Hyatt Ziva Riviera Cancun – Restaurants Review

When staying at an all-inclusive resort, good restaurant options are a must. This is a review of the Hyatt Ziva Riviera Cancun restaurants. While some all-inclusive resorts skimp on the food quality in an effort to cut costs, the Hyatt all-inclusive brands don’t fall into this category. I have stayed at three different Hyatt all-inclusive resorts over the years (with the most recent one being Hyatt Ziva Cap Cana). All of these provide an upscale dining experience with plenty of choices and excellent food quality. The Hyatt Ziva Riviera Cancun restaurants are no different.

One overall note before I get too far into the review. I visited the restaurants the second week of October in 2021. At this point, the resort had only been open for three weeks. As with all new openings, you expect some hiccups in service and employees who are still in training. I had a few of those hiccups occur where I didn’t get some food I ordered, the service was slow, or the wrong food/drink was brought to the table. In most instances, they sorted out. I fully expect these issues to reduce in time as the staff becomes more accustomed to the resort and gets more experienced. Keep this newness in mind when reading the issues noted in the review below.

Lastly, before we get into the review due to the pandemic all menus were online via QR codes. This also means that the menus are accessible from the internet. A link to the menus is provided here. I don’t know how long this will stay up when restaurants go back to normal after the pandemic, but hopefully, it will be helpful for a little while.

Without further ado, the Hyatt Ziva Riviera Cancun restaurants and my review of them are as follows:

Ki

Ki is the Mexican restaurant at dinner time on the property. It is described by the Hyatt Ziva Riviera Cancun as Mexican cuisine with a modern concept. The restaurant is located on the east side of the ground floor in the main lobby building. The décor is traditional Mexican (not Mexican that you might find in the United States). The restaurant relies heavily on the architecture for the ambiance, and the walls and other décor are somewhat plain.

Ki Review

This was the first dinner that we had upon arriving at the Hyatt Ziva Riviera Cancun. As a starter, I had sea bass ceviche which was excellent and very refreshing. My wife had the citrus salad which she reported was equally good. For the mains, we had cochintia pibil (a traditional Yucatan pork belly dish) and beef tenderloin in oaxaca mole sauce. Both of these were cooked appropriately and had delicious sauces and spices. Finally, we wrapped up dinner with churros and jericalla (a traditional local dessert similar to a thin flan). All in all, I have no complaints about the food quality.

The only downside to the restaurant experience was the service. During our visit, the service was slow. We often waited 20 minutes between courses of food, and the entire dining experience took about two hours. In addition to the slow pace, the staff forgot a few of the items we ordered. Despite ordering a poblano pepper soup, the course never arrived. I also ordered a mezcal old fashioned that came to the table as some kind of sweet cucumber drink. The servers were nice, but they seemed understaffed. We did travel to this resort in October 2021 (shortly after it opened and on the tail end of the COVID-19 pandemic). Hopefully, the service will improve with time.

Hours

• Dinner: 6:00 PM – 11:00 PM

Dress Code

Smart Casual

Menu

Afthonia

Afthonia is a Mediterranean-cuisine restaurant located in the Hyatt Ziva Riviera Cancun. It is also open for breakfast and was the main breakfast buffet for the resort during this time.

The breakfast buffet is quite a spread. It includes the American breakfast standbys like waffles, pancakes, French toast, omelets, and eggs. It also includes several Mexican breakfast items such as fried ham, Mexican beans and sausage, baked tomatoes and cheese, and grilled salmon. The Mexican selections rotate regularly. In addition, an entire buffet station prepared freshly made crepes. Lastly, there are spreads, breads, pastries, fruits, juices, yogurts/muesli, and meats/cheeses. No matter what you enjoy for breakfast you will be able to find it here among the spread. If you would also like an alcoholic beverage with your breakfast, a drink cart makes its rounds through the restaurant pouring champagne, mimosas, screwdrivers, and bloody marys.

Afthonia Review

Breakfast was well done. The buffet was spread out so that you could easily move through it to get what you wanted. I didn’t notice any empty food dishes as they were on top of replenishing everything. Alcoholic drinks did take a little while to get since there was only one beverage cart making its rounds of the restaurant. However, the regular drinks (coffee, tea, water, orange juice, etc…) were filled quickly. As a buffet, there isn’t as much service here as a sit-down restaurant, but all in all, it was done well.

