Plant-Based Eating at a Mexican resort – Planet Hollywood, Cancun

I visited Planet Hollywood in Cancun, Mexico, earlier this year on a last-minute deal.  It’s an all-inclusive resort and somewhat isolated at one end of the Cancun beach strip.  Our plan was to stay on the resort, so the big question is: Can you eat plant-based at a typical all-inclusive in Mexico? I am here to tell you that it IS possible!

Planet Hollywood Cancun swim-out room Source: Marriott site

The Resort

There is plenty of information about PH Cancun if you do your research, so I’m not going to go into great depth here about the resort itself.  We stayed on the Adult Scene side but weren’t Star Class, so we didn’t have a butler or access to some of the exclusive spaces.  I don’t think Star Class is necessary because we were able to get into the a la carte restaurants on our own with little to no waiting time in most cases.  I would argue that Adult Scene is worth it because it provides access to two restaurants that aren’t available to everyone, reducing the waiting times for seating especially for breakfast/brunch.

A La Carte Options

There are several a la carte restaurants available, many of which we tried except the steakhouse (I wonder why!). In every case, it’s important to be clear with the server that you don’t wish to eat meat, fish, eggs or dairy because some of them don’t know what vegan means.  From the resort’s perspective, I have an allergy: “vegana”. Otherwise, they assumed I was vegetarian or pescatarian and dairy or fish would sneak into the meal.

I’ll write a follow-up post about some of our a la carte meals, but here is a brief guide:

La Cocina Mexican Cuisine

By far one of our favourite restaurants for plant-based dining with the tastiest food.  Server went out of his way to accommodate a vegana diet.

Sutra Indian Restaurant

An acceptable option, mch easier for vegetarians.  The menu is completely mislabeled, and it required the server to ask the chef which options had dairy. Otherwise, the food was very tasty.

East Sushi & Teppanyaki Bar

One of the better restaurants with a lot of choice for vegana options but some dishes were very greasy.  We didn’t attempt the Teppanyaki Bar because it’s shared with other people who would want to eat meat, fish, eggs and butter – making it virtually impossible to suit my diet without impacting other diners.

Catch Seafood Restaurant

Acceptable option, easier for pescatarians – no surprise there!  The menu is limited, and an effort is made for plant-based eaters, but the taste is mediocre.

Gusto Italian Trattoria

Although Italian food is one of the easiest to offer plant-based options (green salad, pasta with tomato sauce, gelato), this was the worst a la carte! Virtually nothing on the menu could accommodate us, including the appetizer, so we had to go to the buffet to create a complete dinner.

Let’s move on to the main course of this blogpost – the buffets!

The Main Buffet: So Cal Gourmet Emporium

This buffet had a lot of options available for plant-based eaters along with some cooking stations where food could be made to order. Most of the time, I wasn’t willing to wait so I just grabbed what was available that day.

The main buffet with the Rolling Stones logo. Source: Planet Hollywood site

The main take-away from the buffet is that the items are mislabelled or have errors due to omissions.  In the morning, they had a pot of oatmeal, but it didn’t say whether it had milk added already (it did).  

For lunch and dinner, plain rice was usually not available – they would add bits of seafood.  I could see this being a real issue for anyone with a shellfish allergy, too.  Such a disappointment that they couldn’t keep the two things separate to accommodate everyone.

My hubby tried a tamale because it only listed vegetables, but it had pork.  Buyer beware!

Breakfast Buffet

There are many choices of fruit, vegetables and bread. I like salads and fruit for breakfast so I didn't go hungry. I stayed away from the oatmeal because it was prepared with dairy.

Typical buffet salad with balsamic vinegar, blueberries and dried fruit

Adult Scene Breakfast Buffet:   Braza Grill & Churrascaria

We found that the adult-only buffet at the steakhouse was the best breakfast option.  It was a smaller restaurant but had made-to-order items off the menu as well as a buffet.  Even though the buffet wasn’t as big, there were exclusive items like a selection of dried nuts that weren’t available at the larger buffet.

Adult Scene buffet with salads, fruit, bread, oatmeal, nuts and more

Most of the menu items weren’t plant-based and I only tried one, a Grilled Bagel Sandwich (without the egg). The toasted bagel was very dry and crumbly, served with lettuce, tomato and avocado.  It wasn’t a highlight, so I stayed with the self-serve buffet items which were much better.  The Chilaquiles on the menu weren’t vegana even though it was listed as such.

Braza Breakfast Menu with incorrect Vegan items. Source: Planet Hollywood App

This buffet had oatmeal without milk which was a great option! I usually added banana, berries and/or dried fruit depending on what was available that day. The server brought plant-based milk that I could top it off with.

Oatmeal with cranberries and soya milk

The Chef heard I was vegana and offered to make me a tofu dish the following day (they need a day to prep the ingredients).  Next morning when I arrived, he was excited to grill up tofu with vegetables.  It was a little bland for my tastes, but he got an "A" for effort.  If you want a custom made meal like this, the Chef’s will try to accommodate. 

