Jaal-Ha Restaurant at Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda — Restaurant in Quintana Roo

This was my favourite restaurant at Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda and probably not for the reasons you'd think! There are local stray cats that have made Jaal-Ha their home so while you're eating they're hanging out hoping for some scraps. A raccoon even made it's way inside (I was expecting a Coati to come in but not a raccoon hahahah). If animals don't bother you this is definitely the place to be!

I can't speak to the buffet here but from what I understand it's the same as Festival and there are different variations of most things every day (except for the delicious fruit that's always the same).

I really enjoyed Mariscos (the seafood restaurant) even though I ordered the fabulous Caribbean chicken. The fish tacos were also good and we loved the presentation. My partner really loved the Steakhouse restaurant. The steak was really good and cooked to absolute perfection and there were good options for people who don't care for steak as well.

The waiters were all really incredible no matter where we went and we regularly tipped 2-3 dollars and received...

HORRIBLE the drinks taste horrible (Coca-Cola is not Coca-Cola, it's carbonated water with a little flavoring and sweetness) the vendors are dirty, the coffee sometimes It has curdled milk. The food doesn't taste bad but in the haal ja beach restaurant they have their garbage can right next to the main kitchen and it stinks terribly with the wind the smell gets into the restaurant and adjoining areas they don't even feel like eating there... I recommend you bring your glass or thermos since the glasses also sometimes smell strange like chlorine and are disgusting or buy a coke before coming and a good drink by the way because the alcohol they serve is the most common and cheap unless they tip...

We stayed in the hotel for a week. We went to this place for breakfast and lunch a few times (it's exactly like festival one but with less food) but the big issue was when we scheduled a dinner with Steak House in this place. The slowest service you can think of, plus the waiter was rude, they didn't explain us well which courses were supposed to be paid or not, and because we were taking a few seconds the waiter decided to leave and do something else. Also he started to sigh when my boyfriend was deciding, it was very RUDE, and with that we canceled the seafood for next day. It was not worth it, specially because the food was average as...