If you opt for an all-inclusive package for a portion of your stay at Villa Del Palmar, you will probably have many of your meals at the Market Restaurant since they serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Breakfast:
The buffet includes an omelet station where you can choose from fillings like hearts of palm, tomatoes, mushrooms, cilantro and a few types of cheese. You'll find a selection of fruits including sliced, peeled grapefruit and oranges; mango and/or papaya if in season; avocado slices; and watermelon. The hot food section of the buffet has red skinned sautéed potatoes; scrambled eggs with ham; breakfast burritos; and French toast, to name a few. You can also order off the menu, if you prefer, for things like poached eggs on toast or eggs benedict.
Lunch:
You can get salads, wraps, sandwiches and seafood like shrimp or grilled fish. Not sure about Caesar dressing though. I ordered a Caesar salad at both Casa Mia and the Market Restaurant on different days and I'm pretty sure the dressing was mayo, both times. The fish tacos were excellent and the homemade guacamole was delicious.
Dinner:
Nightly entertainment matching themed dinners. Valentines Day, for example, was a contest for the "Best Couple" award. The contest included various games ranging from blindfolded wives trying to find their respective husbands by touch only, to blindfolded husbands trying to put a broomstick through a roll of toilet paper with only verbal instructions from their wife to guide them. The various contests lasted almost an hour in total and the 3 surviving couples (as in, the only ones who didn't go awol during the show) were each awarded a bottle of wine (all probably ready for a drink by then) and a sky lantern which included a special launch ceremony after dinner and a donation to the Make a Wish Foundation.
If you order an Irish or Mexican coffee, a server will prepare your flaming drink tableside. It's an impressive little show, albeit a lot of work for a coffee. Especially when you consider that the servers only make approximately 90 pesos, which is equivalent to approximately 8 USD. And, that's per day, not hour.
Incidentally, all of the servers are young, male and speak English very well. I was curious so I asked about this. Apparently, these are the requirements for employment as a server at the restaurants on the property. We never had a female server during our entire stay although they were employed in various other areas including hostess/manager, sales, concierge-type positions, housekeeping and cooking. All of the women were bilingual as well except for a few in housekeeping. Noticeably different hiring practices and policies than in the states. Regardless, the service all around was top notch from both men and women. One hostess/manager went out of her way to arrange sofa seating for our party of four to watch the entertainment at the Market Restaurant while waiting for our reservation at Danzante. Definitely 5-star staff and service.
A note about the all-inclusive add-on package. The all inclusive can begin with any meal of the day so if you are planning an excursion that will take you off the property for most of the day, you can begin your all-inclusive with dinner that evening and your breakfast and lunch the next day will all count as one day. The staff at the desk, Moises, is excellent and he will work with you to schedule your all-inclusive days as you plan your excursions. They must be consecutive though so you may want to make your excursions before or after your all-inclusive so it's not wasted.
Unfortunately, I lost all of my Loreto photos which included food photos reserved specifically for Yelp, except some which were posted on other sites but if I can recover any, I'll post them here. :)
Overall, the Market Restaurant was probably a high 3 stars to mid 4 for food but easily 5 stars for service and selection considering its remote location. read more