Sen Lin is one of eight restaurants at Grand Velas Riviera Maya, a luxury all-inclusive resort in Playa del Carmen. My wife found and booked the resort through Costco Travel. One of the big reasons she chose Grand Velas over nearby resorts was Grand Velas' stellar food options. Grand Velas Riviera Maya has four 2024 AAA Four Diamond restaurants (Frida, Piaf, Sen Lin, Lucca) and one 2024 Michelin Star and AAA Five Diamond restaurant (Cocina de Autor). We tried seven of the eight restaurants and, for the most part, the food, drink, and service were outstanding.
Sen Lin is the Asian restaurant of the group and it pleasantly surprised us.
Below is how I rank Grand Velas Riviera Maya's restaurants based on our experiences. We visited Chaka, but after browsing the buffet, decided to return to Bistro for a sit-down meal instead. I highly recommend you book reservations as early as you can for Cocina de Autor, Frida, Piaf, Sen Lin, and Lucca (the nicer sit-down restaurants).
Tier One
1. Cocina de Autor - fine dining, tasting menu
Tier Two
2. Frida - Mexican
3. Bistro - casual, poolside sit-down
4. Piaf - French
5. Sen Lin - Asian
Tier Three
6. Lucca - Italian
7. Azul - casual, poolside buffet
Sen Lin is located in the Zen Grand section of the resort, in the jungle. My wife and I were a bit skeptical of an Asian restaurant at a resort in Mexico and we were wrong. The food and drink were delicious. While the food wasn't super "authentic," it was certainly tasty, well made, and beautifully presented. That was generally the case with all of the restaurants we visited at Grand Velas.
We had a lychee martini and white wine to drink and below is a list of the dishes we ordered. While everything was included for us, I've listed the menu prices (in Mexican pesos) for informational purposes.
Entries (appetizers)
* Sashimi Sen Lin ($640) - thinly-sliced tuna, catch of the day, and salmon with Japanese spices and soy sauce
* Niku Tataki ($420) - finely-sliced beef with white truffle essence, sweet Japanese sauce, and pea puree
Main Courses
* Ped Yang ($580) - Sen Lin-style lacquered duck, crepes with sesame essence and plum sauce of the house
Desserts
* Sago ($220) - tapioca pearls with sweet coconut milk, creamy sweet potato, and cantaloupe with pandan custard sauce
* Sakura ($150) - coffee jelly with Baileys foam, cherry and vanilla ice cream
The lychee martini was solid. It was sweet, refreshing, and garnished with a lychee.
The Sashimi Sen Lin consisted of the most basic types of sashimi: tuna, salmon, and I believe yellowtail. The quality of the fish was good and fresh. This dish basically boiled down to three slices each of tuna, salmon, and yellowtail. However, what set it apart was its elaborate presentation and garnishes. The sushi was served on top of a bamboo rolling mat, decorated with a banana leaf, atop a bowl of ice and what looked like what I can only describe as gold crushed rice. Along with sesame seed soy sauce, garnishes included a charred lemon wedge, two kinds of seaweed (dark green and light green), pickled ginger, cucumber slices with both tobiko and ikura (two kinds of fish eggs), shredded vegetables (radish and carrot), and wasabi. So yeah, the presentation was top notch.
The Niku Tataki was another beautifully-presented and colorful dish with carefully-placed small flowers, finely-sliced radish, tight cucumber curls, and tiny dollops of white truffle "essence." The most impressive garnish was a single pea pod that had been carefully split open and displayed above the pea puree. As for the beef tataki itself, it tasted great. It was tender, savory, and cooked just right (cooked on outside, rare on inside).
The Ped Yang, which is a Thai dish, was good/OK. It wasn't served the traditional Thai way, sliced in a curry sauce, but instead was a whole piece of bone-in duck covered in a rich, sweet sauce. There was so much sauce that the side of "plum sauce of the house" wasn't needed. I liked the warm, soft, delicate crepes, which reminded me more of Chinese Peking duck than Thai Ped Yang. This was a hybrid with what I thought were some odd accompaniments -- pickled ginger, cherry tomato, and a decorative assortment of vegetables like carrot, cucumber, and parsley.
Both of the desserts were equally terrific. I think I preferred the Sago slightly more than the Sakura, but you can't go wrong with either. In the Sago, the layers of tapioca, sweet potato, and pandan custard were certainly interesting and up my alley since I enjoy creamy desserts. Both desserts came with fresh fruit on top (strawberry, raspberry, blackberry, blueberry, lychee).
The restaurant has an elegant, glamorous vibe to it. The front bar area is gorgeous and quite spacious. Sen Lin is worth visiting for the bar alone. The dining room is large and opulent. Together with the huge, breezy hallways of Zen Grand, Sen Lin feels like dining in Vegas. During our visit, there was live music too (violinist).
Service was excellent. read more