Bella Roma Tulum — Restaurant in Quintana Roo

Absolutely enjoyed my experience here! Thank you, Javier for serving us! Location is in a newly opened mall, called Hunab Lifestyle Center. Everything is very modern, but lots of vacant units since it is so new. I made a reservation for 7:30pm and just as we walked towards the door, Javier opened the door for us and politely asked if we are interested in dining there. When I said yes and that we made a reservation, he immediately said “welcome Julie!” Espresso martini was decently priced and out of this world fantastic! The bread service was great, breads were warm and served with EVOO and balsamic vinegar from Medina Italy. The grilled Caesar salad was one of the best Caesar salads I’ve ever had. If you didn’t know, Caesar salads were invented in Mexico, so now you know! But of all the Caesar salads I’ve had all around the world, this is on the top 3. I still need to make my trip from San Diego to Tijuana one day and try it at Caesar’s, the actual restaurant this salad was invented in to see if it tops that list. Charred romaine for smokiness, generous slices of hard Parmesan, small chucks of anchovies tell me they made the dressing there and it wasn’t pre-purchased. Pappardelle Al Ragu: pasta that was made at the restaurant and boiled to al dente. Heaping portions of high quality beef, though lean, not chewy. Served at the perfect temperature. Fettuccine alla Boscaiola: again, perfectly made pasta. The sauce is not like anything we’ve tried! The chef perfectly captured the essence of the mushroom, complemented by the house made sausage. We were too full to have desert and when we wrapped up our bill, Javier offered us Grappa or limoncello on the house! We both got the limoncello and it was amazing! The price was $85 for us 2 before tips, and I’m completely stunned by the quality at such a reasonable price. We are here for 5 days and we have every intention...

I’m not the kind of person to give bad reviews but I had to on this one. Worst experience! From the start, the servers were not welcoming since we came a bit late then we had an issue while ordering, because of the langage barrier, which led to them thinking we ordered chicken, we told them that we didn’t and they ignored us probably thinking we’ll just pay for it until we had to physically give them back the plate untouched… after that no service, they didn’t even looked at us once except to talk about us from afar wich made us really incomfortable since it’s not entirely our fault and the cherry on top was that my boyfriend didn’t put any tips for good reasons but the payment was canceled so I took the machine to pay but the server put in 20% tips and I didn’t see it until after I paid so I had to ask him to give us back the tips he took without asking us!!!! He (of course) ignored us again for a couple minutes before coming back to give us back the tips since he saw we weren’t leaving without it and proceeded to tell us we had to leave now. I would never recomend this...

Every menu item was delicious. The service was great, but we were the only people there most of our visit.

Here are our issues: the first 3 red wines we asked about were not available, even though one of them was identified as the preferred pairing on our main dish selections. Of course, the 2 available wines were more expensive. There were fruitflies buzzing us the entire time. There was a mandatory 15% service tip applied on the bill. We didn't see anything about that at the door or on the menu, but OK. The biggest issue was when they wouldn't take our credit card for the bill and said cash only. The waiter claimed their card machine wasn't working. When we showed them we didn't have enough cash to pay, then the waiter went into dramatics like he had to get approval and maybe their machine was flaky. It was total BS, nothing more. It worked just fine.

BTW, we are usually 20% tippers, pay the bill on card and tip via cash. After these shenanigans, we stood pat...