Coco Tulum Beach Club Hotel in Tulum

Same as case with jared Haas (another reviewer) the menu states 'paella great for sharing for two or more people' so we assume this is a sharing dish, but actually you will be charged for two of those dishes, not one sharing dish. Also we ordered this with the lobster, the waitress came over and mumbled something to us which we didn't understand over the loud live dj, turned out later she was explaining the price for said lobster although we really feel she was unfairly unclear and rushed about this considering the lobster was 10 times more expensive than the original paella ordered. With such loud music playing the staff should be aware they have to make themselves clear. The lobster was cooked unfavourably and was more expensive than any lobster I have ever ordered in London. They also charge for the bread that they appear to bring over as complimentary, on top of this as well a 17.5% service tip. We didn't complain as we felt it was partly our fault for not clarifying with the waitress, however this is our favourite dish, one we regularly order and never encounter such problems. In all, it was a very bad experience, unfairly priced and not michelin star standard food.

Food was very good, but we had some MAJOR issues with the service (as described below). The open air and open thatched hut concept gave it a nice ambiance. The atmosphere would be fantastic except it felt like fine dining in a club. Not only was the DJ loud, but early 00’s EDM content and the cheesy laser light show on the wall did not match the ambainace and the cuisine.

Service: granted it was opening night, so things will hopefully vary in the future as this place gets its act together. Our waiter(s) were great and very attentive. The issue arose when we reviewed our bill to find an extra paella dish and bread charge for items that we did not order. When we brought this to the wait staff attention, the waitress tried to argue menu language semantics that were clearly incorrect. When we had her bring out the manager, he double downed and refused to remove the unordered items off of the bill. We essentially took a stance that we would not leave until this was resolved. After about 45 minutes of arguing and waiting, arguing and waiting, and so on, it was, but all of this was avoidable and unnecessary.

Here is the issue and a warning to anyone not from Spain coming here:

The description for the paella heading says something along the lines of ‘great for sharing for two or more people’. My girlfriend ordered the Croquet (as her entree) and I was recommended the paella. The server highly recommended that we share the paella dish as well and my girlfriend agreed to trying some. Apparently in Spain they charge per person for paella (which was their entire argument basis for the charge) and is not explicit on the menu. The menu items just has a price next to the dish (as all menus do). They’re entire argument is that ‘this is how we do this in spain’ and ‘it says great for sharing for 2 or more people’. I tried to be constructive and let them know that they are not in Spain and neither are their customers and need to note a ‘per plate’ or ‘per person’ charge on the menu. But they told us it doesn’t matter and we need to pay for the 2 dishes. Also, when we told the waitress that we did not order the bread that was brought out to us, which we assumed was complementary, her response was ‘did you eat the bread’ in which we responded ‘yes’ in which she responded ‘then you need to pay for it’.

All in all we all kept our cool and everything was eventually resolved. This was an above and no beyond fail on customer service and ruined our experience, which otherwise would have been a great evening.

I really want to believe that this was a purposeful mistake and not a tourist predatory business. After talking with the wait staff and manager, I get the feeling towards the latter and caution anyone coming here. I hope I am wrong though and they will change their service and menu pricing descriptions by the time you read this!