Salum is very cool in terms of its set up. Some of us describe it like walking into the world of the movie Coco. It is by the beach, there are beautiful lights above you, there's a lot of areas where you can sit under an open hut and other areas for tables, all outdoor. The night we were there, a mariachi band was playing. It is a really cool area to hang around. It's also great if you have kids, especially because there are different menus and you can pick from when you're ordering from your table so the kids can order from one place and you can order from another. As you go up the stairs, there are small shops for souvenirs and others with Mexican street food, including one serving ice cream and churros. That is the good stuff. So why 1 star...?
The problem is that the choices of menus and the food quality is less than superb. In fact, it's less than OK. We found much of it to be way too 'Americanized'. The only exception to this was the ice cream and churros stand which was really delicious. Being from Las Vegas, we are used to the best quality and taste of food and we are used to expensive prices. Therefore, we found the prices reasonably high. Some portions are very small and the price is high. An example was the Chile Rellenos which literally was one small piece of it and sauce and nothing more. It cost about $10 US. Overall, it is expensive.
Sitting at the tables to order, there is a small Mexican restaurant you can order from, Mediterranean/Italian restaurant you can order from, Japanese restaurant you can order from, and an American menu you can order from. The kids said that the sushi from the Japanese restaurant was good and I had a couple of bites of California roll and it was OK. I myself ordered the vegetarian/vegan flatbread with kale and several other vegetables and it was supposed to be Mediterranean but it was the most awful vegetarian/vegan meal I have ever had. I couldn't touch it past a few bites. It was not Mediterranean. The guacamole with vegetables was good but I have had way better. The tostadas that came with it were really good. I ordered a melted cheese combination that also came without tostadas and that was delicious as I used tostadas that came with the guacamole. Someone in our group ordered the cheese pizza/flatbread which they liked and my friend ordered the Chile rellenos and a taco with carne Asada. She liked the taco but again was shocked by the other dish which she said was very small and very expensive. The biggest problem is that she is Mexican and has been to Mexico several times. She was shocked explaining that both Mexican dishes were of American quality and they were not authentic Mexican. She even went as far as asking if they had ceviche and they said no. Overall, we were very disappointed by the food. I will also say that when we asked about ice cream and churros, they said they do have some ice cream we could order but they have no churros and they do not have a vast choice of ice cream and the best thing to do would be to go wait at the kiosk that sells ice cream and churros which currently has a long line of people waiting. The other thing we noticed is that the later you come for dinner, specifically about 730 or 8 PM, it gets extremely crowded and it's hard to find a good table but it takes forever to get your food. If you get here a little earlier, the service is better.
When we went up the stairs, we waited in the line for churros. When we got there, we were told that we need to buy tickets in order to get this because it is Monday???
Nowhere was that written, presented as a sign, mentioned??? We had waited in line for 10 minutes and now we had to go wait in another long line to get the tickets and get back in line to get the churros??? If it was not for our 11 year old son, we would have left!
Overall, they need better food choices, better food quality, and authentic Mexican food. We came here once and I do not plan on coming back again. I would only recommend coming here just to see it because of how cool it looks but sadly would not recommend the food. I am giving it one star because the service is awful and the food quality itself, with the exception of easy things to make like the melted cheese and the pizza, was absolutely awful. Basically, is a total rip off. My friend said it best: it is a cubic zirconia disguised as a diamond.
The staff that try to sell you private vacation club residencies have the audacity to say that their food is amazing everywhere and all inclusive resorts are bad for this. All of the all inclusive resorts I have stayed at had delicious high quality food and this food at Vidanta was, for the most part, as good as very expensive garbage. Really disappointing! read more