I loved Tulum in Mexico so much, partly for its beaches, partly for the bike rides, partly for our hostel but overwhelmingly for the food.
Before we got to Tulum we were a little disappointed with what Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula had to offer. After a week of travelling around Cancun and Playa Del Carmen what we’d seen of Mexico had in all honesty seemed a little tacky, Tulum had a lot riding on it.
Tulum: Sure it’s not that culturally enriching and it’s not that cheap but Tulum is one of the most hedonistic and bohemian beach side towns that I’ve ever visited and I loved it from the get go. Split into the main beach area and the town, days in Tulum are best spent renting bicycles and cycling along the beautiful beach road overgrown with greenery and spending your days hopping from one beach lounge to the next and of course eating, lot’s of eating.
If like me, you’re an absolute sucker for every cafe and restaurant with food that promises to ‘nourish your body’ and swings to sit on while you drink green juice then you’ll find yourself in paradise in Tulum.
The best places to eat at in the day are the beach bars along the main road strip, and there’s plenty of them to choose from. Here are a few of my favourites.
The Raw Cafe at Ahau Beach Bar
Probably the most zen of them all is the Raw Love Cafe at Ahau Beach Bar. Just minutes walk away from the beachfront this cafe has everything from superfood smoothie bowls like the ‘chocolate dream’ with cacao, banana, maca, vanilla, dates and coconut milk to maki rolls, coconut milk lattes and raw desserts. (Everything on the menu is gluten-free too) .We both got two of the raw vegan cheesecakes, passionfruit and lime and strawberry and white chocolate flavour. Sure I would have loved a slab of normal cheesecake but like I said, I’m a sucker for all this stuff, and occasionally I like to indulge myself and buy into the dream.
Taqueria La Eufemia
One of the best places we ate at was at the taqueria at La Eufemia beach bar. This taco restaurant was always packed but for good reason: The taco’s were incredible.
Like most places in Mexico, you order per taco, starting from just 20 pesos each ($1.30) each and I’d recommend ordering 2-4 depending on how hungry you are. We tried the veggie one, prawn and the grilled fish (which was my favourite). When the tacos came we went up to the bar and helped ourselves to toppings choosing from fresh herbs, onion, guacamole, fresh tomato sauce or sour cream. We also loved the fish ceviche (a salad with chopped white fish and vegetables) which was so fresh and citrusy.
Pasha, Turkish and Arabic Cusine
One restaurant we stopped off at was Pasha and there couldn’t be a more ‘tulum’ restaurant than this. We had to pull up our bikes and stop for food here when we saw the hippie decor and low seats in this Turkish restaurant and it’s a good thing we did because the food was incredible.
There are tons of vegan and vegetarian options here and I could have eaten everything on the menu all day every day. The mezze platters looked especially fantastic. Pasha does quite possibly the best falafel I’ve ever had as it was so fresh and fragrant. I went for the falafel pita which was fantastic. It came with tzatziki but you could have just substituted this for another dip to make it vegan.
Prieto cafe
There are great restaurants and cafes everywhere in Tulum, not just at the beach. I loved Prieto cafe in the main town which we stopped in for coffee a couple of times. They did fantastic coffees and the Iced chai latte with coconut milk was particularly good.
You really need to rent a bike to get around in Tulum. Unless you want to pay a small fortune and actually stay in one of the beach bars then you’ll end up staying in the main town which is really the best place to be in the evening anyway.
The other option is to take a taxi but it’s much more expensive and one of the most fun things was just cycling along the beach road and stopping off whoever we saw somewhere that looked good to eat.
I hope that this post has given you a taste of just how foodie a place Tulum is. Know any other fantastic vegan and vegetarian places in Tulum? Be sure to let me know.
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