Recommended Tacos and cheap eats in Playa del Carmen

Asadero el Pollo Estillo Sinaloa – Serves one of the best roasted chicken.  Eat in or take out. Located on 20^th at 2^nd Street, and a new location on 30^th Avenida and the CTM (46^th Street).  Closes early, often before 5:00.

Chicharroneria y Carnitas Teresita – Maybe it should be called Little Terry’s Pork Place.  It is located on Calle 1 SUR between 20^th and 25^th  This little hole-in-the-wall has a few tables and sells meat by the kilo to go.  It has chicharrones (fried pork skin), kastakan (fried pork skin and meat), buche (fried pig stomach) and maciza (lean soft pork meat) and more.

Chicharon –Not more than a hole-in-the-wall, this tiny shop on the CTM (Calle 46)  between Avenida 30 and 25.  It is simply a nice lady who makes only chicharones and Kastakan, both of which will stop your heart, but it just might be worth it.  Cheap, filling and definitely not something you will tell your doctor about when you go home.

Food Carts at the Zocalo – Previously located on 5^th Avenue and 2^nd by the park across from the bus station they have been moved to Juarez and 15^th Avenue Another affront by the bureaucrats mostly interested in making their own jobs easier.  These carts are there in the morning and leave when they are sold out, usually before 11:00 A.M.  Tacos and sandwiches (tortas) of pork, chicken, beef and shrimp, with great hot sauces.  Go to the cart with the biggest crowd, telling you which is the best.  Great breakfast for $2 to $3.  And do not forget the fresh squeezed orange juice cart to wash them down.  This is not to be missed.   New visitors might shy away from this street food, but I have never heard of anyone getting ill from eating there and it is one of Playa’s best food experiences. 

  El Jurado (Mixiotes y Huaraches) – Across from the Mega on Constitutiones, and next door to the new branch of El Fogon, El Jurado is best spotted from their orange awning noting “Mixiotes y Huaraches”.  Serves excellent huaraches, which is a thick tortilla, about a foot long and 5” wide, served open with a choice of toppings, usually cheese and meat.  An excellent and inexpensive meal.

La Floresta – On the highway by the electric station (before Ave. Juarez), this open air local place is now open through the evening. Fantastic tacos of shrimp

and fish are the mainstay, but ceviche and fish cocktails are also popular!  For 15 pesos each you get fresh seafood and awesome hot sauce.  Wash it down with a cerveza and head for the beach.  They now serve arrachera in the evenings, after 6 P.M. as well as their sea food.

La Portena – A hole-in-the-wall on Calle 38, just east of 10^th Avenida , this Argentine mom-and-pop place has only 4 tables under a palapa.  Very inexpensive, but good empanadas and Argentinian arrachera.  Not fancy, but real good food.  Try the Argentine sausage choripan for the best hot dog you ever ate for 45 pesos!

Pozoleria Mi Abuelita – This small and friendly pozole house has a small menu but specializes in pork and chicken pozole, which is quite tasty.  It is accompanied by a three-tiered plate of chips and chiles and additions, and for $50 Pesos, is a very good bargain.  Located on Avenida 30 between 20^th and 22^nd.