What The Food And Drink Is Like At A Luxury All-Inclusive Resort In Cancun, Mexico

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The Marriott Cancun is a newly refurbished all-inclusive resort in Cancun’s Hotel Zone. Marriott spent millions of dollars turning the hotel into the crown jewel of their updated all-inclusive resort program. This resort is expected to serve as a template for other new luxury Marriott all-inclusives worldwide.

This Marriott Cancun review is different from many of the other reviews of the resort you’ll read. Since I’m particularly interested in food and drink, I visited all of the bars and restaurants at the Marriott Cancun. Therefore, my review focuses on Marriott’s all-inclusive dining options, so you can decide whether it’s worth it before you book below.

Spoiler: With a few exceptions, the Marriott Cancun has excellent food and drinks, putting it high on my list of all-inclusives to return to. Ready to book? Use the links below for the best deals!

Marriott Cancun Review Tips

Before we get to my reviews of all of the Marriott Cancun restaurants and bars below, here are a few tips to get the most out of your stay.

The Marriott Experience app (available for both iOS & Android) provides details about the hotel, including restaurant hours and menus. This app works well and helps you figure out what is open each day and the times each spot is open, since not everything is available every day, depending on how busy the resort is. It will help you plan out where and when to eat and drink so you aren’t disappointed.

It’s clear that the resort is placing a strong emphasis on the quality of its food and beverage program.

The Marriott Cancun also offers elevated experiences and premium drink packages. These options include tasting menus, cooking classes, top-shelf spirits, and bottles of wine.

We found the regular food and drink options to be more than good enough for us, so we didn’t upgrade. Just know it’s an option if you want to splurge for a special occasion.

In addition to the Marriott Cancun bars and restaurants I’ll be talking about below, there are other ways the resort is showcasing local flavors and ingredients.

For example, there is a cart in the lobby with tamales and hot chocolate in the afternoons.

There is also an herb garden in front of the hotel where chefs can get fresh ingredients.

We enjoyed a 4-night stay before heading next door to the JW Marriott Cancun. The two properties are connected, though with the Marriott Cancun now being an all-inclusive resort, you won’t have many reasons to go back and forth between them.

Marriott Cancun Restaurants

Casa Madre

Casa Madre is the Marriott Cancun’s Mexican restaurant. Head there if you want the most authentic local flavors. It’s open for breakfast and dinner.

Breakfast

The Casa Madre breakfast at the Marriott Cancun is one of two breakfast buffets.

It’s billed as being more Mexican-style, which it definitely is. The buffet has almost a completely different food offering than the one inside Hana Polynesian Grill (read on for more details about that breakfast).

The open-air restaurant is a nice way to start your day. When we went, it was the less crowded of the two buffets, though neither had a wait, and both had food that was kept replenished.

The Casa Madre breakfast buffet includes Mexican favorites such as tamales, pastries, buñuelos, chilaquiles, and a taco bar (including freshly grilled tortillas).

Mexican drinks are available, including Mexican coffee, hot chocolate, horchata, and juices.

There’s also a custom omelette bar with lots of options, including meat, veggies, and cheese.

If you’re staying at the Marriott Cancun for several days, I recommend checking out both breakfast restaurants on the first two mornings to see which one you like the best. Then you can spend the rest of the days at whichever one you are in the mood for.

Casa Madre is definitely the more authentic Mexican breakfast experience, so even if you’re not familiar with the dishes, be adventurous and give it a shot—you’re in Mexico!

Dinner

We also ate dinner at Casa Madre. We made a reservation, but based on how it wasn’t too busy, this might not have been necessary. That said, it doesn’t hurt to book ahead of time when you know you want to go to a particular restaurant for dinner, that way you don’t risk not getting in.

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Casa Madre has an expansive menu of Mexican food. It’s especially focused on cuisine from the Yucatán.

There’s also a robust cocktail list compared to the other Marriott Cancun restaurants. I enjoyed a mango mezcalita and a frozen horchata.

We got a variety of local dishes, including ceviche, shrimp aguachile, cochinita pibil, and fried rib-eye.

For dessert, we had cheesecake and Yucatán donuts. There was also a stand with nieves at the entrance. It’s the same area where they serve Mexican hot chocolate in the mornings.

