Ilios | Greek restaurant in Tulum — Restaurant in Tulum

My husband and I were seriously shocked that the ratings for this place were so high. We did not have a positive experience.

We booked a reservation for my birthday dinner a few nights ago. We got there and were seated right away—there was only 1 other party in the entire restaurant. We were handed the menus by the waiter, and he proceeded to hover over us for a few minutes, continuously telling us about different drinks and asking us what we wanted to order. Like most people, I appreciate some space while I browse a menu.

I mentioned that I wanted a glass of red wine, but the waiter told me they only have bottles of wine. The lowest priced bottle of wine was about $100 USD, which was more than we wanted to spend and about double the price of a bottle we purchased the night before at the authentic Italian restaurant across the street. I ordered a cocktail instead—my cocktail was just ‘ok’, and my husbands cocktail (~MX$450) was SO overly sweet and tasted like bottom shelf liquor. Even after ordering the cocktail, the waiter continued to push bottles of wine—I’m sure just to have us spend more money. I declined multiple times, and he kept pushing us to spend more the entire night. Then we were pushed to order a hookah, buy cigars, etc. I understand there may be a difference of cultures here, but a ‘no’ is a no. We don’t appreciate being heckled when we’re just trying to enjoy a nice meal together.

We ordered about 5 small dishes instead of ordering entrees. None were that great for the price we paid. We’ve had numerous other meals in Tulum—some around the same price as Ilios that tasted WAY better, and others that were far cheaper than Ilios but tasted about the same. The hummus was incredibly bland (anything from a grocery store is 10 times better), and the spanakopita tasted like it was from the freezer aisle. The food here was nothing to write home about. Again, once we finished our small plates, we were encouraged to spend more money and order entrees. If the first plates were good and we felt comfortable, we would’ve been happy to order more food.

We also encountered a very weird situation while we were there. More guests arrived at the restaurant as the evening went on, and we were all seated in tables next to one another on one side of the restaurant—closest to the front doors (I’m sure to make the restaurant seem more crowded). It felt like we were all up in each other space.. especially after a 12-15 person party was seated adjacent to us.

My husband and I couldn’t ignore what was going on at that table. We noticed a male waiter (maybe the manager) point to the table and make aggressive hand gestures at a female guest. As I continued watching, he got very close to the female guest and scolded her about not bringing an outside water bottle into the restaurant. It was incredibly weird!! A water bottle??

We also saw that same waiter/manager make other aggressive hand gestures to another waiter from across the table—telling him to not bend over when speaking to a seated guest (I’m sure the waiter only did this because the music was VERY loud, and they probably could hear one another). It was very weird to see a manager correct another waiter in public while in front of guests, and he wasn’t even trying to be sly about it. Shouldn’t that be done behind closed doors? It made the environment feel even more uncomfortable.

The party of 12-15 guests decided to leave the restaurant after the water bottle encounter (I see their review posted about 5 days ago), and I don’t blame them. We were shocked that the restaurant didn’t apologize and try to get them to stay. Tons of money (that they seem to care so much about) just walked out the door! We spoke to the party outside later that evening (we were finishing up our meal as they departed), and they were incredibly friendly. This wasn’t a case of the customers being rude or demanding—it was truly the restaurant being unfair and too proud.

TLDR: pushy staff, mediocre food, overpriced food and drinks, and very LOUD atmosphere. We wouldn’t...

Overall, a decent experience for a first time visitor to Tulum.

We went for an early dinner (so missed the dancers and shows that I’ve seen posted elsewhere), so we were maybe one of three couples that were in the restaurant at the time.

First off, food is definitely 5*. Excellent portion sizes and quality. Reading previous reviews I think people need to understand that the menu is designed as a sharing experience, so if you’re looking to order one thing and that’s all, you’ll find yourself dissatisfied. If you order a few plates along with a main, then you’ll have more than enough. Again, quality was great and we enjoyed all selections.

I appreciated that management checked in a few times to see how everything was. Overall the restaurant seemed well organized and committed to providing a good experience.

I will say I was slightly put off by my server. It seemed he was trying to sell me on the most expensive items on the menu (his first “recommendation” was a MP fish dinner for two (I am not into seafood). When I politely declined and said we have some starters in mind along with a couple of other mains he seemed put off. When I mentioned I was thinking to order the pasta, he said folks that order pasta also order a meat dish and proceeded to show me the most expensive steak on the menu. Last, but not least, when it was time to settle the bill he wouldn’t allow me to work the machine or put my own tip in. He automatically converted the bill to USD then put in a tip and asked me if the amount was okay. It was a 10% tip so I said sounds great. When navigating the machine I think he realized his mistake and then proceeded to show me a different amount. I wasn’t in the mood to argue and it seems 20% is “expected” everywhere in Tulum so I left things as is.

Final thoughts, if you’re looking for a really quality meal in a gorgeous environment, Ilios definitely hits the mark. Staff on the whole are great, and as I said, management seemed to be involved at every step of the process, but I would say there needs some work on the finer aspects of...

The restaurant itself is very nice but we did not enjoy our food or the treatment.

Let’s start with the Valet - $30 and they demanded tip, said if we didn’t want to tip then we would have to park the car ourselves.

When we arrived, we were told there was an hour and a half wait for 3 people (it was a wednesday night) so we had the option to sit at the bar. The bar is mounted very high, and the chairs I feel aren’t high enough for you to comfortably reach the bar to eat/drink etc. The bar is so high it almost reached our chin. The bartender completely ignored us for the 5 minutes we sat there, did not even acknowledge us. Since the bar was uncomfortable, we told the host that we would rather wait for a table, and not even 2 minutes later we were accommodated with a table that was available (we noticed the same table had been empty since we got there). So why were we told the wait was over an hour?

We ordered the filet shish-kabob, crab cake, tuna crudo, hummus, and spanakopita. The crab cake and the rest of the food looked great in the pictures they display on monitors all over the restaurant, but was full of just dough and barely any crab meat, it also was very salty. $34 for what tasted like cardboard. My friend caught a reaction to something in the Tuna crudo, and the kabob was filled with veggies and only 3 pieces of filet which were very undercooked. The apps were overpriced and our culinary experience was disappointing. We felt ripped off. $200 not including tip for 2 drinks and appetizers, no entrees were ordered.

I will say the entertainment was great and the staff does their best to keep the guests involved and entertained. The waiters were very well mannered, but we waited over 35 minutes for our drinks since all servers and staff were surrounding the plate breaking ceremony. The service was slow.

We came to ilios because of tik toks and videos we had seen of everyone’s positive reviews, but we were extremely disappointed with the quality of the food and just what felt like a...