The Restaurants at Excellence Riviera Cancun

I bet you were surprised to see zero food photos in this post about Cancun, right? With 11 restaurants and 12 bars/lounges, I think Excellence Riviera Cancun deserves a dedicated food post. They also have daily specials by the pools, so you can grab a snack at any time. On some evenings, they also had outdoor buffets and cookouts. If the heat didn’t suppress our appetites, I’m sure we would have easily packed on quite a few pounds!

On our first evening, we visited Agave, the Mexican restaurant. We’re huge fans of Mexican cuisine, and the courtyard is a lovely spot for date night. I’m surprised they don’t serve lunch. This was one of my favorite meals, and I’ll have to share more from Agave soon.

Another one of my favorite meals was at the tapas restaurant Flavor Market. Cheese croquettes, gazpacho, marinated zucchini, kalamata olives, bean stew, and dulce de leche cake. Hot weather and red wine don’t normally go well together for me, but tapas calls for some vino.

Speaking of heat, I found myself craving salads and veggies frequently. Barcelona, the buffet, was well stocked with healthy eats and spa fare. They also had a good selection of juices.

I wasn’t too excited to visit Spice, the Asian restaurant, but was pleasantly surprised when the waiter arranged for vegetarian sushi to be specially made for us. The veggie pad thai was also really good. The Indian restaurant, Basmati, was also veggie friendly and delicious.

The French restaurant, Chez Isabelle, was difficult to get a table at. We ended up going there at 5:30pm for an early dinner because it filled up quickly almost every evening. I enjoyed the mushroom crepe and creme brulee there, but had to pass on all the meat-heavy entrees.

Room service is also included in the all-inclusive package. We ordered room service for breakfast one morning, and man, that was a lot of food. Huevos rancheros, eggs florentine, bread, pastries, fresh fruit, orange juice… what a meal!

The most unexpectedly tasty meal of the trip was at Toscana. Before our trip, I made a big deal about not getting Italian food at the resort because we have it all over NYC. We ended up going to Toscana because we were starving and all the other restaurants were packed. The marinated eggplant was delish, and the gnocchi with gorgonzola and candied orange was fantastic.

Before heading to the airport, we stopped by the breakfast buffet for one final meal of enchiladas, refried beans, and mimosas. It was so empty. It’s like the buffet was all ours!