Unless you travel here in a vacuum, you will be advised many times over to dine at Hartwood Tulum. The line to get in can hover around two hours long. If you didn’t know better, you would show up, scoff at the crowd and go elsewhere. My advice: Don’t. Instead, go early. Hartwood Tulum has no electrical appliances besides a single blender — almost all the food is mashed and blended by hand or thrown on the grill or in the wood-burning oven. That means the expat chef Eric Werner’s roasted whole fish with onions and herbs one evening; grilled octopus with roasted potatoes, chile and Mexican mustard greens the next. The dining area is as open-air as the kitchen, with citronella lanterns providing light and ambience. (Dinner for two without drinks is about 600 Mexican pesos, or about $45, at 13 pesos to the dollar.)
Unless you travel here in a vacuum, you will be advised many times over to dine at Hartwood Tulum. The line to get in can hover around two hours long. If you didn’t know better, you would show up, scoff at the crowd and go elsewhere. My advice: Don’t. Instead, go early. Hartwood Tulum has no electrical appliances besides a single blender — almost all the food is mashed and blended by hand or thrown on the grill or in the wood-burning oven. That means the expat chef Eric Werner’s roasted whole fish with onions and herbs one evening; grilled octopus with roasted potatoes, chile and Mexican mustard greens the next. The dining area is as open-air as the kitchen, with citronella lanterns providing light and ambience. (Dinner for two without drinks is about 600 Mexican pesos, or about $45, at 13 pesos to the dollar.)