A La Carte Plant-Based Eating at a Mexican resort – Part 2 Planet Hollywood, Cancun

This is Part 2 about the all-inclusive resort Planet Hollywood in Cancun,Mexico.  If you missed Part 1 about eating at the buffets, you can find it here.  As mentioned in the previous blog post, there are many plant-based options at PH Cancun including at several of the a la carte restaurants. I’ve travelled to other all-inclusive resorts, to find that the buffet is the ONLY option.  Let’s look more closely at the service and dining options at their specialty restaurants.

La Cocina Mexican Restaurant PH Cancun. Source: Planet Hollywood site

A La Carte Service

We didn’t try every a la carte or specialty dining option at the resort.  This was either due to the plant-based options available (limitations) or we simply ran out of time.  Remember, when speaking with a server, any dietary restriction will be considered an “allergy”.  It’s important to define your allergy whether it’s omitting dairy, nuts, seafood, gluten or dietary preferences such as pescatarian, vegetarian, keto, gluten-free or vegan. 

Some servers were better than others with their understanding of the dietary request.  Occasionally something was lost in translation in the kitchen.  Unfortunately, there isn’t much that can be done about these errors, so anyone with a serious life-threatening allergy would need to think twice about going to an all-inclusive resort.  Carrying an epi-pen would be required at a minimum.

Overall, the service at PH Cancun’s restaurants was friendly, accommodating and timely.  We had a few servers that we bumped into several times and had lovely conversations about their life and families. Some were also comedians, giving us a chuckle every time we saw them.  I really can’t say enough about the kindness and positivity of the staff.

Tipping is part of the culture at these resorts, so any personalized service can be rewarded with US dollars.  Tips to thank them for service at their “fine dining” restaurants for dinner are usually $5 to $10 for a couple.  We noticed many people didn’t leave tips, but we rewarded quality service. 

A la Carte Restaurant Plant-Based Meals

Let’s first review the specialty restaurants we tried at PH Cancun - including my Top 3.  I share the current menus as of early 2025 but these are subject to change.

La Cocina Mexican Cuisine

I guess it should come as no surprise that the best tasting restaurant at a Mexican resort was the one serving Mexican dishes.  Even though La Cocina was geared to meat and fish eaters, the restaurant had delicious tasting food for plant-based eaters, too. We enjoyed our meal so much that I didn’t take any photos – rookie blogger move! I had some of the best guacamole, salad, and veggie fajitas. We planned to come back a second time to take photos but ran out of time based on our schedule.

La Cocina Mexican Restaurant App, Soup and Taco Menu. Source: Planet Hollywood App

La Cocina Mexican Restaurant Mains and Dessert Menu. Source: Planet Hollywood App

Sutra Indian Restaurant

Sutra Indian also had some of the tastiest dishes for plant-based eaters but the challenge was the menu was not properly labelled.  For whatever reason, the restaurant assumed vegetarian and vegan are the same and so dairy was included in many dishes.

Sutra Indian Restaurant Apps and Mains Menu. Source: Planet Hollywood App

Sutra Indian Restaurant Specialties, Sides and Dessert Menu. Source: Planet Hollywood App

The server did his best to find out what was vegan but he didn’t know without confirming each dish with the Chef.  Anyone with a dairy allergy would need to be diligent here.

Having said that, the options were still quite extensive and we were able to enjoy potato fritters and green salad, aloo gobi, chana masala, jeera aloo, plain rice and naan without butter. The spicing was on the mild side but the Indian flavours were good. They also had mango sorbet available for dessert (non-dairy).

Sutra Indian Restaurant Potato Fritters and Green Salad

Sutra Indian Restaurant Curry Dishes, Rice and Naan

East Sushi & Teppanyaki Bar

The last of the top three restaurants was the Japanese a la carte. There are quite a few vegan options on the regular menu and the server made recommendations for items that could be modified.

East Sushi Restaurant Apps and Mains Menu. Source: Planet Hollywood App

East Sushi Restaurant Sides and Dessert Menu. Source: Planet Hollywood App

We tried the vegetable maki, noodles with tofu, and rice with vegetables.  The noodle and rice dishes were heavily oiled, more than I like but likely alright for most palates.  The flavours were standard with an emphasis on soy sauce. The Chef didn’t really know what to do with tofu, so it was unflavoured and soft – thrown on top as an afterthought. I’ve had much better Japanese but given we were in Mexico, they did their best and I didn’t leave hungry.

East Sushi Restaurant Vegetarian Maki

East Sushi Restaurant Noodles, Vegetables and Tofu

East Sushi Restaurant Stir Fried Rice and Vegetables

Catch Seafood Restaurant

The Seafood restaurant had some difficulty providing dinner for a plant-based eater so pescatarians would fare much better.  At dinnertime, there is a salad buffet area where I could pick and choose what I would like for my appetizer (salad, tortilla chips, salsa). The challenge was seafood was the main emphasis, particularly ceviche. 

