Inspired by the gastronomy of her home state of Puebla, chef Claudia Perez Rivas prepares moles and other regional dishes in an older style of Mexican haute cuisine that’s a rare treat these days. Her seasonal Pueblan classic, chiles en nogada, is perfectly balanced between savory meat, fruity picadillo, roasted poblano, and silky white walnut sauce. Local fish is plated similarly, but with a white mole thickened by almonds, and Perez prepares several moles with rolled chicken breast stuffed with local chaya as well. Enjoy all of it surrounded by the Mexican folk art that covers the white adobe walls, and be sure to get some of the signature mole pastes to take back home.

Add a stop to visit Doña Paty on your Tulum taco crawl for her tacos de guisados, Mexican stews ladled into fresh corn tortillas. The guisados change from day to day, but Doña Paty usually offers around 10 classics, like chicken meatball in salsa, ham and cheese croquettes, dark and smoky pork ribs in chile morita, chile strips and melted cheese, and chiles rellenos. And say yes when she asks if you want rice on the taco; it helps keep all the savory juices on the tortilla. Doña Paty also serves breakfasts like chilaquiles, huevos a la mexicana, and even fluffy pancakes.

Update: July 19, 2023: Doña Paty has closed.

Among the street vendors on Avenida Satélite, look for a bright yellow banner, tan beach umbrella, and pair of bamboo tiki bars that serve as a taco stand. That’s where you’ll find the perfect midmorning snack: tacos de canasta (steamed tacos) filled with scrambled eggs with the spinachlike chaya, red mole with chicken, or chicharron prensado (intense pork marinated in adobo). As they steam, the tortillas absorb the flavors and colors of the fillings until they give off a sweaty, oily glow. Order five and a fresh squeezed juice to fuel up for shopping in downtown Tulum.

In a modest space, given a local flair with dark stained wooden furnishings under Tulum’s conical pendant lights, chefs Carolina Noya and Alonso Lara are doing amazing things with heirloom corn. Vibrant red, yellow, and blue corn tortillas made from 100 percent nixtamalized corn are filled with pork ribs or huitlacoche, served on artisanal ceramic plates alongside clay bowls of intense green and red salsa. Large multicolored quesadillas come with pungent epazote (using an Indigenous recipe from southern Mexico) or huitlacoche, while plump tamales come drowned in rich tomato or chile poblano sauce. The restaurant also features quesabirria, found here with adobo-dipped heirloom corn tortillas, blackened on a comal, and served on a broken clay plate.

This trendy street stand became Tulum’s destination taqueria and a viral sensation during chef Rene Redzepi’s residency at Noma Mexico in 2017, when visiting foodies from the U.S. spilled over into Taqueria Honorio, filling Instagram with mouthwatering posts of Yucatán-style tortas de lechón (suckling pig), tacos de cochinita pibil (roasted marinated pork), and relleno negro de pavo (marinated turkey). These dishes offer a masterclass in recaudos of Maya cuisine: the acidic recaudo rojo on the cochinita pibil, the charred and smoky recaudo negro for the relleno negro, and the all-purpose spice blend, or recaudo blanco, that scents the slow roasted suckling pig. Join the crowd at this trendy street food stand and snack on the essential flavors and colors of the Yucatán.

Don’t let the name fool you. La Chiapaneca (the Chiapan) specializes in Yucatán-style tacos de al pastor and antojitos like panuchos (bean and meat-filled tortillas) and salbutes, a slightly puffed fried tortilla topped with chicken in recaudo rojo and vegetables. Try the gringa, which consists of al pastor with melted cheese in a flour tortilla. Like so many taquerias in town, there are vegetarian options too.

With delicious gelato, high-quality coffee made with beans from Veracruz, and waffles, Tulum’s most inviting cafe is a crowd favorite any time of day. There’s a juice bar and paninis for lunch, double espresso to pick you up in the afternoon before another fun-filled evening of food and drink, and sweet gelato to end an evening after dinner and a stroll. With seasonal flavors like Argentine caramel, lemon pie with toasted coconut, and Sicilian pistachio, there’s something for every palate, and it’s all better as an affogato.

Grab a seat in the enchanting backyard garden of this downtown bar for a serious dive into the universe of Mexican spirits: mezcal, raicilla, sotol made from dasylirion wheeleri, and pox, a Mayan corn distillate from Chiapas. The menu has plenty of tacos, ceviches, and botanas to nosh on, while you sip refreshing agave cocktails, like one that combines pox and licor de damiana (or a bright, tangy gin tonic, if you prefer). Be sure to try a flight of mezcal or, better yet, multiple Mexican spirits.

Dining exclusively at restaurants with international influences and chefs can make you forget you’re in Mexico. A trip to the Mercado de Tulum will reorient you around local gastronomy, especially if you stop by the Rincon de Jade stall, where Keily Medina serves regional specialities like albondigas paired with fideos. Check out the chirmole de pollo (relleno negro), a dark stew blackened by recaudo negro with chicken and a hard boiled egg, or the frijol con puerco, a rich pork and bean stew full of epazote that’s best eaten with a raw habanero as a chaser to each bite. Then there’s the Sunday morning mondongo, the best hangover cure in town. Imagine a slow cooked menudo full of stomach, tripe, and other offal that’s soaked in Seville orange juice, then stained dark red by recaudo rojo (red achiote paste). If the mondongo doesn’t cure you, the raw habanero that comes on the side will make you forget all about your headache.

