A “triple treat” restaurant for me is a place that has:

  – great food
  – great service
  – reasonable prices

Most restaurants – anywhere – offer only 2 of the 3. You either have great food and service at a price, cheap but not so tasty food or great food at a reasonable price but no customer service whatsoever.

It saddens me to say this but customer service is not all that great here in Playa del Carmen. While in hotels and fancy restaurants on the popular Fifth Avenue the service is exceptional, the local hangouts are not as lucky. But I’m happy to report that it is getting better. What gives me this ray of sunshine? Let me explain…

The Task of Choosing a Restaurant

Yesterday, we headed out for lunch like we usually do. Listing the places we normally go out loud until we decided on a restaurant. We walked along thinking about all our experiences in different restaurant, some good, some bad. We like to try new places but we often leave feeling more disappointed than satisfied. But that was not the case yesterday.
Discovering a New “Triple Treat” – Hot Baking Company

We decided against all our judgment and the little voice in our head saying ‘Stick to what you know’, to try Hot Baking Company. And, boy, were we surprised. The prices were the first thing we noticed. I’d always thought it was an expensive place but turns out that it is quite reasonable prices. We decided to share some enchiladas. So decision one was out of the way, but the we had the choice of filling (chicken, cheese, beans, etc), the choice of tortilla (blue, flour, wheat, etc), the choice of sauce (red, green, mole, etc) and of course what we wanted on top (onion, lettuce, cream, cheese, etc).

We were a little overwhelmed at first, but then settled on chicken enchiladas, with blue tortillas, mole sauce and everything on top. And what a great decision it was. They also agreed to split the meal on two plates so we could share – we often do this and then if you like it and we are still hungry we order and share another plate. It’s a great way to enjoy a variety of dishes!

To wash down our delicious enchiladas we ordered a chaya (a Mexican green leaf that is great for juicing or with eggs) and mango juice. It was equally delicious and refreshing. After the enchiladas are tummy were still rumbling so we decided to order a salad. Again with the choices- what kind of lettuce or green leaves? What meat (chicken, beef, fish)? What vegetables and cheese, and to top it off a choice of dressing? And again they offered to put the salad into two bowls!

Service to Write Home About (or at least a blog …)

We were amazed. The wait staff was attentive, we were happy with the price and the food was very yummy. We will definitely be going back and with 2 locations to choose from (Fifth Avenue or Centro Maya Shopping Mall) it makes the choice of what to eat even easier.

To sum up the whole experience sometimes new it better and yum, yum, yum!

-by Bea Lozano