Cetli — Restaurant in Quintana Roo

Quite a disappointment to be honest Traveld from south Tulum beach to experience this restaurant and had high expectations as they have been named Best Restaurant in Tulum and are Micelhelin recommended.. Beautiful setup with small open kitchen, lots of authentic local art to purchase and overall a great space...

But the food is why we came and why I am disappointed..

Ordered the signature dish of the stuffed pepper with beef and pork.. The sherry liquor in the sauce was not burned off and left an extremely bitter flavor which after 2 bites my wife didn't want to finish the dish...The seasoning of the filling was very bland and needed a ton of salt and pepper and even some acid to balance out the flavor with the sauce..

Also ordered the chicken with mole sauce.. Chicken was poached ahead of time and then warmed up in the microwave, which we saw when standing at the counter watching the lady cook..The mole sauce was very plain and underwhelming for a sauce that is the signature for Mexican cooking..The description said it was a rolled and stuffed chicken breast with plantain, but we got boiled chunks of chicken with 2 small stale, not crispy plantains on the top.. Very disappointed in this dish as well..

We also ordered the fish with a white mole sauce... I asked the type of fish just to see what i was eating, and the server thought about it for a second or two and then said grouper. I watched the cook take the frozen fish out of the freezer and go into the microwave and then a pan or boiling water while fish was still wrapped in plastic.. The fish arrived slightly cold in the center, and lacking and seasoning at all...the white mole sauce was also very bland and needed a lot of help to finish the balancing and depth of flavors required in mole.. The fish I could tell was actually swai(basa), and not grouper...I know because i cook and eat lots and lots of swai in my meal prep.bevause it's low in fat and high in protein...but not a fish that should be served in a restaurant like this...Dish was not good from top to bottom..

Again, it sucks to speak so negatively of our experience, but it is the truth...And in the food and hospitality industry if guests are not able to provide honest feedback, then the owners will not know what improvements need to be made to ensure great food and hospitality for each and every guest during their visit..

I sure hope the owners see this and take the feedback to heart and make the necessary changes as I would love to come back in the future and try the food...

Don’t get the hype. 300 pesos for 4 frozen shrimps is not cool. We sat next to the kitchen and heard the microwave pinging. Ping after ping. It takes 15 minutes to be acknowledged, 30’minutes for your drink, 45 minutes for your on the house appetizer, which looks amazing but ironically tastes of nothing. Such a shame as looks so nice but everything tastes of...nothing! They spend 40 minutes preparing this dish when some simplicity and flavor would be way better and efficient.

We’d been before and wanted to give it another try as thought with all the reviews, we must have gone on an off night. Unfortunately none of it was good - again. And expensive for a restaurant on the highway, not even on the beach road.

The service is so bad you have to physically hunt the server down for additional drinks, and at 250 for a margarita and 180 for a glass of ‘house’ wine, is crazy! It never gets ‘busy’ as it’s like sitting in someone’s house so it’s kind of baffling the service is so bad.

The setting is sweet but if you’ve ever traveled in Mexico or even experienced the food in Tulum, you’re going to be disappointed. The restaurant has been here years and town used to not be the best but the bar is high now with many, many amazing restaurants in town. There’s absolutely no reason they should be selling frozen prawns! We saw them come out of the freezer, then we saw the corn sauce go in the microwave 😖

We live in Tulum and there’s such a wide variety of amazing food. The speciality at Cetli is their mole but having been to Oaxaca, this couldn’t be further from what we were expecting. I guess the restaurant is nice for gringos who haven’t really tried authentic Mexican food. Sorry that’s harsh...

The tortilla soup starter is tiny, like a child’s portion, and taste like oxo cubes, watery with the tiniest bit of cheese and tortilla. 180 mxn. Mental!

I hate leaving negative reviews but for somewhere that gets such rave reviews, I was truly baffled and hope this review helps others save time and money or even better, the kitchen / waiting staff step up. Tulum has changed and people expect more - certainly at prices that are almost as high as the beach road. Again, I stress, 300 mxn for 4 frozen shrimp and microwaved...

I’m not one to write many reviews…but as I started reading these…I began to take the negative reviews oddly personal. After dining at other Michelin Bib Gourmand restaurants in Chicago - Cetli completely obliterated those prior experiences (which I thought were delightful).

My husband and I were there at the weirdest time - Monday at 3pm (2/3). Disheveled after swimming in Gran Cenote, we walked to Cetli on the side of the busy, dusty road. Idk it made sense at the time.

The ambiance was spot on, plants out front were being watered on our way in, smiles and nods along the way. Details at every nook and cranny: different mediums of art on the walls, silverware tied together sweetly, pretty cloth napkins, something like a lava rock holding down extra paper napkins, colorful plates and bowls. Right away when they brought the hand-painted menu - I said under my breath to my husband: “Do you think they’d let me have this???” Frame worthy (and available to purchase in the boutique area).

The order of events:

Margaritas were sublime. Pretty sure the tajin on the rim was homemade. I licked it all off.

We were surprised to receive an appetizer snack plate. Totally made my day. House made bread, cheeses, some mini empanadas, garlic-y butter, salsa - all with more nuances I could never articulate in words exactly what they were…but my mouth remembers.

Next, the xicamatl salad. I was deep into travel mode at the time and craving freshness. This did it. Plenty to share, the shredded carrot, jicama, and beet combo was relaxed and lovely.

Our mains: istak fish with white almond mole sauce, and ixoxoctic chicken enchiladas in green almond mole sauce. Both were flavorful and fun. The sauces were nothing that could ever be replicated at home. There were forks scraping up leftover sauce.

Dessert + espresso = the perfect finish. Apologies, I can’t figure out what the dessert was called. Corn based cake with ice cream in the middle and chocolate all over.

Both waiters we dined with were beyond professional and accommodating. They were Bib Gourmand level as well, not just the food (maybe even beyond???). We gave the chef on the wave on our way out…even though I wanted to...