Fuego Restaurant Cozumel — Restaurant in San Miguel de Cozumel

I genuinely wanted to support a business owned by the local Chabad. The combination of phrases like "chef restaurant," a 4.9 rating on Google, and beautiful images of the dishes made us believe this was our special dinner spot. Unfortunately, red flags emerged as soon as we walked in.

We entered through a section that seemed to be a part of the kitchen into a tiny space with the air conditioning off (we had to request it be turned on). This should have been a sign of what was to come. We were two families who sat around the table and waited for an uncomfortable amount of time before anyone greeted us or offered menus, despite the place being nearly empty. After 10 minutes, a waiter finally approached but was clearly not suited for this job. He was impatient, didn't listen to individual orders, and expected us to summarize everything for him in bulk.

Despite these issues, we were still hopeful and waited for the food. As an Israeli family living in New York for two decades, accustomed to dining at a variety of restaurant levels from casual to chef-level once or twice a week, I can confidently say the dishes served to us were nowhere near a casual dining level of food… to say the least.

The kabab was more of an uncooked meatball, heavily mixed with bread. The hummus with beef was made with tasteless, inedible pulled beef instead of ground beef. The chicken skewers were spoiled, and the so-called "Israeli salad" was far from authentic. The rice was overly salted to the point of being inedible. There were many other issues with the food that I won't detail here.

The waiter seemed intimidated when we pointed out these problems and acted as if he was personally insulted. He may be a great person, but serving people is clearly not his strength.

Initially, I hesitated to write this review because of the restaurant's association with Chabad, an organization I deeply respect. However, I felt compelled to share this experience in hopes that the owners will take this feedback seriously and seek to improve. This review is not written with the intention to harm but to express genuine disappointment in the unprofessional service and poor quality of food at an unjustified cost.

As for the 2.3K reviews? A quick glance suggests that many are likely from other Chabad members, with reviewers having only 1-3 reviews in total. It seems like a communal efforts to support something that, unfortunately, doesn’t live up to the expectations it creates.

The unfortunate bottom line - we feel we got scammed. No one offered to take the bad dishes off our bill. Nothing about this restaurant feels or works like a chef restaurant. Definitely not worth the nearly $400 USD we paid. A fancy package can be deceiving while the product inside just...

It took my lady friend and me a while to find this quaint spot because it’s almost located with a level of exclusivity. Persevering through humid summer heat, the restaurant finally revealed itself up a discreet sliver of staircase to a beautiful layout with an oceanfront view. To my surprise, the restaurant was not crowded at all. Our competent server, Kevin, greeted us at the door and led us to our seats and was very helpful through the entire experience. We started with cocktails- the lady had a dragonfruit mojito (she’s weird) and I had a concoction with coconut cream, citrus mixes, sweet pea tea, and rum. When we saw that all of the ingredients in the cocktail were fresh, we knew we were in for a treat. Each one was well crafted and worth a refill. Following our tasteful beverages, we started with the meat empanadas and hummus. It was the best empanada I’ve ever had: light, fluffy, flaky, savory. You can’t miss with these. The hummus with a little more olive oil became increasingly addictive with every bite. Though one of our entree orders came out wrong, the lady and I were so impressed with the starters that we were willing to be adventurous. The fish fillet and the mushroom risotto, the star of the show, did not disappoint. The fish was light, tender, with a slight pan-fried crisp. BUT THE MUSHROOM RISSOTTO. The impeccable texture married with the decadent creaminess and complex truffle notes forced us to keep indulging until we physically couldn’t anymore. Needless to say, we left quite satisfied. The service, food, and atmosphere is one-of-a-kind in Cozumel if you’re looking for something cool and quaint. I’ll definitely be back to get my hands on the fudge brownie with ice cream that I had no...

Well, we came here because of the top reviews. We were disappointed. If this truly was the best restaurant in Cozumel, that would be a sad, sad story for the island.

The view is nice, but being straight onto the ferry terminal, it was far from being as spectacular as other reviews suggested. The location is on a busy road on a balcony on the 2nd floor with a faint, but noticable traffic noise profile.

The place is not awful, but a long shot from our expectation. We ordered some sparkling water and inquired about fresh juice. We ordered the only fresh juice they had (orange) while studying the menu.

The sparkling water did not have a fresh lime in it, but was factory flavoured lemon lime and the juice was frozen over slush, that was so solid I could not drink it.

We did not order food after this and got up to leave. The server made no enquiry as to why. However, what I assume to be the manager asked whether anything was wrong as we were walking out after paying (US$15 for two waters and a juice) I told him about the juice and he insisted it was fresh from this morning.

Well, that summarises my problem with this place. For what wants to be the best restaurant in Cozumel and has $$$$ pricing, I expect the juice to be squeezed after I order, rather than 10 hours prior and than be stuck in too cold a fridge.

I also did not feel like eating a US$10 Hummus or some salmon where we were unsure about what to expect after the initial impression.

Life is too short to overpay for mediocre food in a...