Ahhh, Punta de Mita. If you ever get the privilege to spend some time at the St. Regis in Punta de Mita, don't hesitate to go! I had a few weeks off in between jobs and needed a quick but super relaxing get away. Mexico is always an easy choice because it's cheap and not that far. I hadn't really gone to the Pacific side of the country and I was able to get a fantastic IATA rate at the St. Regis, so I figured why not? I was a little worried that I would be bored because it's a resort with not much around it but honestly it's so relaxing that it didn't matter.
The downside is that you don't have a ton of restaurants to choose from but the food at the St. Regis was pretty decent (although I heard some people at the resort complaining about it and one person said she got food poisoning but I was ok). Holly and I got to the resort a bit early, so our room wasn't ready. We were starving because we took an ass crack of dawn 6AM flight out, so we headed to their casual beach side restaurant for lunch. I give them 5 forks for the scenery and service but I wasn't blown away by the food. The menu itself is awesome - it's very seafood focused with things like octopus tacos, tuna tostadas, grilled shrimp and a variety of ceviches. I got a shrimp quesadilla (140 pesos or $7), grilled corn (140 pesos) and we split a ceviche (275 pesos or around $13). Since we were on a resort and a fancy one at that, the prices were definitely not what I was accustomed to in Mexico but all things considered it's still affordable by US standards.
The ceviche was a mixed seafood one and it felt more like they dumped some seafood in a bowl of pico de gallo. It was too heavy on the pico (it could have been more acidic) and not enough focus on the seafood but overall it was a refreshing dish to have right off the plane and it was also already hot as hell outside. My quesadilla was a bit on the small side - it looked like half a quesadilla and it wasn't super gooey but it's hard to go wrong with hot cheese in a tortilla (to be fair, I got this pool side later on the trip and I'm pretty sure it all comes from the same kitchen and it was bigger and tastier). The corn was eh - it wasn't Mexican style corn with the mayo and cheese on it It was literally a small piece of steamed corn with nothing on it.
While this review doesn't seem super glowing, I would definitely come back here - especially given that the resort has very limited casual restaurant options. It's the perfect place to roll up if you've been sitting by the pool and want a change of scenery. One thing to note, I'm not sure if we were super tired or what but the welcome margarita and then the one here knocked me and Holly OUT. They were delicious but lethal so watch out. Total bill: $70 for 2 people
Photo Credit: Yelp
Tuna Blanca Av. El Anclote S/N, 63734 Punta de Mita, Nayarit, Mexico 3 Forks
You may ask yourself why did you put a picture of a pot of flowers for this review? I'll get to it a bit later but it was the favorite part of my meal.
As I mentioned earlier, the St. Regis is in a gated community and it's a far walk to the main gates, but once you get past the main gates there is a small town that has a few restaurants. They catered to mostly to the people on the resorts and I wouldn't say it's a town you should hang out in otherwise as there isn't a ton to do. We ended up taking a 140 pesos taxi ride to the restaurant - again, which isn't crazy expensive but when you think about it, it's a <10 drive="" for="" min="" nbsp="" span="">
Tuna Blanca is right off the main drag and it's a nice outdoor restaurant with a lot of turquoise blue decor. It's a fairly eclectic menu with a variety of seafood and meat dishes as well as a tasting menu. I learned my lesson from San Miguel and while I love a good tasting menu, I didn't see the need to indulge here. Instead I got the suckling pig tacos to start and Holly got the mozzarella and heirloom tomato appetizer and we both got the lamb duo. The tacos came on 2 blue corn tortillas and served with radish, guacamole and salsa with a square piece of suckling pig. It was tasty but I expected the pig to be a bit moister and more tender since it was of the suckling variety. It was definitely not like the ones I got in Mexico City. Next came the lamb duo which was served as a chop and shoulder. They insisted on the meat being cooked medium/well done which is not how I usually like my meat but I didn't want to offend them because it seemed to be the culture here. The dish was served with cactus, polenta, baby corn and what looked like a grilled piece of oaxaca cheese. Again the dish was fine, I am just not a fan of my chop being that overly cooked - I like some pinkness to it which this did not have. If our meal ended here, I would have said it would be 3.5 forks but then we got dessert and it was hilarious and amazing.
We ordered the chocolate mousse to share and they bring out this giant flower pot that had real flowers in it. The soil was all chocolate mousse and it was sprinkled with chocolate candies that looked like stone. It was enormous, delicious and hilarious all at once. They really mean business when they say it's to share but it's to share with like 5 people not just 2. We barely made a dent in it before calling it quits. The restaurant has very elaborate presentations here - the table across from us got some other giant dessert that had a large Eiffel Tower sculpture attached to it and another table got the pumpkin soup where they brought out this giant gourd and served the soup out of it.
If the meal had ended there I might have been included to give it 4 forks because of the dessert. But when we paid the bill the waiter asked how much we'd like leave in a tip and I left around 12% and he commented how it's customary to leave 20% in Mexico which I know isn't true. It made me feel like he was trying to rip us off because we were tourists and I did not appreciate that. I generally tip 20% in the US and I am very empathetic to the fact that most servers rely on tips but to be called out on it was rude. I noticed when I got home that he went ahead an applied a 22% tip despite what I told him - very uncool and really makes me want to move the rating down below 3 forks but I'll be nice this one time. Total bill: $63/pp with tax and tip
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