Editor Pick
Los Alebrijes
- June 6, 2006
- Rated 5 of 5 by
jenae567 from Okinawa City, Japan
Perched atop one of the Catalonia Riviera Maya resort buildings rests Los Alebrijes restaurant—an elegant and romantic place to wine and dine.
Our mistake was making reservations too late (reservations are required) and so we settled for dining at Los Alebrijes on the very last night of our stay. But it was worth the wait!
As we arrived, the uber-romantic tone was set as a wedding party was congregated just outside the entrance. The new bride and groom looked so happy, and made me reflect upon my own nuptials that we had spoken just a week earlier. Happy and hungry, my new husband and I stepped hand in hand into Los Alebrijes.
The decor of the restaurant was truly unique. It had large metallic star-shaped sculptures hanging from the ceilings, which doubled as lighting fixtures. Among these large twinkling stars hung a giant dragon, reminiscent of the Chinese dragons abundant during the new year. With the soft lighting, the soft music, and my husband and I both dressed to the nines, it was hard not to feel sentimental. The only thing that surpassed this emotion was hunger. Our entrees arrived, mocking us and daring us to attempt to eat it all. I was unsuccessful. But not due to culinary dissatisfaction. Only lack of stomach capacity. I was, however, successful in making the server chuckle a bit—as he had caught wind of the fact that I am a big fan of all that is spicy. And to my table was brought a small dish of habenero peppers—supposedly the hottest pepper Mexico has to offer. After consuming about half of one, my tongue went numb, my beverage glass was emptied, but I could not stop eating them. Luckily for me, the server returned with our dessert and took away the habaneros. Sherbet and lemon meringues were exactly what my burning tongue needed. After we stuffed ourselves silly, we rolled back to the hotel room and wistfully drifted into a triptophan-induced sleep.
From journal You'll Love the Yucatan