Afthonia is also listed as a lunch and dinner restaurant on the hotel information that they provided at check-in. However, during my visit, it was not open at either of these times of the day so I am unable to provide a review of those mealtimes. I assume when the resort is more full as travel resumes post-COVID that this restaurant will open for lunch and dinner.

Hours

• Breakfast: 7:00 AM – 11:30 AM
• Lunch: 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM
• Dinner: 6:00 PM – 11:00 PM

Dress Code

Smart Casual

Menu

Miyako

Miyako is the Japanese and Asian cuisine restaurant at Hyatt Ziva Riviera Cancun. This restaurant is only open for dinner. It is located in the center of the first floor of the lobby (directly opposite Illusions Bar). Miyako provides two seating options: Teppanyaki or traditional. Teppanyaki is the Japanese-style show cooking where everyone is seated around a big grill and your food is cooked in front of you. Miyako tends to be one of the most popular restaurants. Be prepared to put your name on a list to dine here when the resort is at capacity.

Miyako Review

As we visited on the tail end of the pandemic, the resort was not seating the Teppanyaki tables. The show cooking is always a fun activity, so it was a shame that we were unable to experience it. Therefore, we ordered off the regular menu, which has a wide selection of items available. First off, there was a good selection of cocktails available. My wife and I particularly enjoyed a cocktail they named Dokora – a mix of whiskey, mint, and kiwi.

For food, each of us started with sushi/maki rolls. Between the two of us, we got an Alaskan fire roll, a spicy tuna roll, and a mango California roll. Each of the rolls came with 4 pieces and were well prepared. Next, each of us ordered mixed yakimeshi. This is a mix of fried rice, beef, shrimp, chicken, and vegetables. You would get served something very similar if you were doing the Teppanyaki tables. Again, the food was well prepared and seasoned. Finally, my wife wrapped up with the tempura lychee ice cream. This is the only dish that we had that we would say was underwhelming. The tempura batter and compote were both good, but the ice cream was somewhat tasteless in the dessert.

As before, the service experienced a few hiccups. Both my wife and I had ordered a starter in addition to the sushi. Neither of these showed up, prompting us to order another round of sushi at the completion of our meal. While service was again a little slow due to what I perceived to be a lack of staff, it was much less pronounced than what we experienced the night before at Ki. Again, I hope this is arising out of the newness of the resort and that this will be fixed shortly. Again, the staff were very personable and friendly.

Hours

• Dinner: 6:00 PM – 11:00 PM

Dress Code

Smart Casual

Menu

The Corner

The Corner is a typical poolside bar and grille. It serves up simple pizzas, paninis, salads, burgers, wraps, and other snacks. The poolside hut also features a full bar. If you’re looking for a quick bite to eat that you can have on the pool deck, this is your spot. The pool wait staff can bring you anything on this menu as well.

The Corner Review

We had food and drink from The Corner two times on the trip. Each time we were just looking for a snack to tide us over from breakfast to dinner. If you want to get anything more substantial, I recommend getting something from Habaneros or Balik. Habaneros and Balik are both sit-down lunch venues with a larger menu. However, for something like nachos, a panini, or guacamole, this is a great spot. The food tastes good enough for a poolside snack bar. Even better, It is prepared quickly (within 10 minutes usually). You can walk up to the counter to order food. Alternately, you can place an order with any of the servers that move through the pool area. They will bring it to your lounge chair and table. All in all, you can’t beat the convenience.

Hours

• Lunch: 12:00 PM – 6:00 PM

Dress Code

None (Swimsuits welcome)

Menu

Balik

Balik is an outdoor restaurant located just off the main pool in the center of the resort. This restaurant serves both lunch and dinner. For lunch, this restaurant serves a sit-down meal with a menu that is heavily seafood-based. Balik is one of the elevated lunch options available if The Corner snack bar on the pool deck isn’t what you desire. Balik also has great pool and ocean views. While swimsuits are fine for The Corner, you will want to put on shirts and/or a nicer cover-up when dining here.

Balik Review

During our visit, we went to Balik for lunch one afternoon. Most days we didn’t want a big lunch and instead chose to get a small snack from The Corner between breakfast and dinner. However, due to sleeping in one morning and then going to the gym, we missed the cutoff for breakfast. Therefore, we opted for the sit-down lunch at Balik. The menu consisted of several lighter options such as shrimp starters, seafood salads, fish and/or salmon fillets. There was one meat option on the menu (grilled flank steak), but just about everything else was fish or seafood.

