Cozumel - Food, Fun, and Marriage

Sorry readers for the lack of posts, but I just got back from my Mexican Wedding / Honeymoon and it was incredible. We got married in Cozumel, then travelled to Playa del Carmen and Puerto Vallarta for our honeymoon - obviously eating some great food along the way. Below are the details of the Cozumel portion.

Cozumel - My Take
Basically Cozumel is a realy beautiful island with a great small town feel. Although there are shops lining the beaches it doesn't ever seem insanely crowded for some reason. As you walk further in, you'll find where the real people are and eat. There's a night market that seemed to be where the locals hung out. I usually love night market food, but the one at the Plaza in Cozumel seemed ok...hot dogs(?), churros, and french fries were the only items served when we were there. In terms of food, we really didn't get to do much exploring since we had a wedding to deal with. Here are the places that we visited...we're definitely coming back btw since we love the area, and I'll definitely look out for more authentic restaurants.

Side note - I did not take prices into account for all these reviews, since we were on our honeymoon. Food was generally on the cheaper side, but your experience may differ if you were looking at the bill - example, La Mission supposedly is very cheap, so if I paid attention I may have thought it was more bang for the buck.

La Mission - Recommended for Mole only
Juarez Sur 271 at 10th and 15th Avenida

A small restaurant a block off the beach. Cheezy atmosphere and all gringos. Not a good sign usually, but the food here was good (not great). Good margaritas, great mole sauce, decent chille relleno, and good quesadilla. I recommend the Chicken Mole above all other items. My mexican combo plate was good, but the mole was much better. The wife's chicken fajitas were average...


Prima - Recommended
109 Avenida A. Rosada Salas
Phone: 872-42-42

Had our welcome dinner here and as most can attest, I'm insanely picky with my Italian food. The food here is good, but not great. Nothing like you would get in Italy, more like the Italian American fare you get in NYC's little italy. Not necessarily a bad thing, but I was expecting nothing from this place. I got the chicken parm which I haven't had in 10 years. Easy, cheezy (literally and figuratively), but I still love it...chicken was juicy and flavorful.


Sonora Grill - Highly Recommended
15th Ave. and Juarez
Phone: 872-3620

The best of the bunch. Perfectly cooked items, not Mexican, but killer food. Basically, our seafood was buttered, broiled and topped with garlic and lime. Served with a side of buttered rice, buttered veg, and buttered potato...mmmm, cholesterol. Shrimp was insanely sweet and juicy with the shell on - the lime juice really woke up the flavors too. Definitely going to try and recreate this at home.

Menu
Shrimp with garlic sauce ***
Fish (grouper) *

Tulum - Recommended
Visited the ruins in Tulum - not that worth it except for the best ocean water I've ever seen. Surprisingly got some good food at some restaurant at the ruins site. The salsa was spectacular - like nothing I've ever had before. The salt content was so high, but it worked so well. Great citrus flavor in the salsa too - our limes in the US don't compare. Pork tacos had an unbelievable pork flavor with a rich chili thing going on, but a tad dry, loved the pickled onions. Caveat though that all our other companions hated their dishes (no one else ordered the pork tacos).