La Palette opened its doors in Playa del Carmen in November 2006, and it is the creative baby of Farrah Gosselin, and Michael Harrington, both originally from Toronto. Combined they have over 32 years of restaurant experience between them, and they had a similarly styled restaurant in Toronto prior to opening La Palette here in Playa del Carmen. Michael is the chef and he runs the kitchen creating the recipes and concepts for the restaurant. He started in the industry at only 14 years old, and had his first restaurant by the time he was 24. He has worked with world renowned chefs, and worked in the kitchen at the Hilton Hotel in Berlin, as well as completing culinary school in Toronto. Farrah started her career in the industry at the ripe old age of 16, and she has focused her talents on the "front of the house" so to speak running the floor, handling the management, and utilizing her exceptional bar tending talents as well.

We arrived around 7:30 and were immediately greeted and seated by Farrah offering us the wine and dinner menu, and bringing a trio of petite breads and homemade herbed garlic butter to our table while we perused the menus. We both decided on a specialty martini a la Farrah and were not disappointed. Web Guy went for the Naked Martini; a traditional gin martini straight up with 3 olives, and although the price tag packed a punch at $90.00 pesos it was worth every drop. I on the other hand went for more of a girly drink, the Soho Martini ($120.00 pesos); top shelf vodka, lychee liqueur, Blue Curacao, blackberry, and a whisper of lemonade, and it was good to the last drop!

We decided to stick with hors devours, and tapas so we could try different tastes and styles, and we started with the Trio de Mar ($90.00 pesos); smoked trout mousse with crispy garlic chips, Terrine of crab and scallion on herbed crepe frite, and grilled calamari with basil cream, and caviar. Although all were tasty the trout mouse was by far my favorite.

They recently added a new concept of a tapas menu where you can choose 6 pieces for $100.00 pesos so we went that route and were happy with our choice. There are 6 tapas on the menu and are changed frequently, but the night we were there the options were; spiced black bean chili, hosin tuna tartar, braised beef with St. Andre cheese, stuffed cherry tomato with toasted almond, and roasted garlic basil pesto, deep fried shrimp lime cake, and seared fois gras ($50.00 pesos additional). We decided not to go with the fois gras and doubled up on the tuna tartar, and it was amazing. Being a seafood nut the tuna and the fried shrimp lime cake were among my favorites where as the chili and braised beef did not make my taste buds dance. To finish off our experience we sipped a glass of champagne and shared a warm chocolate cake with hazelnut ice cream that made me want to lick the plate. All and all it was a great dining experience that we luxuriated over for more then 2 hours! The service was impeccable, the atmosphere was warm and romantic, and the food was delicious. Although some may say that the prices are high; I would agree, but you certainly get what you pay for. This is not a place to grab a cheap bite, but rather a culinary experience that you would be hard pressed to find somewhere else in Playa del Carmen.

La Palette is located on 8th Street between 5th Avenue and the beach in downtown Playa del Carmen. For more information or to make a reservation please call: 984-879-4802

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