We started our meals with a Balik salad and crunchy shrimp. For our main entrees, we had the salmon fillet and catch of the day. We finished lunch with Balik’s take on a lemon pie. The food was well prepared and beautifully presented. The restaurant did a good job of elevating the dining experiences despite being only a few feet away from the main pool. Service at Balik was also very attentive. A seated lunch may not be the most popular dining option mid-day at the beach and pool because most people will want to enjoy food on the pool deck or beach to maximize their swim and sun time. Therefore, you will likely have most of the restaurant to yourself, or at most, a couple of groups will also be seated in the restaurant.

Hours

• Lunch: 11:30 AM – 5:00 PM
• Dinner: 6:00 PM – 10:00 PM

Dress Code

Smart Casual

Menu

Roots

Roots is the restaurant at the Hyatt Ziva Riviera Cancun that focuses on organic food. The restaurant is attached to the main floor lobby of the hotel, and it is only accessible from the outdoor area of the resort. The doors are located just off the patio area at the rear of the lobby ground floor near Breezes bar. Due to the focus on organic food, Roots is the only restaurant at the Hyatt resort that is not all-inclusive. Dining at Roots comes with an extra charge.

Roots Review

As this is a very small restaurant and has an additional charge to enter, I did not eat at Roots during my most recent stay. However the coffee shop was under construction at the time of my visit, so Roots was serving as the coffee, pastry, and ice cream shop. We did go to Roots one time to get an ice cream cone and browse the pastries. They had a variety of good ice cream flavors including some less traditional and tropical flavors like coconut, grapefruit, and lime. The ice cream was a nice amenity to have for the hot days in the sun.

Hours

• 6:00 AM – 6:00 PM

Dress Code

No dress code specified

Menu

La Parilla

La Parilla is the steakhouse at the resort. Parilla is an open-air restaurant located in the same building as Balik (just above the main swimming pool). The menu at Parilla is structured differently than the vast majority of other restaurants at this resort. The entrees are centered around a list of meats and a list of side dishes. There is no pre-selected pairing; you select whatever you want from the list and pair them together for your meal.

La Parilla Review

I was able to partake of Parilla’s food one evening, and it was quite good. I like al fresco (outdoor) dining, and Parilla is one of the rare dinner restaurants that offer this atmosphere. While steakhouses tend to be very upscale, the outdoor atmosphere just off the pool sets an appropriate level of formality for a beach resort steakhouse. One final note on the location is that it can be quite hot in Cancun most of the year, even at night for dinner. I visited in mid-October and still sweated a little while at dinner. Take into account the weather when you visit and dress accordingly.

The first thing noticeable on the Parilla menu is the limited choices. While there are fewer options at Parilla than many other restaurants on property, they do allow mixing and matching to build menu variety.

I started my visit with cheese-serrano ham croquettes while my wife ate the empanadas. Our main course consisted of beef tenderloin for my wife and flank steak for myself. Both of these were cooked appropriately (if not just a little more cooked than requested). We each ordered sides that came with the dish: creamed spinach and a baked potato. While both of those sides were good, you will recognize that the potato side doesn’t look too much like a baked potato. This is the only meal where we chose to partake in the wine options available at all Hyatt Ziva Riviera Cancun restaurants. The red wine options include a cabernet and a merlot. These wines are by no means top shelf but they are good enough for dinner at an all-inclusive.

Hours

• Breakfast: 7:00 AM – 10:30 AM
• Lunch: 11:30 AM – 5:00 PM
• Dinner: 6:00 PM – 10:00 PM

Dress Code

Smart Casual

Menu

Rue de Rivoli

Rue de Rivoli is the French restaurant at the Hyatt Ziva Riviera Cancun. This restaurant is located in the ground floor lobby of the hotel in between Miyako and Vivace.

Review

Unfortunately, we were unable to visit Rue de Rivoli during our stay, so I am not able to provide a full review of the restaurant.

Hours

• Dinner: 6:00 PM – 11:00 PM

Dress Code

Smart Casual

Menu

Vivace

Vivace is the Italian-themed restaurant at the resort. Located on the ground floor of the main hotel building, Vivace is one of the larger restaurants at the resort. This restaurant also boasts one of the most expansive menus at the resort. The options include salads, carpaccios, soups, fish, red meats, many kinds of pasta, and deserts. Vivace is one of the only restaurants we visited at Hyatt Ziva Riviera Cancun that also provided their full wine list with the dinner menu. The wine list at the resort is quite extensive; however, anything above the two house reds and the house white wine is not included in the all-inclusive rate.

