From our limited exposure to the island, the local dining scene seems to feature three main themes in restaurants: seafood, Italian and pirates. And there is what might be considered Holbox fusion dining: Italian seafood pirate restaurants.
First and foremost, this is a fishing village and every bite of seafood we ate there was extremely fresh and reasonably priced for a vacation destination.
At Colibri, about ¼ block south of the Main Plaza, we enjoyed a delicious seafood soup. It had a relatively light but flavorful broth and was full of lobster, shrimp, prawn and fish. The restaurant also features cakes for desert and on the night we ate there, the chocolate cake served was a huge portion of one of the most flavorful and moist chocolate cakes we’ve eaten. Our entire bill for 1 entrée of the soup and another of a fresh grilled filet in garlic sauce plus the cake and a couple drinks was about $200 pesos.
We had pizza for lunch the next day at Evelyn Restaurant and Pizzeria. It’s located on the southeast corner of the Main Plaza. We didn’t try their house specialty Lobster Pizza. The marguerite pizza we did order was decent but nothing special.
That night we had a very nice meal at Viva Zapata. It’s about a half block west of the north end of the Main Plaza. The fried calamari starter was nicely presented on a bed of lettuce. We ordered a whole grilled fish (that we think was king mackerel) and another plate of fish filet. We like mackerel but find it has a tendency to go “fishy” if not extremely fresh. No problemo at Viva Zapata. With a tip, the entire meal for 2 was less than $250 pesos.
We didn’t eat at La Cueva del Pirata but it appeared to be one of the most popular restaurants in the town. We never did figure out why an Italian restaurant would have a pirate theme. It’s located right on the Main Plaza.
Faro Viejo is a hotel and restaurant located on the beach and has a beautiful view. We enjoyed cocktails and coffee there while watching the sunset before going out each evening and had an excellent breakfast of heuvos monteleno our last morning in Holbox.
A favorite treat for visitors to Holbox is Maresa ice cream. You can buy these tasty cups for $15 pesos from several locations in town including a home a couple blocks south of the Main Plaza and from an ice cream “truck” on a golf cart. They have a wide variety of tropical flavors including our favorite, Pina (pineapple).