BEST FOOD TOUR CANCUN: EATING WITH CARMEN.
As we explore the Yucatan Peninsula, we have found ourselves in Cancun to kick off our itinerary. We started our adventures in the best way that we know how, with a food tour. If you’re looking for a food tour in Cancun, look no further, Eating with Carmen is an excellent way to explore the city one culinary hot spot at a time.
Read on to find our review of the best food tour in Cancun.
Don’t have time to read the full post?
Wait, isn’t Cancun just full of five star hotels? Why visit Cancun for a food tour?
While Cancun is renowned for its luxurious 5-star resorts and hotels that line the stunning coastline, it is not exclusively comprised of high-end accommodations. Cancun caters to a diverse range of travelers, and you’ll find a variety of lodging options to suit different budgets and preferences, including luxury hostels.
Away from the beach and hotel zone, Cancun offers an interesting down town area, where there are markets, cafes and restaurants to explore. This is where we found the Eating with Carmen food tour Cancun.
Why take a food tour in Cancun?
Cancun is known for its beautiful beaches, but there’s so much more to this region than meets the eye. A food tour is a unique and enriching way to discover the diverse flavors, spices, and cooking techniques that make up Cancun’s vibrant culinary scene. Here are seven reasons why a food tour is a must-do experience in Cancun.
Culinary Diversity
Cancun is a food lover’s paradise, with a wide range of Mexican and international cuisines to explore. A food tour will take you on a culinary journey, sampling dishes from street food stands to restaurants, showcasing the unique and diverse flavors that make up the region’s gastronomic landscape.
Authentic Mexican Cuisine
Beyond the familiar Tex-Mex offerings, a food tour exposes you to the heart of authentic Mexican cuisine. You’ll savor local specialties such as cochinita pibil, providing a genuine taste of the flavors deeply rooted in Mexican culture.
Hidden Gems and Local Favourites
Local food tours go beyond the typical tourist spots, venturing into hidden gems and neighborhood eateries favored by locals. These are the places where you’ll discover the authentic and immersive flavors of Cancun’s culinary scene. This is one of the reasons that we love taking food tours when we travel.
Cultural Insights
Food is an integral part of any culture, and a food tour is a window into the traditions, history, and stories that shape the local way of life. Your guide can offer insights into the origins of dishes, the significance of certain ingredients, and the cultural rituals associated with Mexican cuisine.
Learning Experience
Food tours are not just about tasting delicious dishes; they often include interactive elements such as cooking demonstrations, market visits, and opportunities to engage with local chefs. This hands-on experience allows you to gain a deeper understanding of the culinary processes and ingredients used in traditional Mexican cooking.
Cancun beyond the beaches
While Cancun is renowned for its beautiful beaches, a food tour offers a chance to explore the city’s vibrant neighborhoods and markets. You’ll venture into areas that showcase the local way of life, providing a more comprehensive and authentic perspective of Cancun beyond the resort areas.
Social Connection
Sharing a meal has a universal appeal, and a food tour provides an opportunity to connect with fellow travelers, locals, and guides over a shared love for food.
This social aspect enhances the overall experience, creating lasting memories and connections. One thing that we loved on our tour with Eating with Carmen is that the wonderful guide ate with us, making it much more of a shared experience.
Eating with Carmen, the best food tour Cancun
The Eating with Carmen tour we took included seven indulgent stops and lasted for around three hours. We weaved through downtown Cancun, stopping only for food and refreshment at the best and most renowned places for each dish.
Until today, my main knowledge of Mexican food came from the book ‘One Day’ (my favourite novel).
A tortilla is either corn or wheat. But a corn tortilla folded and filled is a taco, whereas a filled wheat tortilla is a burrito. Deep fry a burrito, it’s a chimichanga. Toast a tortilla, it’s a tostada. Roll it, it’s an enchilada.
Emma Morley, One Day (written by David Nicholls.)
Thankfully, post-tour, we are now far more advanced than this and now know the difference between a Cochinta, Gordita and even Carnita.
