Royal Suites Yucatan - Riviera Maya

To celebrate my graduation... I booked a trip for me and my fiance at the end of my final quarter. I actually booked the trip before I even registered for my last class. Hahaha. Hey, the way I looked at it... if I finish, yay we celebrate. If for some reason I failed, at least we're in Mexico. It's a win-win! :P

I found a pretty awesome deal at the Royal Suites Yucatan by Palladium in Riviera Maya/Akumal. It's about an hour and half car ride south from the Cancun airport. The main reason I chose this place? It's adults only! :) Well, our section of the resort is adults only. It's essentially 5 resorts in 1... pretty huge. You have to take carts/shuttles to go to some of the other resorts.

We arrived in late afternoon, the sun was already starting to set. The lobby of our section of the resort was really nice. And the people at the front desk were sooooo friendly and accommodating. It was off to a great start!

Since this is an all-inclusive resort (which btw... is THE best way to vacation. Food and drinks all included!!) it means LOTS of food pictures! I'm not going to write much more. This is purely a food porn entry... :) Just a quick tip though, never go to the "Asian" restaurant at these resorts. They are almost always pretty crappy. And it was our only really bad meal on this trip.

First night dinner: El Jardin, restaurant just next to our lobby.

It's a buffet AND a la carte restaurant. Ooooof... wayy too much food.

 

 

 

 

 

It includes lobster. Yes. LOBSTER!

One of the most tender preparations of octopus I have ever had in my life! Amazing!

First breakfast: Room service! Which is 24/7 and again... ALL INCLUDED! :)

Orange Juice, Banana Shake
Assorted Pastries

Florentine Style Eggs (bechamel, spinach, eggs)

Mexican Style Eggs (scrambled eggs with jalapeno, tomato, cheese, onions; with sausage and chorizo)

Salmon Bagel

2nd Night Dinner: Sumptuori - Japanese/Hibachi/Fusion
Cocktail: Cassis & Orange Juice. Pretty!

Appetizer: Eggrolls and Tempura Shrimp

Assorted Sushi. Pretty blech. 

Soups

 

Soba Juma Fillet (beef fillet with Japanese peas, soya and rice)

Shake Shiitake (gilled marinated salmon with fried sweet potato, carrots, and shiitake vinaigrette)

Fried Banana 

Rice Pudding

We left without really touching the dessert... Other than the well cooked steak for the entree, everything else was pretty bad. We hit up the buffet for more dessert. haha.

3rd Night Dinner: Back to El Jardin (since it doesn't require reservations)
House Margarita Welcome drink.

Tricolor Salad (lettuce, beets, avocado, tomato, egg, onion, french dressing)

Duck Salad (lettuce, endive, mango, kiwi, raspberry vinaigrette and raspberry)

Tlalpeno Soup (chicken, carrot, chayote, potato, celery, leek, onion, garlic, and chipotle chili peppers)

 

Ribeye Steak. Soooo freaking delicious. They knew how to cook beef! And again.... ALL INCLUSIVE baby!

New York Strip. Also fantastic. 

Tres Leches

Napoleon

Chocolate Cake

4th Night Dinner: La Adelita. The Mexican restaurant. Best meal of the trip. Fantastic!
Complimentary Starter: Nachos

"Mexican Coffee" (coffee, kahlua, tequila, spices). We need to figure out how to make this because it was so good. Couldn't taste any of the alcohol, didn't need additional cream or sugar. Awesome. 

Soup of the Day: Creamed Corn

Beef Broth "La Adelita" (beef, chicken, pork, epazote, pumpkin, corn)

Beef Alambres Sinaloa Style (with beans, mushrooms, poblano, cheese, onion)

Chef's Special of the Day: Chicken Enchiladas in Mole. This was amazing! I love mole, and this was sooooo good!!!!

Pumpkin Creme Brulee

Tres Leches Cake

5th Night Dinner: El Jardin. We initially went to a beach bbq. They had an outdoor buffet all set up with stations that grilled different types of meat. But the food wasn't that great and I was getting attacked by mosquitoes. Plus there was a really annoying drunk guy in the table next to us. It just didn't feel like how we wanted our last night to be. So we went where we KNEW we'd get a good meal. :)
"Stephanie" Salad (lettuce, cucumber, prawns, coriander sauce and beet vinaigrette)

"Sunrise" Salad (spinach, lettuce, surimi, carrots, tomato, lemon vinaigrette)

Chinese Noodle Soup (chicken consomme, pork, noodles, cauliflower, carrots)

Ribeye Steak. 

