Toro's Place - COZUMEL

Terrible. $20 USD plate of 2 enchiladas, 2 quesadillas, 2 steak tacos, rice and beans… teeny portions, ate the steak out of the tacos, rest was inedible only flavor was cruddy cooking oil. Even rice and beans were weird. $34 USD for this tiny inedible share plate and two beers. Cheap for US but expensive for Mexico.

I was in Cozumel looking for a scene location for my novel, Jamaican Farewell. The place needed to be in San Miguel, close to the pier, and it also had to be on the second floor with a picturesque view of the street, the cruise ships, and the ocean. Toro 's Place fit the bill perfectly, so I stopped in for a drink and some nachos. I was sold on the restaurant and ended up using it in the novel along with my waiter, Santiago.

Food is OK., good location to watch sunset, but the prices are about 50% higher for tourists than on the Spanish menu.

My husband ordered the lobster and I ordered the fried fish. As we waited for our meal, they brought a basket of chips no salsa. There were three plastic bottles on our table one was Cesar dressing, the other two were some kind of sauces that made us wonder is they should have been refrigerated, and how old they were. Our meals came my husband 's lobster was a bit overcooked and dry. My fried fish was way over fried and so crispy that there was no white fish meat to eat at all. When I tried to get a fork full of fish....I got nothing but crisp, overfried skin that cracked and flaked all over the table and my lap. Our waiter never came around to ask how things were. I picked and flipped the fish and got a few bites. The waiter came around at the end to clear our plates and we told him how overcooked mine was. He never offered anything else, no desert, nothing. He next brought our bill and pointed to handwritten numbers on the bottom and said your total in pesos and dollars . The numbers were our full bill (no credit for any of my fish meal) and a 20% tip added in. Luckily I always calculate their math . No way was he worth a 20% tip. I added a 15% tip only. The view is very nice there.......but that was about it.

To see this restaurant ranked 296th out of 342 restaurants in Cozumel (as of today) makes me question how 46 others in town can be worse. We were guided to this restaurant by the tour guide who took us on a snorkeling excursion to El Cielo reef in Cozumel. He told us that if we went there we could take showers, use the bathroom, get a free margarita, and enjoy some great lobster. Like fools, my wife and I bit. When we got there, the owner told us that we 'd get free margaritas if we ordered food. We sat down, ordered a plate of quesadillas, the lobster, and some beef tacos. We showered out back using the most primitive shower you can imagine, changed into dry clothes and sat down to wait for our order. We finished our two small margaritas and sat down to eat our food. The girl returned to our table and asked us if we 'd like to order some more margaritas. When we said yes, she returned with the menu for the good ones, telling us the free ones were made with the house tequila. Most margarita on the menu were $8-12 USD. Having spent the previous day drinking 2 for 1 margaritas at Playa, we told her just to get us the cheap ones that we were drinking already figuring we could have cheaper ones when we returnee to Playa. She brought the margaritas, same as the first ones, but this time they included a lime slice so thin and dry it looked like it had been sitting on the counter for a few days in the sun. The lobster was $25 and consisted of three small samples that were way overcooked. The beef was so chewy that I ended up leaving most of my food uneaten. When we got our bill, we were shocked to see that it was $83. I had to do a double take. Two nights earlier, my wife and I had two margaritas each, and a great dinner at Fah (in Playa) for $27. I called the waitress over to have her explain when we were charged $12 EACH for the house margaritas that we ordered and why there was a $20 service fee added to our bill. She went off on some sort of rant about the margaritas and kept asking if we 'd like to see the menu, etc. After realizing I wasn 't going to win the argument, we agreed to pay $75 and left. Please DO NOT eat at this restaurant no matter who sends you to this place. Remember, there are 295 other places ranked better than this one. Don 't be stupid like we were.