Beyond the Buffet: A Guide to All-Inclusive Food at Resorts in Mexico & the Caribbean

A reader asked about food at some of my favorite resorts, and I realized I talk a little about the food in my hotel reviews, but haven’t done a whole post on it. Here’s my guide to all-inclusive food at resorts in Mexico and the Caribbean.

Food is, of course, subjective. Just because I like it or don’t like it doesn’t mean that’s the final end. I’m just trying to give my readers and clients a better understanding of which all-inclusive resorts have good food. These resorts are all adult only and will have a dress code for dinner, some will require men in long pants.

Beyond the Buffet: A Guide to All-Inclusive Food at Resorts in Mexico & the Caribbean

I do not consider myself a foodie; in fact, I’m a little picky and not at all adventurous when it comes to food. Here are a few of my favorite resorts and the food I like to eat there! This post includes a few of our favorites.

The Food at Secrets Moxche Playa del Carmen

I’ve stayed at several Secrets resorts and Moxche is at the top of that list (so far!). We stayed 5 nights and tried several restaurants. All were a hit except Ember, and I was really excited about this one. I’m hoping it was an off night. Our food was just not good, not cooked well. Everything else at this resort was a hit, so I’m not holding it against them!

Favorites were the Asian, Mexican and Italian. I’ve gotten to where I really like the a la carte Asian cuisine at resorts instead of the Hibachi table. 

Favorite dishes – the birria tacos at the Preferred Club rooftop breakfast restaurant, call the Observatory. The breakfast buffet here was also a big highlight for me. I ate so many tacos for breakfast that week!

Another favorite was the shorts ribs at Suki (pictured in the middle). I ordered fried rice to go with it and it was perfection. Tried gyoza for the first time and I’m a fan of that as well.

If you’d like to learn more about Secrets Moxche, check out this post.

The Food at JOIA Bavaro by Iberostar

JOIA Bavaro surprised me a little. I was very impressed! It was our first vacation stay in Punta Cana.  

Their breakfast buffet is pretty standard, everything was good. They don’t offer an a la carte option for breakfast. Lunch options include the buffet and a poolside grill. The grill ended up being our favorite. They had burgers, hot dogs, nachos and fries. For dinner we tried the buffet the first night, we were exhausted and hungry! They rotate theme nights in the buffet, so there’s usually different options available.

Our favorite was the steakhouse and French restaurant. Italian was also very good, but I liked the JOIA Paraiso Italian a little better. Least favorite was the Hibachi here. It was so good at JOIA Paraiso I had high expectations but I did not eat anything except my fried rice and Gyoza appetizer. They were the standout of the meal. I’m hoping it was an off night.

If you’d like to read more about JOIA Paraiso, check out this post.

That dessert 3rd on the top is a chocolate molten cake, it was so good! The salad was a grilled caesar and also a big fan of that.

We ordered 3 bottles of wine on this trip. The sommelier was great and the prices were not bad for a resort.

The Food at Valentin Imperial Maya

We’ve stayed at Valentin twice and the food here is also very good. They have eight restaurants, 11 bars, a poolside food truck for lunch and churro cart for snacks.

Standouts here are the Japanese and Mexican restaurant for me. The French onion soup with the pastry on it is so good! That’s at the French restaurant.

The Food at JOIA Paraiso by Iberostar

The surprise here was the Hibachi table. I know I said I tend to lean toward a la carte but we gave this one a try and it was good. It was also fun, we sat with some friendly guests and had a great night!

The Italian might have been my favorite here but they were all very good. We did not get to try the Steakhouse on this visit, it was closed for renovations.

For lunch we really enjoyed the beachside taco restaurant or ordering from the swim up bar. Yep. We had lunch in the pool at the swim up bar one day.

The Food at Live Aqua Cancun

Live Aqua is one of my favorite resorts over-all and I’ve reviewed it twice. We just returned from our 3rd stay there. I didn’t think the resort needed another review so I wrote a post just on the food at Live Aqua.

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