WalkAbout: Merkadito Del Mar. Puerto Morelos Mexico

This past weekend, Kit and I took a quickie vacation to Mexico. We stayed in one of those all-inclusive type hotels, which for drinks… (hello pina colada’s), was great. But for food… it left a lot to be desired.
I had read that the little town closest to us was a fishing village called Puerto Morelos.
I found a bunch of blogs and reviews about little seafood spots and I knew we had to make our way down there.
On our last day, we got a $9 cab down to the Puerto Morelos dock and walked around looking for a couple of restaurant names that I had on my list. Instead, we stumbled upon a beautiful little spot right on the water called Merkadito Del Mar.
The entrance from the street takes you through their kitchen and small bar area to their two level back terrace, overlooking the ocean.

The views were spectacular and almost immediately we were presented with about 4-5 different bottles of salsas/ sauces and a brown bag of Tortilla chips.

The sauces ranged from creamy and almost mayonnaise like to spicy/hot and oil based. We watched as locals and other diners took chips and mixed and matched their sauces straight on top for a perfect little bite.
For our food, we ordered three things to share and downed a few cerveza’s while we were at it….

The Tostada loaded with fresh shrimp aguachile with avocado, shredded cucumber and neon pickled onions.

The shrimp were so fresh and had a wonderful sweet and delicate flavor…. And then came the POW from the serranos. Hello…. Well I guess what this mayo sauce is for!

Next up was the Ceviche Mixto with pulpo (octopus), shrimp and white fish. With shredded cucumber, avocado, red onion & cilantro.

The octopus was so so tender. If I could eat this dish over and over again, I would be so happy. Super fresh, perfect balance of acidity from the lime & chili.

Lastly a Taco Pescado with cabbage, creamy chipotle sauce & poppy seeds.

There is something about eating a fish taco, actually being in Mexico and by the ocean that just made this little morsel perfect.
The service was great, everyone was patient with my limited Spanish and one of the owners even called our cab driver from his cell phone to tell him we would not be leaving. We couldn’t resist staying for sunset and ended up walking the 45 mins back along the back to our hotel.