Vivace Review

I will start off by saying the service at Vivace was great. The wait staff was attentive, and the mixologist for the resort was on hand to serve as a sommelier if you were drinking wine. While we didn’t partake in the wine, having this expertise available was nice. Given some of the slow and forgetful service experiences we had received at other restaurants at the Hyatt resort, this was a nice change.

The food was great, as was most of the food at the resort. During our visit, I started with the caprese, and my wife had the spinach and arugula salad. Both of these were prepared and plated well, and they tasted fresh. Since we weren’t too hungry, we moved straight to the main course from here. I ordered a bacon-wrapped shrimp dish that came on a bed of black risotto. My wife was in the mood for pasta, but unfortunately very few of the pasta dishes included meat. My wife asked if the fettuccini alfredo could have shrimp added, and they were able to accommodate the request easily.

These entrees were again very good and well presented. I’ll blame their scrumptious looks for the reason we don’t have a picture, but realistically I just forgot. Finally, we wrapped with desserts of traditional tiramisu and a lime mousse. Both were delicious, hit the spot, and put a nice cap on the last night at the resort for us.

Hours

• Dinner: 6:00 PM – 11:00 PM

Dress Code

Smart Casual

Menu

Habaneros

Habaneros is a Mexican-themed beachfront restaurant. They serve up tacos, ceviche, guacamole, and tostadas. The location right off the beach means it’s a great spot to stop for lunch as you spend your day enjoying the ocean. It isn’t far from the main pool area either so it’s definitely an option for the pool aficionados as well. Habaneros is a sit-down lunch restaurant (unlike The Corner), but it is less formal than Balik. Therefore, if you were looking for something in the middle, this may be your thing.

Habaneros Review

Habaneros was the first restaurant that we went to upon arriving at the resort. We arrived at mid-day and were ready to get some Mexican food and grab a couple of drinks while we got acclimated to the resort. This first dining experience at the Hyatt Ziva Riviera Cancun restaurants lived up to the previous experiences I have had at Hyatt Ziva and Zilara properties.

During our lunch, we started with an order of guacamole to share. The guacamole was good but small. If you are sharing it at the table, I would recommend getting a couple of orders. Next, I also got the ceviche nikkei (a tuna ceviche) as a starter. For our main course, both my wife and I got some tacos. I ordered the baja style tacos, and my wife ordered the gobernador shrimp tacos. While good, the baja tacos were fairly simple. I expected a more elaborate coleslaw/greens mix to be on top of the tacos, but that didn’t come. For my wife, the gobernador tacos looked much more substantial. They were also very good. The only critique of these tacos was that they were listed on the menu as having bacon in addition to the shrimp, but bacon didn’t seem to be on the tacos anywhere.

The dining experience at Habaneros was a great way to start off the vacation. The food was tasty, and the service from the wait staff at the restaurant was good. Finally, it’s hard to beat the location just off the ocean: great view, a cool breeze, and beach sounds.

Hours

• Lunch: 11:00 AM – 5:00 PM

Dress Code

Smart Casual

Menu

Dress Code Primer

The last item I wanted to cover is the dress code at the resort. Most people will dress very casually, and the dress code at the restaurants also skews casual. The established dress code only includes casual and smart casual. This is pretty typical for a beach resort. I have included the dress code for each restaurant in their review above. Below is a quick description of what each dress code means in the words of the Hyatt Ziva Riviera Cancun:

• Smart Casual – Dress shorts, dress sandals, or closed toe shoes are required for men. No sleeveless shirts permitted for men. Women require dress sandals.
• Casual – Access with a dry bathing suit permitted. Men require a T-shirt, and women must wear a coverup. Shoes are required; sandals are permitted.

Warp-Up

Many all-inclusive resorts get a bad reputation for their food quality. However, I have been impressed with the food at Hyatt all-inclusives in the past, and the Hyatt Ziva Riviera Cancun restaurants are no different. While we did have some service issues during our stay, I believe they were likely due to the resort being so new. With it only having been open for three weeks when we visited, I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and hopefully, it will improve with time. If you end up going to the Hyatt Ziva Riviera Cancun, I hope you enjoy the restaurants as much as I did. Comment below if you have any questions about the restaurants or the Hyatt Ziva Riviera Cancun in general.