We took the tour in December 2023, on an otherwise rainy and slightly unseasonable grey day in Cancun. Against the backdrop of waiters in Santa hats, we felt particularly festive during our tour. And much like the main man himself, we were stuffed to the gills by the end of of the tour. It felt surprisingly like a traditional British Christmas, but a bit more tropical.
Our tour guide was a real treat. A young Mexican man, who spoke fluent English and entertained us with clever conversation and tidbits of knowledge over the course of the afternoon.
He passed on many travel tips and left us wishing we had more time to explore Mexico. The tour was small, just two of us for the day, a private tour with our own dedicated and energetic guide.
So the food – here’s what we ate on our terrific food tour of Cancun with Eating with Carmen.
Food tour Cancun – the best bits
COCHINITA
Cochinita Pibil is a dish famous in this area of Mexico. So much so that I had seen Eva Longoria eating it on her recent food show “Searching for Mexico.”. I was delighted that this would be our first dish to try on our Cancun food tour.
Cochinita is a pork dish which is slow cooked in the ground – this is the traditional method that goes back many years in Mexico. Today it is slow cooked in the oven which mimics the method. The result is delicate and juicy pieces of pork meat, served on a taco. I smothered mine in fresh salsa and sauce before trying to channel my inner Eva Longoria and eat it delicately.
RELLENO NEGRO
This was closely followed by a Relleno Negro taco. This dish is a famous Yucatan specialty that is often served at weddings or at special events. The tender meat is cooked with recado negro, a blackened sauce that includes jabanero chili. Boiled eggs are placed artfully on top. The result, savory and delicious. It’s not often that one gets to eat black food, but it really was a treat. Especially when covered with fresh onion, herbs and spices.
AGUA FRESCA
Next, we were offered a soft drink, agua fresca to be exact. This is a really popular drink in Mexico, a water based drink infused with fruit. It’s normally served ice cold in a large glass and is extremely refreshing. Our waiter reeled off the flavours to us, which our guide helpfully translated. It all sounded delicious – peach, hibiscus and many other flavours. We both went for a lime and cucumber agua fresca – delicious and the perfect anecdote to our long flight the day before.
CARNITAS
Carnitas means “little meats.” It’s a special pork dish that tastes a little like pulled pork, but with more Mexican flavour. The secret ingredient in Carnitas is orange juice – this gives the meat a sweet undertone and balances the richness of the dish.
When it came to trying Carnitas, we were whisked to the most renowned place in Cancun for this dish. Our guide offered us two options – Maciza meaning clean and lean meat, or Surtida, which from what I gather is the dirty version. If you go for Surtida, it comes with all bits of the pig and is much much greasier (read – more delicious!)
GORDITAS
Next, was the somewhat ironically named “Gorditas”, meaning “little fat ones.” A fat one, was how I’d started to feel by this point of the tour. Our guide had told us that his mission was for us to “roll home” after the tour – he seemed to be succeeding in this mission already and we still had two more stops to go.
A Gordita, we were told, is a Mexican corn cake with filling, much like a taco or a quesadilla, but it is additionally fried. There were at least 10 fillings to choose from. We went for one Cactus filled Gordita (when in Mexico and all that) and one with chicken (pollo) cooked in a spicy Jabanero sauce. The Cactus was fresh and tasty, the texture a little like Okra.
The chicken needed even more spice (we thought), so we covered it with the “muy picante” green sauce from the table. We haven’t quite learned how much salsa and sauce to dowse our tacos in just yet, or exactly how spicy “muy picante” really is. Suffice to say, we misjudged this one. Lesson learned.
PESCADO
When two large pieces of fried white fish arrived on our table, I thought it was too much. Then, another two arrived and were placed in front of me. No chance of going hungry on this food tour! I thought I couldn’t eat it, but one bite of the lightly, delicately battered fish, a little artful dollop of chili sauce and I knew I would polish off the lot.
Our guide told us that he would visit this very restaurant regularly as a child with his family, which gave me even more faith in this food tour. We weren’t being whizzed around rip off restaurants, these actually were the places that real Mexicans visited. Huzzah.
POPSICLE
Our last stop was for an ice cold popsicle, I was relieved to find out it was this and not something more substantial. Plus an ice-cold treat is the perfect anecdote to our aforementioned spice issue.
