"With a campsite kitchen and cozy, evening-picnic atmosphere, Arca should be at the top of your list for its artful, micro-seasonal cuisine, complete with ingredients that taste as if they were picked just beyond the fan palms surrounding the outdoor space. It’s the flagship restaurant of Mexican American chef José Luis Hinostroza, whose resume includes Alinea, El Celler de Can Roca, De Kromme Watergang, and Noma. The award-winning restaurant excels at seafood, whether Hinostroza’s signature taco — soft-shell crab in amaranth tempura posed upright on an hoja santa “tortilla,” buffeted by a crispy, spinach-like chaya that enhances the grassy flavor of grilled avocado — or an arresting scallop crudo resting in a black pen clam shell the size and shape of a tennis racket, a spectacle under a mist of dry ice. The lively, young crowd and busy cocktail bar strike a playful contrast here at Tulum’s most celebrated restaurant." - Bill Esparza