La Parilla, Cancún

This is (or was) a great traditional Mexican restaurant in old downtown Cancun. I've been twice and the food & drink are great, but I've noticed it becoming a little more Americanized. You'll still see locals as well as tourists, and it's airy setting is nice. Watch out for those Golden Margies! They are great but STRONG!

Favorite Dish: Shrimp fajitas and chicken lime soup.

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Loved this place for many reasons: great food, friendly, accommodating service, fair prices and great selection, yummy margaritas, and authentic with a lively atmosphere.

I pretty much just ate tacos at La Parrilla ("The Grill"). There's a plate you can get for about US $11 called "The Mariachis" - you choose 5 of either chicken, steak, beef, chorizo sausage, or pastor. Do not leave without trying the taco al pastor, even if you just get one to test it out. I also had chicken enchiladas there during one of our lunchtime visits, but I found those too cheesy and heavy with too much tomato sauce. My husband tried two other plates during our visits: the Pibil fish filet which is baked and comes with grilled plantains (yummy) and vegetables and rice. He liked it but found it to be pretty spicy. That cost US $12. A side note, I didn't find the shrimp tacos to be that good, they are baked with onions apparently and not grilled, which is what I was expecting.

For lunch, the place is busier at about 3pm/4pm. There are also lunch buffets for only US $9 per person and it's a lot of Mexican fried dishes and stews and grilled kebabs and meats.

The service was consistently good, but at times service is a bit slow - that was late afternoon and on Sunday for us, when they were either very busy or understaffed. Otherwise they were great, and one point I asked if I could customize a plate and they were very accommodating and flexible.

A mariachi trio comes by and will play for your table for 50 pesos a song of your choice. I thought they played beautifully. They play a wide range of songs but we just asked them to choose their favorite.

The atmosphere at this place is great and it's a nice place to sit back and relax after a day at the beach. I highly recommend visiting at least once when you're in Cancun. If you're headed down to Playa del Carmen, there's also one there on the Fifth Avenue strip.

Favorite Dish: I can't say it enough: the Tacos al Pastor. They're cooked in a red adobo sauce and grilled to a delicious taste! Absolutely great. Served on warm corn tortillas with chopped onion. Plop on some guacomole and some tomatoes from the pico de gallo for a yummy, filling lunch. The plate comes with 5 tacos so I split them with my husband. This plate is only $8!

This is a great mexican resturant that's in downtown Cancun. The ambiance is great, with live mariachi bands, the service wonderful, and you actually get some of the Mexican culture that you miss in the hotel zone. It's located on Yaxchilan Av, or you can ask any taxi driver to take you there.

We were tired of the touristy spots so we asked the concierge at the Sheraton for a good Mexican restaurant in downtown Cancun. He recommeded La Parrilla. We enjoyed it very much and the staff was great - until we had to pay the bill. I guess Americans are too used to being able to split the check so that everyone can pay their respective part. The restaurant had a hard time with that and so we were frustrated as we tried to reconcile the bill.

Favorite Dish: I'm not a drinker but my friends said the margueritas were great. I don't remember what I had but it was good!

La Parrilla. It's authentic Mexican cooking at it's finest. And it has very good prices, also.
The inside is kind of old, and the paintings on the wall are faded. You can watch the cook cut the Parrilla before he takes it to your table, which is roasting on a spit constantly. Also, a mariachi band walks around, and if you give them some money, they'll play a traditional mexican song of your choosing.

Favorite Dish: The combination plate -- it combines southern and central Mexican dishes and is super cheap. Also, the Mexican coffee is very good -- it's coffee mixed with Kahlua, tequila, another mexican alcohol (I forget), and vanilla ice cream. It's a flaming drink, and the waiters are pretty impressive when they're filling your cup with a stream of burning alcohol -- never spilling a drop, never burning themselves.

Excellent atmoshpere, live mariachi music, good service and excellent food. Equally popular among both tourists and locals.

Favorite Dish: Tacos al Pastor, fried fish amd steak mexican style is good too.

Peppercorn steak was superb. Great atmosphere, drinks heavy on the alcohol. Entertaining, too.

Favorite Dish: Peppercorn steak, baby.