Where to eat in Tulum when the best tacos sell out by lunchtime

Tulum’s food scene runs on two price lists. On the beach road, three tacos cost 180 to 350 pesos, a lounger comes with a minimum spend and the best tables are booked weeks ahead. Inland, in town, the same three tacos cost 60 to 90 pesos, and the best taqueria shuts the moment the pork runs out.

I spent two weeks in Tulum and ate my way along both. These are my picks for where to eat in Tulum, the places I’d send you back to, plus two well-reviewed spots I haven’t tried yet, in the order a good Tulum day runs: tacos for breakfast, a long lunch on the beach, dinner cooked over fire and something cold with live music to finish. Each one comes with what to order, what it costs and whether you need to book.

Where to eat in Tulum: tacos, beach lunches and dinners over fire

Taqueria Honorio

So many people told me to go to Honorio that skipping it was never an option. I went twice. It’s a no-frills taqueria in town with plastic chairs and a queue, and it’s the best value meal in Tulum by a distance.

Order the cochinita pibil, the Yucatán’s slow-roasted pork, stained red with achiote and soured with citrus, which arrives soft enough to fall apart and topped with sharp pickled red onion. It comes in tacos or on panuchos and salbutes, the Yucatán’s fried tortillas. The lechón, roast suckling pork, is the other order worth knowing.

Good to know: Satélite Sur 19, in town. Open 6.30am to 3pm, closed Tuesdays, and it can shut earlier when the cochinita runs out, so go before 11am. Expect to pay about 25 to 40 pesos a piece. No bookings.

Los Bowls de Guadalupe

The breakfast I’d steer anyone towards on the beach road. This small café does plant-based bowls with a Yucatán accent: fried plantain, avocado, shredded red cabbage and a creamy sauce, served in coconut shells. There are smoothies, juices and coffee too.

Good to know: Beach road, km 9.5. Open daily from 9am to 6pm. Seating is all outdoors and it’s card only. Reviews disagree on whether every bowl is fully vegan, so ask if that matters to you.

La Zebra

La Zebra is a hotel on the beach road with a restaurant that runs from breakfast to dinner, and it’s the easiest place on the strip to lose an afternoon. The kitchen does Mexican coastal cooking: ceviche, grilled fish and the crisp battered fish tacos in my photo, piled high with slaw. In the morning, take a smoothie down to the sand.

Good to know: Beach road. Breakfast 7.30am to 11.30am, lunch noon to 5.30pm and dinner 6.30pm to 10pm, with the beach bar open all day.

Dos Ceibas

On Tulum’s beach road, your lunch spot usually doubles as your patch of sand for the day, because most of the beachfront belongs to hotels and beach clubs. I spent a lot of time at Dos Ceibas, a relaxed eco hotel towards the Sian Ka’an end of the beach road, and loved it. The menu is simple and fairly priced for the strip, with Mexican and Italian dishes, and the margaritas taste better for being drunk under a palm.

Good to know: Beach road, km 10. Breakfast 7.30am to 11.30am, lunch noon to 6.30pm and dinner 7pm to 9.30pm. Main courses run around 300 to 500 pesos.

Ahau Tulum

The other beach club I kept going back to. You’ll recognise Ahau from the road by its giant carved wooden faces, and the beach in front is one of the prettiest stretches in Tulum. The menu covers Mexican dishes, seafood and international crowd-pleasers, and my cocktail came rimmed with chilli salt.

Good to know: Beach road. It’s at the pricier end, and like most beach clubs here, loungers come with a minimum spend, so ask at the entrance before you settle in.

Loco Tulum

For a dinner that isn’t Mexican, Loco is the pick. The menu is Mediterranean and Middle Eastern, and I’d happily go back for the tuna tartare and the shrimp tacos topped with guacamole. There’s falafel and shawarma to share, plus the catch of the day and lamb chops for bigger appetites.

Good to know: Beach road, km 9.3. Open daily from 8.30am to midnight, with happy hour from 4pm to 6pm. Smaller plates start at about 300 pesos, while the catch of the day runs past 1,000.

