Flavors of the Grand Costa Maya

If you want to eat the way people here eat, the Grand Costa Maya is the place to sit down. Bacalar cooks facing the lagoon; Mahahual cooks facing the sea. Here are a few tables worth the trip.

Bacalar’s local kitchen

Bacalar is known for its lagoon, but its kitchens deserve a mention too. Los Aluxes, a restaurant right on the lagoon shore, builds its menu around what grows and swims nearby: the day’s fish, tropical fruit, regional recipes. The dish to order is tikin xic, the Maya preparation in which the fish is butterflied, rubbed with an achiote and sour-orange marinade and grilled over banana leaves. Have it with a cold agua de jamaica (hibiscus water) and let the afternoon go by.

In town, Mango y Chile is a fully plant-based spot with a view of the lagoon. Expect burgers with a tropical twist (one comes with pineapple), tacos, savory waffles and fruit smoothies.

Seafood in Mahahual

In Mahahual, lunch depends on what the boats brought in that morning. Local kitchens turn out ceviche, grilled octopus and lobster, all of it from the Caribbean you can see from your chair.

At Nohoch Kay, a beach club with tables under palapas on the sand, you eat almost with your feet in the water. Their pescado a la talla, a whole fish split open, brushed with a red chile adobo and grilled, arrives with warm tortillas and salsa.

For something quicker, El Faro does shrimp tacos and ceviche, the kind of lunch that fits between a dive and a snorkeling trip.

Two towns, two kitchens: the lagoon and its Maya recipes in Bacalar, the sea and its catch in Mahahual. That contrast is the flavor of the Grand Costa Maya.