All of the food and drinks were excellent. Casa Madre has the most original dishes of any of the restaurants at the Marriott Cancun, and of course, also the most local. I highly recommend going.

Note: Casa Madre is open-air. Therefore, there might be mosquitoes in the evenings, particularly if you are seated near the edges of the space. It was the only place on the Marriott Cancun resort grounds where we encountered any insects. Unfortunately, I hadn’t worn any mosquito repellent, so I ended up with a few bites.

Mikado Teppanyaki (formerly Ono)

The Japanese restaurant at the Marriott Cancun is split into two sides, each showcasing different aspects of Japanese cuisine.

Both restaurants are popular, so I recommend getting a reservation. That said, we had no issue getting a 6:15 pm dinner reservation at Mikado Teppanyaki (formerly Ono Teppanyaki) that same night, just a couple of hours in advance.

We arrived a bit early, so we had a drink at the bar. Due to the nature of teppanyaki service, the whole table is seated at once (unless anyone is late).

There was a sake welcome cocktail and a California roll once we ordered.

Since it’s teppanyaki, there aren’t a ton of decisions, but we had the choice of miso soup or octopus salad as a starter, chicken, beef, or seafood as a main course, and a matcha crepe or yuzu sorbet for dessert.

If you’ve seen one teppanyaki show, you’ve pretty much seen them all. Spinning utensils, fire on the grill, spinning eggs, a rice heart, and an onion volcano, you know the highlights if you’ve ever been to one.

That’s no slight on the Marriott Cancun teppanaki, as our chef was great. He was entertaining, and all of the food was cooked perfectly.

If you’ve never been to a teppanyaki dinner before, then I recommend booking yourself seats. I also recommend it to families with kids (provided your kids can sit still enough not to crawl on the hot grill) since the service is fast and entertaining. If you’ve done teppanyaki before and aren’t particularly motivated to do it again, you’re not missing anything particularly unique if you opt to spend your dinners elsewhere.

We were on the izakaya side of the restaurant later during our stay, and there was a song-and-dance show on the teppanyaki side around 7:30 pm.

Kasai Izakaya (formerly Ono)

Kasai Izakaya (formerly Ono Izakaya) is on the other side of the space from Mikado Teppanyaki. The two share an entrance and central bar area.

Although named as an izakaya, sushi dishes are also available. Tip: If you’re ordering both, I recommend ordering the sushi dishes first, enjoying them, and then ordering some grilled dishes.

We made the mistake of ordering both types of dishes at the same time and ended up with lots of plates arriving at once, some hot and some cold.

But everything was excellent. Kasai Izakaya is one of my favorite restaurants at the Marriott Cancun. The izakaya items were grilled to perfection, and all of the sushi was fresh.

As we did at the teppanyaki restaurant, we were also served welcome drinks while we looked at the beautiful woodcut menu. These sorts of touches aren’t absolutely necessary at an all-inclusive resort, but it’s nice that the Marriott Cancun is making that effort.

We also enjoyed the desserts, which included matcha crème brûlée and tapioca pudding.

One thing I noticed is that while the menus in the Marriott Cancun app are generally pretty accurate to what’s actually available at each restaurant, this is less true for desserts. It’s not a huge deal, but just keep it in mind if you see something listed in the app that you have your heart set on.

If you’re a fan of Japanese food, Kasai Izakaya is the place to go. Given the number of options on the menu, it’s also my favorite for return visits on the same trip. But if you have enough dinner nights, the teppanyaki is also fun, and a favorite for families.

Hana Polynesian Grill

Breakfast

Hana Polynesian Grill is home to the 2nd breakfast buffet at the Marriott Cancun. It’s a much more American-style breakfast than the one at Casa Madre.

The buffet is packed with items, so you won’t have any trouble finding something to enjoy.

There’s lots of fruit and veggies, a pancake machine, made-to-order eggs, smoked salmon, and much, much more.

While I enjoy having a Mexican breakfast in Mexico, I also love traditional American favorites. I wonder if there would ever be enough demand for a breakfast buffet at dinner. Just a free idea for an adventurous all-inclusive resort that wants to try it…

My favorite dish was the French toast. That’s usually the case, but the French toast at Hana was especially good. It was nice and custardy.