Hartwood

Hartwood is the restaurant that put the beach road on the food map. It opened in 2010 in a clearing in the jungle, and everything still comes off the wood-fired oven and grill. The menu is written up each day around what came in that morning, so you might get ceviche, grilled local fish or the charred octopus I had, and there’s plenty for vegetarians too.

It’s recommended in the MICHELIN Guide, and it’s expensive: budget about 800 to 1,400 pesos a head with drinks. Book it for the cooking alone.

Good to know: Beach road, km 7.6. Open Wednesday to Sunday from 6pm to 10pm, closed Monday and Tuesday. Book as far ahead as you can in high season. Solo diners can usually find a seat at the bar.

Arca

Next door to Hartwood, and the other big name on this stretch, Arca is chef José Luis Hinostroza’s open-fire kitchen. The menu changes with the micro-seasons and leans on local produce cooked over wood: think soft-shell crab tacos, roasted bone marrow and grilled venison. It’s recommended in the MICHELIN Guide too.

Good to know: Beach road, km 7.6. Open daily from 5pm to 11pm. Expect to pay around US$100 to US$150 a head. Book ahead.

Nômade

Nômade is a beach hotel with three restaurants, and its main one, Macondo, serves Mediterranean sharing plates with Middle Eastern spices and live music every day. Come for dinner, then stay for the part I loved most: the fire pit on the sand, where music spills from a lantern-lit DJ booth and the crowd builds as the night goes on. Some nights it’s a party, some nights it’s just a quiet drink by the flames with copal smoke in the air.

Good to know: Beach road. Book Macondo by email or online through the hotel. The fire pit gets busy after dark, so arrive early if you’d like a cushion near it.

Habitas

Habitas is another beach hotel whose evenings are the draw. Its restaurant, Moro, is the place to eat before the music starts, and on music nights the whole space fills up under strings of woven lanterns. When I went, it felt like half the beach road had turned up.

Good to know: Beach road, km 4.5. Book Moro ahead, and check the hotel’s events page for what’s on that week.

Antojitos La Chiapaneca

When you’ve had your fill of beach-road prices, this town favourite is where locals eat, and it’s busiest in the evening. It’s a simple, cash-only spot on the main avenue for tacos, including cochinita pibil and al pastor, tlayudas and Yucatecan snacks such as salbutes and panuchos. Help yourself to the salsas and toppings.

Good to know: Avenida Tulum, in town. Tacos cost about 20 to 30 pesos each. Cash only, no bookings.

Batey

End the night in town at Batey, a Cuban-style rum bar that’s been packing people in for years. The sugar cane is crushed fresh on site for guarapo, which goes into the mojitos, and there’s a live band most nights. It’s loud, packed and a lot of fun.

Good to know: In town. Open from 6pm to 2am most nights. Rum cocktails cost about 80 to 120 pesos, and it’s cash only.

Tips for eating out in Tulum

• Carry pesos. The taquerias and bars in town are often cash only, while some beach-road places only take cards, so have both.
• Book the big names. Hartwood and Arca fill up weeks ahead from December to April. Some beach-road restaurants cut their hours or close for a few weeks in September and October.
• Watch the minimums. Beach clubs typically ask for a minimum spend of 500 to 800 pesos a person for a lounger. Check before you sit down.
• Tip 10 to 15%. Check the bill first, as some places add a service charge (propina).
• Where to stay: a base on the beach road puts you within walking or cycling distance of most of these places. I stayed at Casa Coyote, a great-value base with jungle-view rooms. Check rates at Casa Coyote. More options in my guide to where to stay in Tulum.

Map

Read next

• 3 days in Tulum: the perfect Tulum itinerary
• Where to stay in Tulum, from jungle cabins on the beach road to the taco streets of town
• 12 things to do in Tulum that still make it worth the hype
• Is Tulum overrated? Only if you never leave the beach
• Oaxaca food: what to eat in Mexico’s foodie paradise
• Pujol review: ants, a years-old mole and Mexico City’s hardest table

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