The Money Bar Beach Club — Restaurant in Isla Cozumel

The four of us went to the Money Bar to first do a little snorkeling and then have a few drinks and appetizers afterwards. Everything was great until I asked for the check (which was only $25) and gave the waiter two twenty dollar bills ($40). The waiter thanked me and said he would return with my change. We waited a long time but our waiter never returned.

After about 20 minutes I went to find our waiter. Upon locating him he looked at me with a confused look on his face and opened up the little black book they bring your check in and said (in very poor English) "looook you giiive mee no moneeey". After 10 minutes explaining I gave him two twenty dollar bills ($40) I left and went back to our table.

I explained the situation to our table and two of us went back. At this point it wasn't about the money but the fact that we weren't going to get scammed. I tip way more than that when the service is good.

We found the waiter and things got loud. It was obvious to us Texans that he was trying to scam us and we were not leaving being ripped off. An older manager guy intervened and all of the sudden our waiter shows up and produced the two twenties. The waiter profusely apologized and kept saying he had made a mistake (this time he spoke very good English). I took my change and gave the guy an undeserved $5 tip on a $25 tab.

Cozumel is a great place to vacation and most businesses are honest, but gringo's need to be aware. They know you don't want trouble in Mexico and most visitors will likely just turn around and walk off but we were not going to roll over and they knew it.

This place should be called the Monkey Bar instead of the Money Bar since they like to monkey around...

If I were solely rating the food and location, I would give 5 stars; however, unfortunately, the service didn’t meet that same level of standard.

Let’s start with the pros: the location is stunning! There is a beautiful patio where you can dine right in front of the ocean. Want to take a dip? No problem—there’s a staircase into the water where many people swim and snorkel, and it’s very clear (no seaweed!). There are also a few beach beds for you to relax and soak up the sun. While it’s not an actual beach, the area they’ve recreated with sand and beach chairs works well.

The food was delicious—we ordered the grilled red snapper and it was big enough to feed two people.

Where things took a downturn was the service. They had a two-for-one offer running, and our group of four ordered Aperol spritzes. Instead of bringing one drink per person (and the second round later), they brought eight all at once. Not only did that feel excessive and wasteful, but the drinks were watered down. I’d much rather pay full price for a well-made cocktail than compromise on quality for the sake of a deal.

What made the experience worse was the server’s insistence that we leave a 30% tip, despite the lackluster service.

My message to the management of this lovely establishment is to be more conscious of the small details that can impact the overall guest experience. The setting and food are wonderful—but the service should enhance, not detract from,...

I ordered the money bar shrimp plate which are bacon wrapped shrimp with mozzarella cheese wand mash potatoes as my side. They brought French fries instead of mash potatoes and took the plate back and exchange it for mash potatoes with gravy which I didn’t want gravy. I didn’t say anything. Plate comes with 6 very small shrimps and they didn’t have cheese, which was the selling point. My friends at one shrimp each and then when I ate mine and realized it didn’t have cheese, I tried to flag down the waiter and, it was imposible. They stopped checking on us for a while. They were not paying attention to us anymore. Finally I got a waiter and showed him the shrimp, with no cheese and he said he was going to see what he could do.

The waiter said to talk with the person in charge. Manuel, he was such a rude person. He said he couldn’t do anything and that was it. He didn’t care because either way they were going to charge us of course. We ended spending $250 dollars and the service was not good towards the end. The guacamole tasted like lemon, not good.nachos were good. Drinks were good. Place was nice. Good live bad.

Also, they said the terminal didn’t work for tips. Luckily I had some cash but If I didn’t I guess they wouldn’t have gotten tip. It doesn’t make sense that the credit card machine works but not to...