Rigatoni with Alfredo Sauce (spanish ham, onion, garlic, and cream)

Chocolate Mousse and Mango Ice Cream

Apple Tart and Vanilla Ice Cream

Last Day Breakfast: Room Service. Since it was our last day here, we went all out! :P

Orange Juice, Pineapple Juice
Assorted Pastries
Toast with Butter
Florentine Style Eggs
Motulenos Style Eggs (corn tortilla, beans, cheese, tomato, chili, pork sausage)

Side of Bacon
Pancakes with Maple Syrup and Chocolate Sauce

Last drinks while waiting for our shuttle to the airport: Bananamama and Kahlua & Milk

 

As if that wasn't enough for us. I got some $8 ice cream cone from Haagen Dazs. haha.

It was a great vacation. Very relaxing. Other than eating and drinking... we pretty much did nothing. haha. I did get a lot of reading done! :P I'd recommend this resort, but only the adult only section "Royal Suites Yucatan". You'll be glad you did that. I wanna go back................ 

Cheers! 

~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~

Cafe Brown Sugar

The celebration for my last day of school continues. After a yummy dinner at LA Burger, we decided to get some dessert at Cafe Brown Sugar. I've known about this place ever since it opened, just never got a chance to go. However, I didn't have high expectations for it since I've heard hit/miss reviews on the food and prices. Still, the pictures always look amazing and I wanted to check it out for myself!

Cafe Brown Sugar
2625 Old Denton Rd. Ste 406
Carrollton, TX 75007
(972) 446-6633 
Price: $-$$

This place is pretty cute the inside looks like the outside of some Italian little town or something. It's a really big space too. 2 stories, so lots of seating. They open fairly late (11pm) so it's a cool place to hang out with your friends after dinner. You order at the counter, they give you a buzzer, then you go pick up your order.

They had way more stuff on the menu than I expected. This puts in a difficult place because I now want to try EVERYTHING. I was initially thinking of their epic waffles but then I saw they had Macaron Ice Cream sandwiches?!? OMG. The only time I've ever seen that was in LA (at Umami and MILK). And it was amazing. I had to try this.

Cookies n Cream Macaron Ice Cream Sandwich $4.50~

You pick the ice cream flavor and the color of the macaron. The different colors of the macarons didn't have different flavors. I was like "uh.. ok..?" But I picked blue. They ended up giving me purple. So I still don't fully understand the colors if they don't taste differently. The ice cream sandwich is very pretty. But I think they need to rethink the shape of it. It's too tall... VERY hard to bite from top to bottom. I had to eat it in sections. If only they can make wider macarons, and squish the ice cream down flatter. Kind of like a whoopie pie or something. Then it would be perfect. I love using macarons on the outside of ice cream sandwiches. I think it works way better than cookies, which usually crumble or smoosh the ice cream. The macaron holds up better, surprisingly. I enjoyed it. Not as great as the ones from LA, but it's the first I've seen in Dallas so I'll take it!

Green Tea Waffle $3.99~ 

I was greedy. I wasn't even hungry but I still wanted that waffle. I noticed that you can just get a waffle (comes with butter and maple syrup) for $4. Which is way better than the other ones for over $11! Geez! It certainly looks like a green tea waffle... but I couldn't taste much of it. I liked the crisp outside, but the inside was also kinda crisp. Not enough fluffy/soft center. It was ok. I wouldn't get it again..

Honey Butter Toast. 

 

I forget how much this was.. it wasn't cheap though. I think also close to $10. My fiance was set on this from the get go. We've had honey toast in Japan before so he was excited to have it again. It definitely looked pretty epic! Almost as big as my head! Definitely a knife and fork dessert and SHARE! Actually, most of the desserts here are made for sharing. Unless you are just a super beast or your goal is to be in a sugar coma. I wish the scoop on top of the bread is ice cream, but it's a scoop of butter. TOO MUCH! Bleh... we took it off. The toast is already semi buttered on the inside. The outside was nice and crispy, the inside was fluffy. It was pretty good. A little dry... needed more honey. Luckily the maple syrup from my waffle was there to the rescue. Not as good as Asia, but then again, nothing in Dallas really is... It's worth trying. Maybe ask for a few scoops of ice cream on the side though.

My friends got some of the epic waffles...

Cookies n Cream Waffle (chocolate waffle with oreo ice cream, banana, honeydew, pineapple, strawberry, crushed oreo, chocolate sauce) $11ish~ 

Coffee Lovers Waffle (coffee? waffle with coffee ice cream, banana, honeydew, pineapple, strawberry, crushed oreo, and I think caramel sauce?) $11ish~

Both looked very impressive. I had too much myself to try theirs. They said it was pretty good. So maybe I'll try it next time. Or I'll use my waffle maker and make it myself at home for a fraction of the price. hahaha.

I'd go back again. Next time I'll try something new.

Quality of Food:

Service:

Ambiance:

Price:

Overall Experience:

~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~