When you check in, you’ll trade your car for bicycles, which are the primary mode of transport around the resort. Electric golf carts are also available if you prefer to be chauffeured. It’s a large estate, and the ride to the restaurants and main pool can take five or 10 minutes, but it’s a beautiful romp through the lushly canopied paths. Chablé offers so much to explore, from a spa (overlooking a cenote) to a private deer farm or the secret bar (that occupies a tiny, stand-alone house that long ago served as the home of the hacienda’s foreman).
As spectacular as the accommodations, the food is what draws most guests to these Yucatán hinterlands. Or at least, that’s what drew me here. Namely, the signature restaurant Ixi’im.
I first met chef Luis Ronzón eight years ago when he was the right-hand man of then-still-rising-star-celebrity-chef Jorge Vallejo at Quintonil in Mexico City. It was about a year after that when the soon-to-open Chablé announced that Vallejo would steer the new luxury brand’s culinary program. Vallejo dispatched Ronzón to launch the hotel’s new restaurants.
Ronzón didn’t expect to stay forever but now can’t imagine leaving.
“It’s amazing here,” he tells me. “There’s such an incredible energy in the Yucatán. It’s hard to describe, but you feel it, too, right?”
Ixi’im occupies the plantation’s former mill. Although Ronzón works under the distant eye of his mentor, the menus here are entirely his own: raw kampachi dusted with tortilla ash and habanero cream, or tiny masa puffs inspired by traditional Yucatán salbutes (puffy tortillas) made from nixtamalized local corn, plus an upscale twist on cochinita pibil (the region’s famous pork roasted underground) with a miraculously crispy skin, and an extraordinary chocolate tamale wrapped in banana leaves. The restaurant’s tequila selection might be one of the biggest in the world.
Ronzón also devises the food at Chablé’s other restaurant, Ki’ol, an all-day outdoor affair adjacent to the pool. The food here — classic Yucatán comfort food — is every bit as fantastic as Ixi’im. The lime tortilla soup is sublime. The tacos, tostadas and salsas, stunning. And the margaritas, as good as it gets.
Bottom Line: Chablé Yucatán is an exquisite resort, not just for the well-publicized cuisine, but for the accommodations and hospitality as well.
Rates from about $1,200; Tablaje #642, Chocholá, Yucatán, +52 (55) 4161 4262, chableyucatan.com
A variation of this article, with additional Yucatán dining recommendations, originally appeared in the summer 2023 issue of OLTRE, the luxury travel magazine of Internova Travel Group. For a subscription and full access to OLTRE, contact your Internova-affiliated travel advisor. For more dining and travel inspiration, I invite you to follow me and join the conversation on Instagram, Facebook, Threads and Twitter (X).
