Tulum Archives - Nostalgiosity

Best Restaurants in Tulum: 7 Top Places to Eat

by Laura | Mar 12, 2017 | Travel, Tulum

Food in Tulum combines the best of Mexican flavors and international cuisine. I found amazing fusions between traditional spices and wood-fired pizzas, black beans and everyday breakfast items, spicy salsa and a Mediterranean octopus. I created this list to help you figure out which are the best restaurants in Tulum, where to eat at a fair price, and whether you should make any preparations beforehand. You will find that Latin American culture tends to forego the formalities involved in table reservations, but highly popular restaurants must still do so given their traffic.

On to the list:

Posada Margherita

Incredibly photogenic and full of personality, Posada Margherita is an oddity in the middle of so many tacos and tortillas. It is primarily an Italian restaurant, but there’s something about its flair that feels extremely local to Tulum. If you’re anything like me, you’ll love its casual vintage feel, the tiny candle workshops upon entering, the wild vegetation carefully grown along the sides.

Posada Margherita in Tulum

The entrance

La Eufemia

I’ll admit that I found La Eufemia 100% by accident. I’ll also admit that this is exactly how I’ve found some of the best restaurants I’ve been to in my life. La Eufemia is where you’ll have cheap flavorful tacos to the sound of upbeat beach music, surrounded by a lively crowd. There’s a hut where you can sit at a table or you can go the beach route and sit directly in front of the ocean. Either way, this casual spot deserves a visit — at least once. One quick fun fact before you go: La Eufemia is actually the name of the place’s beloved dog, and she’s just telling me everything about it in the photo below. We’re BFFs now.

Eufemia the dog

Juanita Diavola

You’ll find this incredible brick oven place right next to Posada Margherita, as a part of hotel Coco Tulum. Since I stayed at the hotel, I thought it couldn’t hurt to try what had already been ranked as one of the best pizzas in Tulum. It didn’t disappoint! Crunchy crust, fresh ingredients (including local seafood!), and live music on the weekends? You had me at crunchy, but everything else is also stellar.

Pizza and live music at Juanita Diavola

Mur Mur

Go straight to the bar. What a mysterious and totally charming ambiance! They’ve elevated that genuine patio feel with fancy drinks and carefully curated music. Mur Mur is where I found a bartender that finally explained to me what it was about Tulum that made it magical. Flavors are there, and you can’t leave without trying the octopus or a drink of premium Mezcal — grasshoppers (chapulines) included! Fun fact: Chapulín, the word Mexicans use for certain insects in the cricket family, is where the world-famous “Chapulín Colorado” got its superhero name. Chapulín Colorado is a fictional character created by Roberto Gómez Bolaños (Chespirito), undoubtedly the most famous Mexican comedian of all time.

Octopus at Mur Mur in Tulum

Ziggy’s

Breakfast is served. This is where you start the day with more than just a sunny side up. Even a “simple” meal of fried eggs is turned into a fascinating fusion by adding a mix of tomatoes, tortilla, and spices. Ziggy Beach, which is mainly a hotel, also offers lunch, dinner, and drinks open to non-guests. Check out their menu and get a taste for the type of surprises you’re in for.

Breakfast at Ziggy’s

Gitano

Ambiance is everything in this bespoke tropical gem. Succulents, candles, and palm trees surrounding you, there’s very little a place can do to disappoint you. Gitano offers an amazing selection of Mezcals, cocktails, and small bites. You can´t go wrong with the fire-roasted tomato flatbread and the Shrimp al Pil-Pil tacos. For a detailed explanation of Mexican taco types, check out this guide.

A night at Gitano in Tulum

Others

Coco Beach Bar: A hip resto-bar inside the Coco Tulum hotel. Great seafood and cocktails for a quick afternoon meal watching the sunset. Swings are a plus.

What is it about beachside food that makes it taste SO much better?

Hartwood: Call before you go. I cannot overstate this. There is virtually no chance of getting in unless you make a reservation with enough time. Considered by many as one of the best restaurants in Tulum, Hartwood features Mayan flavors cooked in a wood-burning oven and grill.

Magic & Mezcal: My Trip to Tulum

by Laura | Mar 11, 2017 | Travel, Tulum

This is the first article in a series of posts where I’ll share my adventures in Tulum, Mexico. I will share the meals, places, and packing recommendations that made this an incredible trip — hopefully they’ll inspire you too!

Our bartender sported a twisted mustache straight out of a Disney film. Magic, he kept repeating. Tulum was magic like he’d never seen before. He said he was here by accident (weren’t we all?) because his original destination was Playa del Carmen. He couldn’t handle it, he said. Not after meeting Tulum. But “don’t get me wrong”, he continued, “Playa is beautiful, but it’s built around tourism”. I pondered on that for a moment. Wasn’t this appeal precisely what so many other beautiful destinations around the world yearned for? Begged for? Sometimes even paid for? All it took was this one sentence: “Tulum makes you want to stay, cuate“. I had heard that before. That certain magnetism some cities carry about them. They don’t want you to visit, they’d like to charm you to the point where you have no choice but to stay. They call you “cuate”, “amigo”, “brother”, “llave”, “carnal” — whatever it takes. There’s no limit to the speed with which they become your best friend. These cities. It’s hard to describe, but there are more than a few one-way-ticket cities in this world. I was immediately and irremediably convinced that this was one of them.

A quick shot near the Mayan ruins by the beach

He asked if we wanted to try grasshoppers. (Affirmative, as in “would you like to chew some bugs?”). Considering we were well past our fourth Mezcal at this point, hoppers seemed like a somewhat horrible, yet epic idea. Nothing our newly awakened sense of adventure wasn’t willing to bite. Protein, right? Right… that scene still makes me cringe. In an amusing way, nonetheless. Cringe nostalgically?

We were cut short by the sound of chairs being pulled to the side and the sheer brightness of bar lights turning on. You could tell the brick oven was cooling off. The swaying palm leaves I had confused with rain for the last three days were falling asleep. That odd mix of bold Latin club anthems and mellow Californian jams suddenly dimmed. The last tiny bit of my hand-rolled tortilla was swiftly taken away. The bar was about to close, and while I never asked that bartender’s name, I will hold his story as the 15 glorious minutes that helped me understand this quirky town.

Tulum is a gypsy little spot of the Earth where things still happen slowly, and a little magically. The type of oasis of the spirit where you get to fall in love with your thoughts as they fly by. The type of travel destination that takes you on a journey to yourself. We had to agree with him: magical realism competes with nothing.

Tulum, you keep making love out of nothing at all. We’ll keep falling for you.