Porfirio's Playa del Carmen | Restaurante de comida mexicana

Price

$$$

Cuisine

Mexican

Best for

lunch, dinner

I really wish google had more star fidelity for their review system. If I could, I’d give a 4.5 because there are some glaring issues here, but overall compared to the other restaurants on 5th street, it’s easily one of the best.

First I’ll start with the good: a variety of Mexican dishes (not Tex-mex) as well as steaks and seafood. If you want somewhere where you will be waited on hand and foot, this is it. They’ll pull your chair back for you, fold your napkin, full 9 “country club” yards service. In my case I’ll also note I almost never dress up, they still seated me without a second glance which to me is a huge plus (I like good meals, but I’m tired after work and don’t like the silly theatre aspects of some upscale restaurants). The food is also quite good.

Now, the bad: deserts in my experience were stale, especially the tres-leches. Seriously if management reads these, up the game by not using stale cake, the flavor was very good but tres leches should never feel stale in your mouth. Second, order your steak on the less cooked side than you want, especially if it’s coming on a skillet. They’re batting .333 here from personal experience, but not in a shoe-leather kind of way, more like “I wish it were just a bit bloodier” way.

Overall, I’ll return again and again when I’m back in PDC. The room is great, set list on point (albeit generic), and the staff are excellent (seriously, they’re the best part here).