Interestingly, although there are only two breakfast restaurants at the Marriott Cancun, Hana Polynesian Grill was only slightly busier than Casa Madre.

Perhaps this was because we went later in the morning, or perhaps a lot of people skip breakfast. It’s their loss, as both breakfast buffets at the resort are good.

Dinner

Hana Polynesian Grill also has an excellent dinner. While the resort is, of course, not in Polynesia, Cancun’s tropical vibes still suit the cuisine.

There’s a small bar area upstairs that also has some tables, but the main dining area is on the ground floor where the breakfast buffet is served. Indoor and outdoor tables are available. We opted for indoor since it was more comfortable.

We started with the big eye ahi poke. This is a must-order, as it was one of my favorite dishes at the Marriott Cancun.

We also enjoyed the grilled waipouli salad & tofu marinade.

My main course was the Makaweli short ribs. The meat was very tasty, though they were also very fatty. This isn’t a big deal when you’re having an all-inclusive dinner, since it doesn’t feel like you’ve wasted any money.

The sides were also tasty. The creamy corn with spinach used corn that was fresh and sweet. We also liked the sweet potato puree. It was smooth, and the citrus is a great addition.

Other dishes we liked included the smoked beet Maui salad, tomato poke, ginger rice, and Kalua pork roll wraps. Everything had excellent flavors.

We kept with tropical vibes going with Mai Tais.

The desserts were also good. I especially enjoyed the tres leches cake with pineapple and ice cream. This was a great flavor combination, sort of like a pineapple upside-down tres leches cake.

Our dinner at Hana Polynesian Grill was an excellent meal, with consistently great service like the other Marriott Cancun restaurants.

Sacbe Beach Shack & Delphina

For those who prefer to spend their resort time relaxing at the beach, the Marriott Cancun has you covered.

The Sacbe Beach Shack has food and full bar service during the day. You can either sit inside or out on the beach chairs. There are plenty of nice seats both on the covered patio and in the palapas.

Wherever you sit, you’ll have gorgeous views of the aquamarine waters.

The menu includes seafood, appetizers, salads, and pizzas (including create-your-own).

The food is tasty, and the salads are nice and light.

When I first visited the Marriott Cancun, this space was only open for service during the day. However, the resort has since added Delphina, a Mediterranean restaurant that is open for dinner.

Cevicheria by La Isla

For me, there’s nothing I’d rather eat when visiting the coast than fresh seafood.

Cevicheria by La Isla is one of several poolside restaurants and bars at the Marriott Cancun. It’s one of my favorites.

The restaurant & bar’s patio area overlooks the sea and the pool.

The menu includes ceviche, peel-and-eat shrimp, mussels, and tiraditos. There’s even a taco bar where you can pick your own toppings. I recommend the fish tacos.

This ceviche and taco bar was the first place we ate at during our visit to the Marriott Cancun, and it was a great place to start. The food was good, as was the service. We felt like we’d gotten a nice welcome to the resort.

Botanika by La Isla

Botanika by La Isla was closed when I visited, so I wasn’t able to try the food there.

The poolside restaurant offers healthy options made with fresh, local ingredients. It’s a nice change of pace if you’ve been gorging on food at the other restaurants. Plus, who wants to eat something heavy when you’re in the pool?

Pizzeria by La Isla

Pizzeria by La Isla is another poolside restaurant at the Marriott Cancun.

The stand, open during the day, offers pizza, sandwiches, calzones, and salads. With grab-and-go slices, it’s a good place to go for something quick.

It’s not the most amazing pizza in the world, but it’s decent enough. It was certainly much better than some other similar places I’ve been to. I liked that they have some creative options, such as octopus and summer peach.

Poolside Taco Stand

There’s one more place to get food near the pools at the Marriott Cancun, and it’s one of my favorites.

Right next to Pizzeria by La Isla, there’s a taco stand making fresh tacos, including al pastor.

If you want a quick grab-and-go snack by the pool or the beach, there’s no better way to make it an authentic Mexican beach experience.

