Canibal Royal´s official grand opening was on Saturday the 14^th of November. Unfortunately, I wasn’t in town that day so we went there for lunch a few days later. It is located on the beach, duh, right next to the Grand Coco Bay, in front of the luxury condominium complex The Elements. Canibal Royal has 3 levels, downstairs there is a funky beach bar with a variety of different chairs and beds you can relax on. The next level has more of a restaurant feel to it, with a large bar, tables and chairs, and a really spectacular ocean view. The top level isn’t completely finished yet, the plan is to make it into a solarium, the Jacuzzi has already been built and it is very impressive.

Canibal Royal beach club entrance

Canibal Royal beach bar

Canibal Royal solarium with jacuzzi and spectacular views

According to their blog Canibal Royal is a restaurant, bar, lounge, where you can live the Caribbean life style on the beach, during the day. The nightly Caribbean lifestyle can be experienced in the Santanera, the downtown nightclub owned by the same group. Thankfully the beach club is quite different from the nightclub. Canibal Royal is a very relaxed, laid back, funky, retro style place with nice lounge tunes playing in the back ground. The food is eclectic, you could call it fusion I guess, and the lunch menu has a large variety of salads, sandwiches, home-made French pizza that isn´t pizza (I forgot the name), shrimp and salmon dishes, truffle fries, and much more. It reminded me of the food at Diablito Cha Cha Cha and Aguachiles, which is not surprising because these places are also part of the same group.

Canibal Royal restaurant with amazing ocean view

lunch at Canibal Royal, spicy shrimp, truffle fries, and French pizza like bread with fresh tuna, coriander, avocado, mmm very nice

I really like this new beach club and I hope they will be very successful. Looking at the owner´s track record in Playa del Carmen I don’t doubt this is exactly what is going to happen.

If you have any comments about Canibal Royal, please let me know, thanks!

What to do on a rainy afternoon in Playa del Carmen? I can’t think of anything better than going out for a nice long lunch at a restaurant on the beach. So we picked Wicky’s, restaurant and beach club, located right next to the light house, or El Faro, on 10^th street and the beach in “down town” Playa del Carmen. Wicky’s opened its doors a month ago, on September 18^th, and we’d only been there for dinner once so it was high time we tried out their lunch menu.

Wicky's view from the seaside terrace

Wicky’s has an air-conditioned indoors dining area and a beautiful open air seaside deck.  It doesn’t matter where you sit, the view is spectacular, even on a windy, and rainy afternoon. The restaurant is large, quite elegant, has comfortable chairs and tables, and thankfully no loud music (yet?). As soon as you come in the door, or walk up from the beach, you will be welcomed by the uniformed staff.  There is a lot of staff, they all speak English (even if you try your hardest to speak Spanish with them) and they are very helpful, friendly, and knowledgeable about the food and drinks that they serve.

lunch with a view at Wicky's Playa del Carmen

The restaurant’s specialties are dry aged & USDA prime steaks and fresh seafood and there are also some great wines and cocktails on the menu. Since it was only 2 pm and I still had some work to do later I had a mineral water and my date had a limonada. The lunch menu is not very big but there is enough choice for most people, but very little for vegetarians. The lunch menu has some classic starters like calamari and chicken wings, a choice of 3 salads, a few sandwiches, the Crab Cake sandwich sounds really good, and burgers, that are spectacular, or so I’ve been told. I wanted to get some greens in me so I ordered the Chicken Ceasar Salad. My lunch date wanted to order something of the dinner menu which was not a problem at all. I really like it when they try to accommodate your requests at a restaurant. We ended up ordering a Smoked Chicken Ceasar salad, the steak tartar, and best of all the parmesan truffle fries! I will go back to Wicky’s time and time again as long as they keep those fries on the menu. They are French fries, thin and crunchy, with a hint of truffle, parmesan and garlic. Mmm, very good. The Steak Tartar is also a winner, I’m not a big meat eater but this dish I like, although I still think it looks like pet food. The smoked chicken ceasar salad was great, lots of fresh romaine lettuce, big croutons, plenty of fresh parmesan, and smoked chicken of course. It had a little too much dressing for my taste so the next time I will order that on the side.

smoked chicken ceasar salad

truffle parmesan fries and steak tartar

Since we had been to the restaurant before we knew we had to leave some room for dessert, crème brûlée. I’ve never had a better crème brûlée anywhere, and believe me, I’ve done quite a bit of market research on this subject. Today the crème brûlée looked wonderful again, with a golden and crispy top but  unfortunately, the consistency of the actual “crème” wasn’t quite right, it was too liquid, it dripped of your spoon, but the taste was great and I’ll definitely go be back to try it again. After coffee and a “hot cocoa” for my date we paid the bill, actually, he paid not me, and left by way of the beach. I did peek at the bill, 570 pesos total, which is pretty reasonable considering the location, ambiance, quality of the food, and the service which, by the way, is excellent.

crème brûlée

My conclusion is that Wicky’s is a great addition to the Playa del Carmen restaurants and beach clubs. It is higher end than most of the restaurants on the beach, but well worth it. I’ll definitely go back, especially once they debut the dueling piano’s in December of this year.

You can find Wicky’s restaurant & beach club online for more information: 

Wicky’s restaurant & beach club