The Catch Restaurant Apps and Mains Menu. Source: Planet Hollywood App

The Catch Restaurant Sides and Dessert Menu. Source: Planet Hollywood App

The Chef provided a main dish that was a purple (made from blue corn) empanada with a bean mash. It wasn’t spiced up or flavourful, so definitely an odd choice and not one of my favourite dishes.

We also went to the Catch for lunch as this is a perk for the Adult Scene guests. The lunch was much better than the dinner as each course was served by the waiter and the options were tastier.

The Catch Restaurant Lunch Menu. Source: Planet Hollywood App

I enjoyed delicious guacamole, pico de gallo and homemade corn chips, cucumber and jicama salad, pasta with tomato sauce (recommended by the server as the best choice, and after the dinner experience I would agree!).  We shared a side of rice and I requested a side of grilled vegetables. Unfortunately, something was lost in translation and the veggies were doused in butter so I couldn’t eat them.

The Catch Restaurant Tortilla Chips, Guacamole and Pico de Gallo

The Catch Salad with Cucumber, Jicama and Candied Nuts

The Catch Pasta with Tomato Sauce, Grilled Vegetables

Gusto Italian Trattoria

The Italian restaurant had to be one of the worst experiences I had at PH Cancun. I knew the menu looked limited because everything was covered in cheese, but I thought they’d be able to accommodate by omitting it. 

Gusto Italian Apps, Pizza and Mains Menu. Source: Planet Hollywood App

Gusto Italian Mains and Dessert Menu. Source: Planet Hollywood App

Even though I announced that I was vegana, focaccia with cheese was brought to the table as an appetizer. I asked if we could just get a plain white roll or bread and this wasn’t possible. Italian bread not possible?? The server was annoyed and scooped it away along with the bowl of olives that we could eat.

Instead, the Chef cooked up pizza dough without any toppings and that’s what we had as our appetizer. Because we were waiting so long and were starving, we dug into it before taking a picture. I was able to fill up on dry bread and red wine!

Gusto Italian Appetizer - some work needed here :)

I was able to get a plain green salad with balsamic dressing and pasta with tomato sauce. We were able to top off the meal with a mixed berry sorbet.

Gusto Italian Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette

Gusto Pasta with Tomato Sauce

Gusto Italian Salad Mixed Berry Sorbet

There are a few other a la cartes and eateries we didn’t try because plant-based options weren’t on the menus:

• Sunset Strip Steakhouse & Grill – steakhouse
• Braza Grill & Churrascaria – Brazilian grilled meat
• Guy’s Burger Joint – regular burger and fries
• 6^th Sense - A specialty dining experience with an added fee

Room Service

Complimentary room service is available for breakfast, lunch, dinner and late at night.  We didn’t test it out because we weren’t hungry outside of the standard mealtimes and we are happy to self-serve at the buffets.  Room service options are available 24/7, but plant-based choices are somewhat limited and weren’t enough of a draw for us to put in a request.  The App states that it is possible to note allergies, but given our experience with face-to-face interactions, I didn’t want to try non-vegan items because there was a good chance the item wouldn’t be modified properly.

The vegan options from Room Service were basic and limited:

• Garden Salad
• Fruit plate
• Coffee, tea, juice (no obvious option for plant-based milk) 
• Beyond Burger (mayo automatically added, so a risk that it wouldn’t arrive vegan)

Not surprisingly, other items like bagels come with cream cheese or pizza automatically has cheese.  It would have been a true test to see if the kitchen could handle a vegana order, but I can’t verify.

The breakfast menu is a challenge because of eggs, meat and dairy: pancakes, muffins, croissants, and sausages. They provided pre-defined options such as American Breakfast, English Breakfast and Continental Breakfast meaning it would only be possible to choose Sides of fruit and bread.

Star Class also added food options but absolutely none of these were vegana.  The premium food items are heavily focused on seafood adding shrimp and tuna to salads, as well as smoked salmon, ceviche, and shrimp cocktail dishes.  This menu also has two sandwiches with meat and cheese.

Final Thoughts

Generally, I have found that the buffet is usually the best option for eating plant-based at any resort or all-inclusive. I was able to try several of the a la carte options and PH Cancun tried to provide some vegana options. 

If I was to visit again, I would stick to the Mexican restaurant and the Catch at lunchtime. The other restaurants weren’t as good as what I could get myself in the buffet.  The PH Cancun Chefs are struggling with how to cook with tofu and I wouldn’t recommend having dishes with this ingredient.  I hope you find this review useful if you plan to eat plant based at this resort.

Find out More

More details can be found at the Planet Hollywood Cancun website

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