Custom order of grilled tofu and vegetables with a side of oatmeal with blueberries

Lunch/Dinner Buffet Options at So Cal

There was always a lot of vegetables, fruit and bread available at the main buffet.  Usually there were potatoes or home fries.  A nacho station with guacamole and salsa was a standard item, so it was easy to put a tasty plate together.  Due to a lack of plain rice, I rarely ate any of the hot beans.  Some of their mixed salads would include different beans but I had to be careful to avoid the ones with added cheese.  

Typical salad of mixed greens and vegetables, guacamole topped off with Tajin

Mixed green salad, cold Thai noodles, rice and black beans, green peas and more!

Potato wedges, quinoa and cooked vegetables

Pizza Station

We had custom pizza made a few times and it was good.  Sometimes the line was too long so we wouldn’t bother, but if it wasn’t busy then we’d put in an order.  Many of the frontline cooks had limited English so it was difficult to communicate vegana options with our weak Spanish skills.  

Although I know to say "sin carne, sin leche, sin huevos, sin queso, sin animales" they would give me a look and shake their head.  I think this is because not many people choose to eat pizza without cheese!  Google translate came to the rescue where my hubby would type in what we wanted, hit translate and show the chef.  I highly recommend this if you have any dietary restrictions or allergies!

Vegana pizza made to order with veggies and green olives

Dessert at the Buffet

Anyone without dietary restrictions could have a heyday eating dessert at the buffet.  For me, I was limited to fruit and discovered halfway through the trip that I could eat some of the sorbets.  There was no labelling on them and the buffet servers didn’t know what was contained in the sorbets so that made it difficult.  I found out from a server at an a la carte that the fruit sorbets were vegana so I did treat myself during the back half of the vacation.

Typical fruit plate of honeydew, cantaloupe, watermelon, pineapple and papaya

Mixed berry sorbet for dessert

FUEL Coffee Co.

PH Cancun has a coffee shop on site that serves coffee, teas, treats and ice cream.  The good news is they do have plant-based milk so it’s possible to get a cappuccino or latte. 

Fuel cafe menu. Source: Planet Hollywood App

I had the occasional green tea but I didn't try any of their fresh-pressed juices.

Tea drinkers have several options!

The treats and ice cream (most days) weren’t vegana so I took a pass on all of those.  

Fuel Cafe treats and sandwiches - sadly no vegana options

Fuel ice cream flavours changed daily - Sherbet is vegana

Depending on the time of day, the line ups at FUEL were very long, sometimes out the door.  We found a great alternative – read below!

The Scene Lobby Bar

The Adult side has its own bar that opened at 10 am and served up custom coffee drinks with plant-based milk, too.  More times than not, we would get our specialty coffee here because the service was so fast.

How Would I Rate Planet Hollywood, Cancun?

The resort is listed as a 5-star Autograph Collection owned by the Marriott chain of hotels.  I’ve frequented a fair number of all-inclusive resorts and I would say that it is an overly generous rating.  Based on our experience, I would give PH Cancun a 3.5/5 overall. 

The Good...

It’s hard to complain when you are on a beach in the winter! The beach was lovely (although loungers were in short supply).  We had cooler than expected daytime temperatures at the beginning of our stay, but it was mostly sunny and a great escape.  With a swim-up pool, this gave us options and we could relax on our patio, which was quite private. 

The service at the a la carte restaurants and the Adult buffet was fantastic – the staff really make an effort. Our maid was very nice and made up the room and brought us towels when we needed them.  PH Cancun also has a good supply of shampoo, body wash, lotions, etc. which is nice if you run out anything. Our mini-fridge was sufficiently stocked each day with water, pop and beer. 

They have a clean, well-equipped gym and courts for tennis or pickleball (although I didn’t partake because I had an injury). Shows were offered nightly in the main area and live bands performed at multiple locations on the resort. 

It's worthwhile downloading their App to book reservations, research menus, order room service, and find out the daily activities. I found it to be very useful.

Planet Hollywood Lazy River. Source: Planet Hollywide site

I think PH Cancun could be a better option for families because there are so many activities: mini golf, FlowRider, an arcade, water park, and movie theatre with two different films playing each day. I noticed there were several weddings and family groups at the resort.  We tried the Lazy River and it was a lot of fun to float along. At some point during the week, each pool has a Foam Party. 

The Bad and Ugly

The room itself was tired with many things in need of repair (some lights not working, marks on the walls, etc).  The Adult Scene side of the resort had a lingering sewage smell that permeated the area, fortunately our room was OK otherwise we would have been complaining.  The pools aren’t heated and are definitely chilly – it took a few days for the daytime temperature to get hot enough to make our way into our swim-up.  There weren’t enough loungers by the Adult pool so we usually didn’t hang around there because we had our own private space. The mixed drinks were hit or miss, depending on who made them – some weren’t even drinkable.

Final Thoughts

I am glad I could eat a variety of healthy plant-based food items and enjoy most of the specialty dining while on this vacation. I never can tell if I will need to survive on bread and water! 

I think PH Cancun could make some simple improvements to up their game and I provided survey feedback through the App during the vacation.  A Manager approached me to get more information, and my hope is they will incorporate these ideas to make it easier in the future for plant-based eaters, those with allergies or special diet requests.  

If you’ve ever been to PH Cancun, share your thoughts in the comments!  Keep your eye out for Part 2 where I provide details on the a la carte menus.

Find out More

More details can be found at the Planet Hollywood Cancun website

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