750 Pizzeria

There are a couple of small takeaway options in the Marriott Cancun’s main lobby.

750 Pizzeria has pizza slices in the afternoons. Its selection seems to be about the same as Pizzeria by La Isla at the pool, so it just depends on which one you want to go to.

Organic & Co. Lobby Market

There is also a market inside the lobby. Part of the market has gifts and other items you might have forgotten, such as sunscreen and pool toys.

The other section of the market is devoted to Organic & Co., which has pastries, sandwiches, and other ready-to-eat options.

This is also the best place at the Marriott Cancun for coffee drinks. While other restaurants and bars at the resort have basic coffee, if you prefer specialty coffee and tea, it’s worth the detour to Organic & Co. We went there every day for iced coffee drinks.

Toscanni

Toscanni is a newer dining option at the Marriott Cancun. The resort has rather cleverly decided to have two restaurants sharing one space, with each one alternating nights of operation.

One night the space is devoted to Hana Polynesian Grill, then the next it’s Toscanni, an Italian restaurant.

Toscanni wasn’t yet open when I last stayed at the Marriott Cancun. However, we did eat at the excellent Italian restaurant located in the JW Marriott next door. If the two share any expertise and ingredients, then I expect it will also be good.

Mo’s Burgers & Shakes

There’s one disappointing restaurant at the Marriott Cancun: Mo’s Burgers & Shakes.

The concept is based on a 50s diner. With a simple menu of just a few items, it’s important to get them all right. However, Mo’s falls short.

We gave Mo’s a couple of chances during our stay. We took a break from the pool to head into Mo’s, which overlooks the kids’ play area toward the main pool and the Caribbean Sea.

On our first visit, we went just for milkshakes, which Mo’s bills as its specialty. It’s right there in the name. The menu advertises being able to mix and match flavors to create your own.

I tried ordering a cookies-and-cream milkshake with a mini-slice of chocolate chess pie on top; however, they were out of cookies and cream, so it ended up being a chocolate shake.

The weather was hot and humid, so we looked forward to our milkshakes.

The taste was fine, but the milkshakes were thin and not as cold as I would have liked. When it’s hot in Cancun, I want some brain freeze.

We went back for burgers on our second visit. There are a few burger options, including regular burgers and what’s billed as the Mighty Mo. You can also add options like bacon and avocado.

The burgers were okay, but nothing special. They could really stand to be elevated a bit. The burger sauce was great, though. It was like thousand island dressing with a bit of a spice kick.

We tried the milkshakes again in case the previous ones were just a bad batch. If you’re going to emphasize burgers and shakes, they should be better than this. I had expected it to be like one of those fancy shake places, and it wasn’t. I’m not even sure if they use actual ice cream, since we couldn’t see where they were being made.

We did enjoy the fries, which were crispy and tasty. We also got an order of poutine. I had pretty low expectations, but the dish was pretty good. Just don’t expect a traditional poutine like you might find in Montreal or Quebec City. With carne asada and melted Oaxacan cheese, the poutine was more Mexico than Canada.

Overall, Mo’s is my least favorite restaurant at the Marriott Cancun. That said, it’s one of the better places for families with kids, so perhaps I just wasn’t in the right market for it, or my expectations were too high.

Room Service

We decided to order room service one afternoon because we felt like relaxing and wanted to try it out, since it’s included in the Marriott Cancun all-inclusive dining plan.

The room service menu is in the hotel app, though you have to call the operator to place an order.

It took us a little bit to figure this out. I’m not sure if this is because they want to make it a little more difficult to order, or to make sure you’re in your hotel room rather than having to find you somewhere else on the resort property.

We placed our order at 2:30 pm and it arrived at 3:15 pm, which is perfectly reasonable for a resort of this size.

We had a spinach salad, which was excellent. The kids’ mac and cheese wasn’t bad, though it needed some salt. The chicken wrap was just fine. It came with French fries, which were nice and crispy despite having traveled some unknown distance across the hotel.

While I generally prefer being able to go to one of the resort restaurants to get freshly prepared food and/or select things at a buffet, the room service was decent, and the service was good (as it consistently was throughout our stay).

