Restaurant in Puerto Morelos, Mexico
Plaza-Side Fire Cooking
Al Chimichurri brings a grill-and-chimichurri focus to Puerto Morelos's mostly seafood-driven dining scene, making it the practical choice for visitors who want meat over fish in a casual, neighbourhood setting. Booking is easy — walk-ins are typically viable. For occasion dining, Le Chique is the better option; for local seafood, head to Punta Corcho instead.
With pricing data unavailable at time of writing, Al Chimichurri sits on Javier Rojo Gomez in Puerto Morelos — a town where the dining ceiling is set by Le Chique at the leading end and casual seafood spots like Punta Corcho at the other. The name signals an Argentine-influenced grill focus, which already tells you something useful: if you are in Puerto Morelos for regional Yucatecan cooking, this is probably not your first stop. If you want grilled meat in a Caribbean beach town, it may well be.
Puerto Morelos has a quieter, more local energy than Playa del Carmen — fewer resort corridors, more neighbourhood streets. A chimichurri-forward grill in this context fills a real gap: the town's dining scene leans heavily on seafood, so a meat-driven menu gives it a distinct position among local options. For the food-focused traveller passing through the Riviera Maya, it is worth knowing this is not a destination in the way that HA' in Playa del Carmen or Pujol in Mexico City are destinations , but Puerto Morelos rarely requires that level of ambition from its restaurants.
The atmosphere in this part of town runs casual to mid-register. Do not arrive expecting a polished dining room with climate control and attentive tableside service. This is a beach-town grill, and the ambient feel will reflect that: open air or semi-open, conversational noise levels, and an energy calibrated to holiday pace rather than occasion dining. That is not a criticism , it is the format. If you want a quieter room for a long conversation over dinner, arrive early. Later in the evening, tables in popular spots along this strip tend to fill with a mix of expats, returning visitors, and tourists who have found their way off the resort circuit.
For groups, the practical question at a grill-format restaurant is always whether the kitchen can handle volume without quality dropping. Chimichurri-style grills are generally well-suited to group dining: the format is shareable, the pacing is flexible, and there is no elaborate tasting menu structure that breaks down when scaled. If you are planning a group meal in Puerto Morelos, this type of venue is logistically easier than a tasting-menu restaurant. Confirmed private dining arrangements are not documented in available data, so contact the venue directly before assuming a private room is available. For a group occasion that needs certainty, John Gray's Kitchen has a longer-established presence in the market and may offer more structured group options.
Booking difficulty is rated Easy , walk-ins are likely viable for much of the week, particularly outside high season (late December through early January, and Semana Santa). Puerto Morelos is not a town that requires weeks of advance planning for most restaurants below the Le Chique tier. A same-day or next-day approach should work for most visits. No phone number or website is listed in current data, so your leading option is to enquire in person or ask your hotel to call ahead if you want to guarantee a table for a larger group.
Book Al Chimichurri if you want grilled meat in a casual, neighbourhood setting without the resort markup. Skip it if your priority is regional Mexican cuisine , for that, look at Muelle Once or Mar-Bella Fish Market for local seafood, or make the drive up to see what Levadura de Olla Restaurante in Oaxaca delivers if you are touring Mexico more broadly. For context on the wider dining scene, see our full Puerto Morelos restaurants guide.
In Puerto Morelos, your main dining choices split clearly by format and price. Le Chique at $$$$ is the serious dining option , contemporary Mexican tasting menus, advance booking required, and a completely different register to everything else in town. If occasion dining with regional ambition is the goal, go there instead. Al Chimichurri operates in a different lane entirely: casual, grill-led, and suited to a relaxed evening rather than a set-piece dinner.
For seafood, Punta Corcho at $$ is the value pick and is better positioned if fresh local fish is the priority. Mar-Bella Fish Market covers similar ground and is worth checking if Punta Corcho is full. John Gray's Kitchen has been a fixture in Puerto Morelos long enough to have a loyal returning-visitor following, which makes it the safer bet for a special dinner if you want something reliably good without committing to Le Chique prices.
Muelle Once rounds out the local set and is worth a look for a different atmosphere. The short version: for grilled meat in a laid-back setting, Al Chimichurri fills a gap in Puerto Morelos's mostly seafood-focused dining scene. For everything else , seafood, occasion dining, or a reliable neighbourhood anchor , the alternatives above are better-documented options with more data behind them.
| Venue | Price | Booking Difficulty | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Al Chimichurri | Easy | — | |
| Le Chique | $$$$ | Unknown | — |
| Punta Corcho | $$ | Unknown | — |
| John Gray's Kitchen | Unknown | — | |
| Mar-Bella Fish Market- Puerto Morelos | Unknown | — | |
| Muelle Once | Unknown | — |
Key differences to consider before you reserve.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
