I am a regular participant on this board and always try to provide current and honest information and replies to questions of travelers to our wonderful city of Cancun. I am not a food critic but today I must act like one. A long time ago Mapchick told me that hubby Perry loved Los Pelicanos which is in the center of Puerto Morelos, with a great view overlooking the water. I have been there a few times over the subsequent years. At these times the various choices available with shrimp involved were not only numerous, but tasty as well. Lately I have heard that the place sucks but had not been back. WELL TODAY I MADE MY LAST TRIP TO LOS PELICANOS. Let's start with the service. We waited over 30 minutes for 2 bowls of Sopa de Camarones and Camarones de Empanizado. These would be Shrimp Soup and Breaded (then fried) Shrimp. We had 3 lemonade types of drinks. The total bill came to $425 pesos plus tip. I believe the items were priced at $45, $150 and $20 respectively. I know the math does not add up but I am certain of the two items at $150 each. The shrimp in the soup, which arrived first, were cooked way too much and were like chewing rubber bands. On a positive note the broth was hot and tasty. I need to mention now that this was two adults and two children, 4 and 8. We were sharing these items among ourselves. We took our two extra plates and started putting some shirmp on the plates of the kids. As the kids and I bit into our first shrimp, which by the way did not look like any Empanizado I had ever eaten, we collectively almost puked. They were greasy and simply nasty. I flagged a waiter and asked him if this was the way this item was normally served and was told yes. I told him they should be emabarrased to serve that to a customer and to charge $150 pesos for 8 shrimped and some nasty looking vegetables and a serving of rice. He came back with a manager and at this time it really paid off to have a Mexican girlfriend. (There are other good reasons as well.) She nicely explained that we had eaten there before and were not tourists (not that it should have mattered) and not only were our main dishes not acceptable, she fished out a oouple of the overcooked shrimp from her soup and they looked as bad as you can imagine. She then cut into one of the breaded ones and they were positivly disgusting. We had already stopped eating by this point. We quickly were brought two more servings of broiled shrimp, which were pretty good but the vegetables looked as bad as the first ones. It was a nice gesture but not nearly enough. I don't even know what enough would have made me satisfied. We left a 15% tip the the service got better once we got the manager involved. Here is a photo that I took for the sole purpose of posting it on this board. The rest of the shrimp had been put on the plates of the kids and I had eaten one of them. This does not show how bad these things really looked but, properly prepared, they are butterflied, battered and come out golden brown, and just crispy enough. Knowing what I know now, I would sooner pass on this place and walk out to the beach and eat a handful of seawood. It could not taste or look any worse, and it probaby would be more healthy. I will not be going back to Los Pelicanos.
TO have a Mexican Girlfriend!!! You are too funny. I laughed out loud when I saw that. :lol: :lol: How ya doing buddy?
Ew, nasty TJ. I have to admit to only having had dinner there once, breakfast a couple of times. The breakfasts were in the last month and were just fine, good thing I didn't order shrimp, blech.
We have eaten here a few times and apart from the location I really had nothing good to say about the place either. Shame as they do have such a great location overlooking the beach. Tracey
I've always found the service at Los Pelicanos to be terrible, really slow. And the food has always been mediocre.
That's the thing I don't understand about T.J., he always holds back and doesn't express how he really feels, LOL! Seriously T.J., you have the right to be a food critic, especially since you are such a local now. I'm sorry you had such a sub-par meal, next time I recommend you try Agua de Ojo Hotel's restaurant, the best fresh fish ceviche I ever had is there. 212eric
