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. Here are some of my observations (partially updated December 2007):

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 (new - this is a good feature) 12:00-12:30pm
Lunch 12:30-2:00pm
Dinner Mini Club and Families 7:00-7.30pm
Dinner 7:30-10:00pm

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. Does double duty late nights. 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 the pool. 6:00~7:30pm. 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 every day (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.
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. Nice outdoor bar and eating areas. Still functions as late-lunch restaurant and reservation-only alternate dinner restaurant. I cannot overstate how beautiful this building is - still the best place to watch sunsets.
The snack bar snacks were more upscale than before - no more nachos or fries, which I missed.
The second restaurant (former La Palapa now Las Cazuelas) had 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 excellent.
GOs were seating the main restaurant again! Love it.
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-only room was decorated like a bordello - red and brown.
Many tables were for 4 but there were 6, 8, 10-tops etc., and some for 2. 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
Gone are the fresh tortillas at lunch - which I missed
Guacamole is alive and well at every lunch - and some dinners(?) - 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. This could be solved by having a bin of hot pre-scrambled eggs nearby for the kids (in addition to the fresh egg stations).
No hard ice cream, and the soft serve seemed more like ice milk - as opposed to my Dec 2006 visit.
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

Bars:

Four bars now. Main, beach/pool (new), Las Cazuelas (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
Booze is the same mid-pack branding as before - nothing special. Wines were Spanish during this week, as opposed to Mexican of years past - wine was slightly improved. Beer on tap was Corona.
Real glass glasses are back!
Espresso drinks (now Illy Cafe!) were readily available at all 4 bar locations, plus in each of the restaurants (self serve in the restaurants).
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.
Bar appetizers just before mealtime were punched up a bit - especially at the poolside appetizer bar.
Great bar team at the main bar - 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 GO shows.
A weekly GM kids show which was cute.
A French language show or two in the new snack bar building.
A virtual parade of 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 not as dead as December 2006, but still 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 moved around, too.
Main theater has new stage, seating (chairs), and doubles as a recreation area with pool tables, etc., off to the side.
Theater is all 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 Chispa for the general festivities.

Food, Bar, Entertainment - click on thumbnail to enlarge photo

blank space	blank space	Pleasant afternoon at the main bar	This was the Cuban band they brought in - great band	Night shot of main bar
Doing crazy signs in the outdoor square near main bar	Group of Christmas eve, eve, celebrators - complete with blinking noses	Bar action	Main bar during the daytime	Arrival of many kegs of Corona!
The new La Palapa bar - looking west	The new pool and main beach bar	The so-called adult-only dining room - we called it the bordello room	More of the bordello room	Velour dining chairs in the 'bordello' room
Main buffet area in the main restaurant, complete with chef	Another one of the main restaurant rooms - this one done in skulls	More skulls	And more skulls...	Yes, they still do the chocolate bread - great with ice cream on it!
More chocolate bread - white and dark	Another one of the dining rooms in the main restaurant	More dining room	Outdoor seating and nice outdoor bar at the new snack bar	Inside the new snack bar looking toward the snorkelling beach
Outdoor dining at La Palapa	Inside La Palapa at late lunch - great place to grab fries between sails	Outside dining area at La Palapa	Outside bar area at La Palapa - best place to watch sunsets	Entry way to La Palapa
The control board for one of the new self serve espresso machines - one in each restaurant (made myself a triple every AM)	Seating area in main bar - lot's of seating space now (photo by Wendy)	More seating in the main bar (photo by Wendy)	Main bar after midnight (photo by Wendy)	Another shot of 'adult' dining room - also smoking room according to some (photo by Wendy)
A different dining room - each being unique (photo by Wendy)	This was my favorite dining room (photo by Wendy)	Family dining room - there were booster chairs nearby, plus food items for kids (photo by Wendy)	Outside dining area in main restaurant - seemed more closed in than before but it was open to outside (photo by Wendy)	Buffet area - one of them anyway (photo by Wendy)
Same shot, sorry! (photo by Wendy)	Miniclub show - it was pretty cute and the parents went crazy taking pictures (photo by Wendy)	Showgirls show with GOs (photo by Wendy)	Another GO show (photo by Wendy)