La Zebra

Signs of La Zebra are everywhere in Tulum. From the moment you cross the town line to driving and passing the La Zebra striped Volkswagon to the sexy Salsa Sunday signs along the beach road and in most of the kiosks in town, signs of La Zebra are all over the place. From the crucero until you get there, just follow the orange striped signs. When you see the Zebra on the road take a wander through what appears to be a wooden sculpture park. Large wooden Aztec head sculptures line the sandy path that leads from the road to the palapa bar and restaurant. By day it offers a peaceful view of the beach and by night, the candles accentuate either the moon or the stars.

The place is famous on Sunday. It hosts Salsa lessons from 6 to 8 and then a live band with dancing from 8 to 10 pm. It is the place to be on the beach and half the pueblo and most of the tourists are there. They also have free salsa lessons Thursday, Friday, and Saturday as well for those who want to be expert by Sunday when the live band kicks in. But, what about the food? The guinepigs love to salsa but the place is packed for people looking for barbeque as well. La Zebra hosts a wonderful barbeque featuring Yucatecan barbeque pulled pork for tacos. You can eat and dance the night away. Guineapigs give Sundays at La Zebra a whopping 3 pigs – appropriate with the pulled pork, oink oink oink!!

On a quieter night, guineapigs love to sit at the bar where the ambiance is friendly and the seats are Alice in Wonderland oversized sort of comfortable. From their polished wooden seatbacks and surprisingly comfortable wooden seats, the guineapigs think the bar stools are the place to be to enjoy the scene. La Zebra has a large selection of tequilas but we had white wine that was only a little more than adequate. Getting great wine here in the Yucatan seems to be a challenge, but theirs was nicely chilled. The pour from the La Zebra barman is more than fair, one of the better pours we have had on the beach. Ocho’s barman could certainly take a lesson or two. We tried the spinach salad with chicken (100 pesos). It was full of everything except spinach and while we appreciate the bounty of chevre cheese and bacon and apple slices, a little more spinach would have been welcome. The green salad with chicken had plenty of lettuce (100 pesos) and was only adequate. The quesadillas with chicken were perfectly toasted and served with a spicey salsa and small green salad. Thank goodness because we are in Mexico after all. For entres we tried the “pescado en papel”, a delicious local white fish served with pineapple salsa and rice. The presentation was beautiful with the fish arriving wrapped in tinfoil that was shaped like a fish, tail and all. The salads and dinner are served with a beautiful plate of totopos (chips) and a variety of spicy and delicious salsa’s in small white leaf shaped dishes. For desert we tried the sugar cane mojitos – wow!! – and poached apples. Both were refreshing and perfectly sweetened. The mojitos had plenty of mint, rum and of course sugar cane that was squeezed right in front of us. On a quiet night the guineapigs give La Zebra two pigs. One of the nicer places to enjoy the magnificent beach, a good drink, good friendly service and decent food.