restaurant supposedly? reservation was for 9pm, didn't get seated till 9:30 they straight up ignored everyone waiting for 30 mins and then proceed to serve pre-made nigiri that had been sitting out room temperature for the entire 30 minutes we were waiting (and probably longer) gross. but also....they obviously DO have sushi? what gives? just can't order fresh?? 🤣 joke of a hotel...