Trattoria del Centro — Restaurant in Playa del Carmen

A Little Italy on Caribbean Shores.

Between 5th and 10th Avenue on 26th Street, you escape the tourist ratatouille. Step through Trattoria del Centro's "doors" and the souvenir shops disappear completely. Italian conversations fill the air around you while people wear light linen clothes like in summer Naples. Warm wicker lighting hangs above wooden tables surrounded by lush greenery, creating the perfect setting whether you're having an intimate conversation as a couple or celebrating with your entire famiglia. This remarkable place has become a sanctuary for the Italian diaspora, part of a migration pattern that started in the 1990s when Italian entrepreneurs discovered what Playa del Carmen could offer. The atmosphere perfectly blends Neapolitan warmth (think sun-bleached terraces and animated conversations) with Milanese sophistication, creating an authentically European enclave where Aperol Spritz flows as naturally as Caribbean breezes. The fritti misti arrives perfect and hot. You taste arancini, bruschetta, and fresh mozzarella. The music plays every night, but be careful. If you want to talk quietly, ask for a table far from the musicians. Tables fill up with locals and expat Italians who treat this place like their neighborhood spot, which is a sure sign you've found something authentic. Here lies the beautiful paradox: an Italian trattoria thriving amid Mexico's culinary empire, where tacos surrender their throne to tagliatelle. The atmospheric courtyard, with its glowing sphere lanterns and tropical foliage, transforms throughout the evening; intimate conversations at sunset morphing into spirited celebrations under starlight. This cultural fusion speaks to something deeper than mere survival; it represents the timeless Italian ability to create famiglia wherever they plant their roots. As mariachi echoes fade into Mediterranean melodies, you realize that some traditions transcend borders, finding new life under...

My wife and I were looking forward to dinner here, we researched the best restaurants in PDC and chose Trattoria del Centro. Unfortunately our experience didn’t live up to the glowing reviews we had read here.

We arrived at 7:30 and were told the soonest we could be seated would be 8:45. We put our names on the list and had a drink at a neighboring bar while we waited. When we returned, we were seated without menus. After a few minutes of waiting and noticing other tables received menus from the host we grabbed him, he apologized and brought them.

For drinks, my wife ordered a glass of Chardonnay and I got a Negroni. My drink was good but the wine could have been colder because after only a few minutes my wife noted it was already getting warm. We ordered the Fritto Misto Di Mare as a starter, a platter of fried calamari, cuttlefish, shrimp and zucchini. This surprisingly didn’t come out well. The fried items weren’t crunchy or crispy, bland, and the seafood tasted like it had been frozen, not fresh.

For our mains I got the tagliatelle ragú di mare and she got white pizza Boscaiola. My pasta was alright, it was also pretty bland but adding crushed red pepper helped. My wife’s pizza was also disappointing. Although the dough was good (the highlight of the meal were the rolls which are made of the same dough and baked in the pizza oven) the pizza soggy and not particularly flavorful. Ultimately we left over half our food uneaten.

The service wasn’t particularly attentive either. In addition to not being given menus when we arrived, we weren’t offered water and it took some time to find our waiter when we were ready tired the check.

Maybe this was just an off night but our meal fell well short of...

UPDATE: The obnoxious individual we experienced was fired. Thankfully. And we have since eaten here twice. It was wonderful. The owner was very apologetic about the treatment we received. He said the same happened with others who experienced the offending person.

THE FOLLOWING HAS BEEN REMEDIED! We were referred to this restaurant by our Italian friends who own apartments in Playa. We arrived Valentines evening and were waiting at the door with another couple who were frustrated that the rest of their party of six were not there. The employee at the entrance never acknowledged us in spite of our standing there quite apparently waiting to be greeted and seated. Instead, he went and took videos of the musicians in the place and chatted with them. After about ten minutes of this we were done with it and we walked out. He came yelling after us and instead of apologizing he berated us for leaving. We told him that he should have at the very least greeted us and asked us if we were a part of the other party or on our own. Oh no. He didn’t think he needed to do that. He felt we should have just stood there waiting for who knows how long until he got around to a simple “Hello”. This is not a review about the food. We will never experience the food. Ever. He was such a monstrous personality - looked and behaved like a bouncer - and there are so many great restaurants in this town. We were lucky to be able to dine at another wonderful...