We were greeted by freezers full of colourful iced treats – the choice of a milk based or water based, plus oodles of flavours. John opted for a milk chocolate delight, whilst I took a beeline for a watermelon (Sandia in Spanish) cooler. We strolled back to our hotel arm in arm, enjoying our popsicles talking about how much we wish we were in our 20s again and could come and live in Mexico to eat tacos every day.
Overall, we had a truly marvelous day on this food tour in Cancun. It was an excellent way to take a crash course in the local cuisine, armed with a bit more knowledge, we won’t be quite so daunted by the menus we encounter for the rest of our trip. Plus, we will be far less likely to wander into any tourist trap restaurants – local food, I’m here for it!
I don’t want to spoil the adventure for you, so I haven’t named the exact places you’ll visit on this tour – if you want to find out, then book with Eating with Carmen food tours today.
Alternative food tours in Cancun
In the interest of balance, we must acknowledge that there are other food tours in Cancun aside from Eating with Carmen. Personally, we had such a great day on the tour that we took that we would wholeheartedly recommend it every time.
A NIGHT MARKET FOOD TOUR CANCUN – whilst the tour that we did was alcohol free and during the day, there is a night market tour in Cancun which includes a fair few local beers. Find the link to book via Viator here.
FOOD TOUR WITH MEXICAN WRESTLING – This tour promises a very fun night out indeed, tacos, margaritas and Lucha Libre (Mexican wrestling). Luckily, the food is guaranteed and you don’t have to fight in the ring for it.
COOKING CLASS CANCUN – If you want something a little different to a food tour, a cooking class in Cancun is a great option. First you’ll visit the market to buy fresh ingredients and then you’ll be put through your paces to cook a four course Mexican meal.
Where to next in the Yucatan?
- Cancun – beaches & food
- Tulum – beaches, yoga and nightlife
- Holbox – island paradise
- Bacalar – paddle boarding and relaxing
- Celestun – flamingos & laid back beach
- Progreso – fun beach town
- Sian Ka’an – nature reserve
- Merida – gastronomic city & culture
- Campeche – glamorous historical city
- Valladolid – history & culture
Written by Emma
Wine Lover. Yogi. Hiker. Writer.
Our experience with Eating with Carmen was gifted, all opinions are our own.
Join our subscriber list for new posts with awesome travel tips. Don’t miss them!
Subscribe below to our newsletter for tips, thru hiking, adventures and insights to places unseen.
Yucatan at Christmas: what to expect
YUCATAN AT CHRISTMAS: WHAT TO EXPECT. Every year, we love getting away at Christmas. Ideally to visit somewhere hot, exotic and totally different to home. We spent Christmas in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula and it was, in the best possible way, unlike any Christmas we’d known before. There’s something quite magical about being in a tropical…
17 unique things to do in Merida, Mexico
17 BEST THINGS TO DO IN MERIDA MEXICO: A CITY GUIDE. Merida, the capital of the Yucatan state is a thriving and bustling Mexican city. As an inland city, often it is overlooked with travellers choosing to visit Cancun and other seaside resorts. However, it has a lot to offer the keen traveller – especially…
Why Bacalar Should Be Your Next Travel Destination
IS BACALAR WORTH VISITING? HERE’S WHY WE THINK IT SHOULD BE YOUR NEXT TRAVEL DESTINATION. Bacalar, a town in the South of Mexico, a stone’s throw away from the Belize border is a really rather splendid place. So much so, that the Mexican tourist board recently designated it “pueblos magicos”, literally a magical town. Bacalar…
Most of our planning is done using other blogs, but you can’t beat a guide book at the bottom of your case. Click yours below to find on Amazon here and get the travelling started!
USEFUL LINKS FOR FLIGHTS, ACCOMMODATION AND TRANSPORT
CHECK LATEST FLIGHTS
ACTIVITIES TO CONSIDER
FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Please note that some links on our website are partnered with affiliates. Using an affiliate links does not make it more expensive for you to purchase. We receive a small commission whenever you buy something which in turn allows us to keep writing independent travel guides and your support is greatly appreciated.