Mar-Bella Fish Market - Puerto Morelos — Restaurant in Puerto Morelos

This restaurant is ambitious in concept, and is in an ideal location with beautiful architectural touches and a view of the ocean. However, it needs a lot of work. It could be quite good, but as it is, it’s still in its conceptual stage (although it’s open for business).

1. “We are a fish market, so we don’t have a menu,” we were told. Ok. They presented us with a chalkboard of fish, oysters, shrimp, shellfish, lobster, octopus, and so forth priced per kilo. “You pick your item and weight, we cook it any way you like.” Except they were out of fish, oysters, and shellfish, so the choice was shrimp by count per kilo. 2) “We don’t have a cocktail menu, but we have a full bar.” 3) I am in the food and beverage industry and I love cooking, but the average person cannot come up with either a style of cooking or recipe or a cocktail off the top of their head. That’s why we have menus and bar programs. This avoids choice paralysis. I’m sure they are pouring loads of Old Fashioneds and Cosmos, lol. 4) The fish sashimi was in deed a lime carpaccio, although they served it with ponzu. I’m not sure why as the lime was overpowering. 5) We ordered 8/kilo shrimp, 250g each al ajillo. We should have received 2 large shrimp each by that math. Instead we got 5 each (therefore 20/kilo). 6) The music was night club and loud and set us on edge. Not relaxing at all. 7) The bill came out to around $100 for two average plates of shrimp and four drinks. That’s crazy. We have no problem with a $100 tab, but it better be a well curated meal not this haphazard experience.

This place needs work. They need to stock what they offer. They need a menu of cooking options for the proteins down the left, then they need price per kilo in the middle column, then they need a list of cooking styles on the right column with a section for available sides. That way a customer can order item, volume/weight, style (al ajillo, frito, asiática, entomatado, etc), and a side, and be done. They need a bar program/cocktail menu. They need some soothing or relaxing music. I hope they do these things because, as I said, the place could be great. But people show up to...

WATCH YOUR THINGS, FAST HANDS....Honestly, it saddens me to write this review as I have come to Mar bella many times for many years and spent tons of money there, But this was the last time I will ever set foot or recommed this place. I was having lunch at Mar-bella with my sister and her bf and as I decided to take off my airpods for a bit (I was in an online class that had a 30 minute break) when the time was up, I go to grab my airpods PRO ($250) that I had just took out of my ears 30 minutes earlier and they were missing, I panic and ask for help. the manager comes over and tells me to track them , which i did and it showed to be inside the restaurant, they make me go outside and walk a block to see if it still showed in the restaurant, YEP it still showed. The manager had some employees come and empty their pockets (VERY uncomfortable to be honest especially since he only called some and not all, the others just stared) they let me pick me through the trash and look in the kitchen. WHICH is huge for a business and Thankful the manager showed interest in helping me find what was stolen which goes to show that they werent mistakenly dropped in teh trash or mixed with plates as that was my first thought when they clearned the table. After about an hour of searching we decided to leave and are told that they would deep clean the restaurant and let me know when they find it. They asked me to send pictures that showed that my airpods were still at the same location and I DID. I sent pics the whole day and night, my airpods remained at the location until the battery died. So my recomendation is, if you have valuables, dont go here. Your things might dissapear in a few seconds and youll never see it again. As i said, it saddens me to write this as the manager was super helpful in all that he could, but clearly someone of his staff isnt, i can only imagine how things...

This was literally the worst experience we ever had. The restaurant poses as a "more sophisticated" location. The location of the restaurant is wrong on Google maps. It is located right next to Mercadito del Mar. Before entering we asked about closing hours to make sure we can finish our food in peace (we arrived at 19:45) enjoying our last day in Mexico. The owner ensured us that kitchen will close in 45 mins but we can finish our food even after. The lobster is more expensive than anywhere in Puerto Morales (we have tried it at 4 different places and in expensive restaurants one tail is for 300 - here we were told to expect 800 pee tail). They do not have a menu. When asking of their offerings they speak in grams and give approximations on the prices. I ordered prawns in coconut sauce and received embedded prawns. When telling the waiter his solution was a spicy sauce. It was not even 20:15 (before the time we were told the kitchen would close) when the light went off, they started moving the tables with no regards of at least trying to keep the sound down. Suddenly lounge music went off... Then nothing.. then loud rock musik and the waiters whistling. We complaint to the waiter he got his boss so we co plained to him. The manager told us that they had to hurry because the bus was about to come though stating that they were not rushing at the same time. Still loud rock music playing. We enden up swallowing down our food (after removing the unwanted breading) and rushing out around 20:40. Thank you for ruining the night, you don't care about your guests, but only about the money! P.s. no compensation has been offered although complaining about the bad service...