Book your stay at the Marriott Cancun

Marriott Cancun Bars

The Great Room

As soon as I walked in the main entrance of the Marriott Cancun, the first thing I noticed was this wall of windows with stunning views of the pool area and the sea. It’s an incredible welcome to the resort.

This area is home to The Great Room, the main lobby bar of the Marriott Cancun.

Overall, it has similar vibes to a standard hotel bar, but of course, the drinks are unlimited, just like everything else at the all-inclusive.

The Great Room has a signature cocktail list, as well as mocktails. The bartenders can also make anything else you want. We found the drinks to be consistently decent throughout the resort. They didn’t seem particularly watered down, unlike at some resorts.

In the evenings, the bar hosts live music.

Swim-up Bars

There are two pools at the Marriott Cancun All-Inclusive. The main pool is for all guests (including children), but there is a smaller pool designated as an adults-only area.

While both swim-up bars offer the same drinks and similarly good bartenders (I highly recommend the piña coladas), if you don’t have kids, the adults-only pool is the place to go.

The swim-up bar in the main pool has an unfortunate layout with a raised bench for seating. Unfortunately, this raised area is a magnet for kids to play on (despite there being an actual children’s play area right nearby), which means splashing and a lack of respect for other people’s space.

In comparison, the adults-only pool is nice and peaceful, plus service tends to be quicker since there aren’t as many people there. Since non-alcoholic cocktails are available, there are plenty of kids having rum-less piña coladas at the main pool, which take just as long to make. I can’t blame them, like I said, they’re tasty!

The pool seating areas also have waiter service. We found the service to be frequent and quick. We tipped, of course, though it seemed like people who didn’t appear to be tipping were still getting similar service.

The pool area also has a unique feature: a raptor patrol!

As you might imagine, a large resort like the Marriott Cancun attracts birds who also want to take advantage of the all-inclusive food. Visitors leave plates of half-eaten food out as an unintentional buffet.

The Marriott resort employs someone to walk around with a hawk to deter other birds from swooping in and stealing food. Those birds want a buffet, not to be the buffet.

Champions Sports Bar (Formerly Press + Start Bar & Arcade)

When I last visited the Marriott Cancun All-Inclusive, there was an arcade sports bar called Press + Start Bar & Arcade.

It’s an interesting concept, though one that was executed poorly. First, the bar is located outside of the main resort building, so people are less likely to visit it. In some ways, this is good (service is quick and there’s plenty of seating), but if you want to go watch a game with a crowd, the atmosphere is lacking.

Additionally, the arcade games weren’t free. People aren’t used to spending money at an all-inclusive resort, so not providing even a credit to get people in the door is strange. There were also only a dozen or so games, most of which were things like racing and pop-a-shot basketball.

The Marriott Cancun seems to have realized the error of this concept, as it has now been rebranded as the Champions Sports Bar. Hopefully, this will make it a busier place, since there’s not a ton else going on after a certain point each night.

Other than room service, the Champions Sports Bar is the latest open place to get food at the Marriott Cancun.

It has a bit of a diner feel with lots of tables. Some comfy chairs or sofas could improve it as a place to sit and enjoy games. When we were there, they were showing NFL Monday Night Football and some MLB playoff games.

The food menu isn’t fancy, but that’s not what you expect from a sports bar. The elevated bar snacks were pretty good, as were the specialty cocktails.

We ordered the ceviche, karaage, and some halloumi cheese skewers.

We also enjoyed a couple of frozen cocktails. I especially recommend the Final Fantasy.

I’m happy to see that the Marriott Cancun has made some adjustments to this sports bar space, as it’s a good idea, but it needed some improvement in execution.

Marriott Cancun Food & Drink Review Summary

We enjoyed our stay at the Marriott Cancun. The resort’s rooms and amenities were high quality, and the service was consistently great. It provides a luxury experience without being quite as expensive as some other all-inclusive resorts in Cancun.

Some Cancun all-inclusive resorts try to get by with the bare minimum for food and drink, but that’s definitely not the case at the Marriott Cancun. With a few exceptions, we enjoyed everything we ate and drank. It’s clear that Marriott is putting in the effort to have a quality all-inclusive program that makes people want to return to the resort.

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