Há - A Michelin Restaurant in Playa Del Carmen

 

The super romantic, adult-only, one star Michelin restaurant, Há, located on the grounds of Xcaret Mexico resort, is a great dining option for special occasions. The restaurant is by tasting menu and reservation only, and open to public. It is not part of the all-inclusive package, and cost roughly $200/person, including wine pairing. When booking through the resort, we were required to prepay, but if you reserve it through the Opentable link, there's no payment of any kind required. When we were there, I noticed everyone had the resort bracelet on. Há is headlined by famous Mexican chef, Carlos Gaytan, who competed in the 2013 season of Top Chef. Carlos is the first Mexican chef to receive a Michelin star. Don't expect to see Carlos at this restaurant though - I think he lives in Chicago and only goes to the restaurant seasonally, mostly when it's time to change the menu.

Although Carlos isn't there in person, he did pre-write these cards to give each patron.

I think Há means water in the Mayan language, so there's a lot of water decor in the restaurant, which makes it very unique and pretty. 

The restaurant wasn't crowded at all, which was a little surprising, since they couldn't give us the first date we requested, citing it was full. The service was impeccable. Our tasting menu was 9 courses long, each paired with a unique Mexican wine. 

Amuse Bouche

There were 3 Amuse Bouche dishes, all of which were fun and delicious. The first two, we were instructed to eat them in one bite, the last one had some Osetra caviar and sherbet, and we were instructed to have some caviar in each bite with the sherbet. 

Course 1: Wagyu A5

Roasted Avocado, Homemade Jocoque, Quelites Oil and Hoja Santa. I loved the combination of edible greens with almost raw wagyu. Not bad way to start.

Course 2: "Escamoles Tetela"

Escamol is the edible larvae of ants. Tetela is an area in Mexico. This dish is beautifully presented, and filled with ant eggs, root beer leaf, fava beans puree, avocado mousse, and pickled grapes. This was good, but I wish it was warmer. It had cooled a bit so it didn't have the crunchiness I was looking for.

Course 3: "Mayan Ceviche"

Notice the name of this course and the last course has quotation marks on them? I think last one has quotation marks because "escamoles" has the nickname of "Mexican caviar", because it tastes a bit like caviar and has the texture similar to caviar, but it's actually ant larva. This course, Mayan ceviche, is made with scallop, dragon fruit, cucumber, jicama, aguachile Annatto, mango-habanero pepper gelee, and crispy plantain. I'm guessing it has quotation marks because unlike most ceviche, there is no lemon or lime in this. This was very good and presented beautifully. 

Course 4: Totoaba

Totoaba is a fish that is highly prized for its flavor. Totoaba is considered a rare fish because it has been banned from fishing in Mexico since 1975, due to the fact it's endangered. It has a unique flavor, almost didn't even taste like fish, but it's delicious. Inside this totoaba dish, there is roasted leek, pearl avocado relish, and saffron-habanero pepper Beurre Blanc. Those black dots in the Beurre Blanc sauce are caviar. 

Course 5: Beignet

This was not a sweet beignet. It was a savory beignet with truffle, shitake mushrooms, smoked onion crisp, and mint leaves. This was delicious. Unfortunately I'm already getting a little stuffed at this point.

Course 6: Aged Duck

I'm a deep believer that all Michelin inspectors love beets. I don't think I've ever seen beets so much in regular restaurants, but they seem to be present in almost all Michelin restaurants. Anyways, this was a dish with shredded beets made into like a fruit leather texture, with some maple syrup puree, the duck is coated in pecans and coriander seed. I didn't really care for the pink mole sauce.

Course 7: Filet Mignon

A delicious filet mignon that came with russet Mille Feuille, ikura, black garlic jus, and celery puree. Unfortunately I was getting so stuffed at this point I couldn't finish.

Course 8: From Heaven

Thank God we are in the dessert courses. This tasted HEAVENLY. This had osmotized cucumber, popcorn, and "yucateca" lime sorbet. Everything came together perfectly.

Course 9: Amaretto

This delicious dessert course had amaretto ice cream, spices biscuit, vanilla toffee, and coffee. It was paired with Casa Dragones anejo tequila, arguably the best tequila in the world (and Oprah's favorite tequila). The sommelier took his time to explain to us what Casa Dragones tequila was, perhaps in fear that we wouldn't finish it. 

Extras

A delicious chocolate cake with edible gold flakes.

Some mini dessert bites (mignardise) to round out the meal. 

Conclusion

Honestly this meal exceeded my expectations. The service was impeccable, intuitive, and anticipatory. The restaurant was beautiful. All of the people were sat far apart so there was a feeling of privacy and exclusivity. I only wish I hadn't been advised that there wasn't enough food - both of us didn't come starving, and were absolutely struggling by the duck dish. I want to come back and stay at La Casa de las Playa so I could come and eat at this restaurant every night, as it's included in the pricing of that resort. Chef Carlos Gaytan is a true legend when it comes to food.