In 2019, cooks Alejandro Hernandez and Francisca “Panchita” Caamal — who prepare Yucatán cuisine as well as some regional Mexican cuisines from other states — opened this stall outside the Mercado Publico Ca’axihil offering ornate, high-end chilaquiles and enfrijoladas dressed in artful, wavy strips of cream. The breakfasts are among the best in town, but locals line up for the lunch buffet that goes for 90 pesos (about $4.90), which consists of eight clay pots filled with hearty stews such as chicharrón en salsa roja, picadillo, and costillas en salsa verde with rice and beans. On the rotating menu of the day, you’ll find Yucateco classics like pollo en chimole and costilla en adobo, plus recipes from other regions, like a slurpable, spicy churipo (beef stew) from Michoacán.

This open wood-fired kitchen dramatically set in the jungle was founded in 2015 by Portuguese chef Inacio Lamas after a decade of introspection. Small bites include the Ceviche KT, a wreath of raw fish, watermelon radish wedges, thin rings of chile serrano, and delicate ribbons of purple onion encircling a cenote-like pool of leche de tigre. There are also larger options, such as a tender braised pork belly with an earthy green pipian. Menus change depending on seasons and availability, with many dishes being “veganizable.”

The vibe is the allure at this swank jungle getaway with an old-world feel that merges 17th century Mexican architecture, candlelit dinners, and overgrown palm trees and vines. The food is a blend of Mediterranean mezze, Mexican American tacos, and appetizers like quesadillas cut into acute triangles like the ones at American chain restaurants. Order a smoky, citrusy Gitano Swizzle or any of the delicious tropical mezcal cocktails, and snack away in this irresistibly hip setting.

If a clubby rainforest patio sounds like your kind of scene, head to Rosanegra, a wealthy playpen billed as a tribute to Latin America (that’s such a hit with Chilangos that they opened one in Mexico City’s upscale Polanco neighborhood). Soft light emanates from hanging bamboo coche lampshades, as beautiful patrons wave sparklers and dine on ceviche served in terrariums, A5 wagyu tacos with excessively sauce-dotted plates, and giant churro hoops shooting out of martini glasses. Order the millionaire, a surf-and-turf combo of a Hyogo Prefecture 8-ounce New York Kobe cut, paired with lobster tail imported from the Mediterranean or a Nigerian U2 Tiger Shrimp. If you’ve booked a Sea Villa at Azulik, you can afford this.

With its campsite kitchen and cozy, evening-picnic atmosphere, Arca should be at the top of your list for its artful, microseasonal cuisine, complete with ingredients that taste as if they were picked just beyond the fan palms surrounding the outdoor space. It’s the flagship restaurant of Mexican-American chef Jose Luis Hinostroza, whose resume includes Alinea, El Celler de Can Roca, De Kromme Watergang, and Noma. Crispy, spinach-like chaya enhances the grassy flavors of grilled avocado and buffets soft-shell crab in amaranth tempura. Don’t miss Hinostroza’s grilled octopus in recaudo negro marinade, which has become part of the Tulum canon.

Fashionable, modern Mexican fine dining is alive and well at Bal Nak, a lush outdoor restaurant where you feel like you’re at a backyard party in the jungle. Just look at the ceramic plates of almond mole served with duck breast, sweet and smoky mole of Oaxacan chilhuacle chilies paired with roast suckling pig and an hoja santa tamal, and chargrilled watermelon aguachile in a spicy guava sauce. Whatever you get, start with grilled chocolata clams and a beetroot cocktail.

This luxury steakhouse and raw bar by Grupo Anderson’s sources seafood and steaks internationally. Oysters arrive from the American East Coast, crab legs from Alaska, Kobe rib-eyes from Hyogo Prefecture, and corn-fed tomahawks from the American Midwest. Enjoy fresh Caribbean lobster tails and USDA prime cuts, braised in intense smoke from the restaurant’s Josper coal oven, and sip on refreshing mezcal and tequila cocktails on the stylish wooden deck.

Mexicali-born chef Luis Aguilar is cooking sustainably with fruits and vegetables from fair-trade farm Mestiza de Indias, fish and prawns from a local fisherman, and local meats and poultry from La Tiendita in Playa del Carmen. The result is a modern Caribbean menu at this romantic candlelit restaurant shrouded in greenery. Order a glass of Mexican wine from the Valle de Guadalupe to enjoy with a tart, nuanced fish crudo with shaved apple in a vivid green pool of citrus leaves and tomatillo. Or start with the wood-fired Campeche prawns in a spicy Tajín bearnaise. The marriage of Caribbean Sea and Mayan jungle sets the tone for main dishes like the roasted catch of the day, served atop creamed cassava in a pool of salsa of dried chilies, garnished with fried cassava strips.