Restaurants, Food, Drink, the Bar Scene, Entertainment, etc.
Things have definitely moved upscale at Club Med Cancun since renovation - including food, but also quality and quantity of entertainment. Below are some of my observations (updated January 2010).
Restaurants:
- Main restaurant - La Hacienda. Buffet style with different chef's specialties nightly. GO hosts and hostesses greet at the entrance and help with seating. Published hours of operation:
- Breakfast 7:00-10.30am
- Lunch Mini Club and Families 12:00-12:30pm
- Lunch 12:30-2:00pm
- Dinner Mini Club and Families 7:00-7.30pm
- Dinner 7:30-10:00pm
- Sample menu from main restaurant
- Second restaurant - Las Cazuelas - near the sailing beach. Late lunch and Mexican specialty dinner by reservation only. Good food, but slow service so be patient (and have another couple drinks)! Published hours:
- Lunch 1:00-4:00pm (now open EARLIER for late lunch - I loved eating here)
- Dinner 7:00-10:00pm
- New full service third restaurant - La Pergola. Tapas dinners, by reservation. I tried it and it was good. Published hours:
- Late breakfast 10:30-12:00pm
- "All Day" dining 4:00pm-7:00pm
- Tapas specialty dinner by reservation only 7:30-9:30pm
- Late evening snacking 10:00pm-2:00am (no french fries or munchies though, just sandwiches etc.!)
- Appetizer and Tapas bar - next to main bar. 6:00-7:00pm. Different stuff every night, but ALWAYS guacamole, salsa, chips...
- Food in the restaurants is noticeably better, but with slightly less selection then in years past. A variation of sushi or sashimi was available most days (it was generally excellent) - they even had a dedicated sushi chef. The roast beef was excellent. The roast chicken, as always, was superb.
- Espresso drinks were available in each of the restaurants - self serve machines.
- La Palapa, destroyed by hurricane, has been completely rebuilt from the ground up as Las Cazuelas and is now worthy of a spot in Architectural Record magazine. Beautiful job. Still functions as late-lunch restaurant and reservation-only alternate dinner restaurant. Nice outdoor bar, La Chispa, open all day and serves as nightly disco - still the best place to watch sunsets.
- Las Cazuelas has menu service and the food was excellent. Service could be spotty, but hey, these people could make a lot more dough waiting tables in Cancun. Reservations were always 'full' but in reality the place was rarely more than 1/2 full.
- Table attendants in both restaurants would ask when you sat down if you wanted a drink, or wine, and then they would get it for you. Service was good.
- Main restaurant has been 'opened up' and most rooms are connected to each other. Each room had a different theme and decoration. Some were weird. The so-called adult room was decorated like a bordello - red and brown.
- Many tables were for 2 and 4 but there were 6, 8, 10-tops if you had a big group. As a single, I did not hesitate to sit at a big table and wait (hoping) for it to fill. Usually GOs would sit down and once in a while other GMs, but it was a lot less social dining experience than previous Club Meds
- Guacamole is alive and well at lunch and dinner - as well as at the appetizer bar near the pool at 6:00pm till dinner time
- Breakfast had a couple fresh cooked egg stations which were slow if a family was in line
- Hard, hand dipped ice cream is back. Try Pistachio the one or two days they have it. Also try vanilla ice cream on the chocolate bread!
- Nearly all of the soups were excellent - and there were always 2 selections at dinner
- Caramel sauce no longer available at breakfast (for the crepes!). Some fruit compote would be nice, as opposed to Smuckers jam
| Typical | Saturday | Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Featured Dining - sample menu | - Mahi Mahi Ceviche - Sauteed Octopus - Pan Fried Grouper -Turkey Supreme |
- Beef Carpaccio - Shrimp Tempura - Frog Legs - Prime Rib |
- Irish Smoked Salmon - Beef Stroganoff - Chicken w/Camembert - Grilled Flank Steak |
- Ceviche Heaven - Scallops in Pastry - Pan Fried Crocodile - Wild Boar |
- Duck Foie Gras - Pan Seared Tuna - Lamb Tenderloin - Duck Breast |
- Salmon - Braised Ostrich Steak - Surf 'n Turf - Lamb |
- Lobster Cocktail - Mahi Mahi - Scallop Risotto - Beef Wellington |
Bars:
- Four bars now. Main, beach/pool (new), La Chispa (former La Palapa), and Snack Bar bar (open weird hours, but a nice place to be when it's open).
- At the pool bar, sometimes you had to specify that you actually wanted booze in your drink since this is where most kids got their Shirley Temples
- Liquors are the same mid-pack branding as before - nothing special. Wines were OK, not great but drinkable. Wine list was available at extra cost. Beer on tap was Dox Equis - dark and light
- Espresso drinks (now Illy Cafe!) were readily available at all 4 bar locations
- Sometimes the bar in the snack bar was not open along with the snack bar, so if you wanted to drink and snack you had to think ahead.
- Drinking age was 18 and there were usually some teens drinking but they were not obnoxious
- Kids generally took a lot of time at the bar ordering combos of blended virgin drinks. Club Med should install a drink mix machine with a couple virgin blends in it - this would save tons of time waiting for an adult drink.
- Great bar team - Daniel is still here (since the early 80's)
- Actually, I like the layout of the new bar better than the old one - easier for bar tenders to cover (but I'm not a bar tender)
Entertainment:
- Entertainment showed a huge variety and it was not unusual to have a couple things going on at once.
- Good, but sometimes overly ambitious GO shows
- A French language show in La Pergola if the crowd is heavily French
- A couple live music groups including a great Cuban band plus a very fine Mexican guitar player with backup band and a nice jazz band. A great dancing floor show at the new Las Cazuelas (former La Palapa) building. Generally an excellent variety of entertainment!
- Party night life was slower than "the good old Club Med days", but there was a lot of variety and it took place in several venues: Bar area, Las Cazuelas, La Pergola Snack Bar, and outside in the new 'square' near the main bar. I figured that with 120-150 kids (according to reception), plus their parents, it effectively wiped out half the village population for potential partiers
- Disco is now at La Chispa full time due to noise complaints from the Westin Hotel next door
- Main theater has new stage, seating (chairs), and doubles as a recreation area with pool tables, etc., off to the side and is closed in and air conditioned.
- June 2007 - from Jim Thursday after the kid show four GOs had arranged an adult-only comedy show in English. Somewhat cheesy but fun and then it adjourned to the La Chispa for the general festivities
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