Vegetarian options in Cancún — inside a seafood house

November 8, 2026 · Menu guide · MERO 18

You know how this usually ends. Six people, one table, a seafood menu, and one person at it who doesn't eat meat or fish. The food arrives and she gets rice, bread and a salad nobody ordered. This piece exists so that doesn't happen. Looking for vegetarian options in Cancún shouldn't mean giving up the table your friends are sitting at — at MERO 18, on Avenida Carlos Nader in downtown Cancún, there are genuinely vegetarian plates rather than consolation sides, and here is every one of them with the price you'll actually see on the bill.

We're not a vegetarian restaurant, which is exactly why we're specific

The honest part first: if you want a fully vegetarian kitchen, that isn't us. MERO 18 is a seafood house with a raw bar and a sushi bar. What the November menu does have is a vegetarian roll, a vegetarian yakimeshi, five starters without animal protein and four meat-free desserts, plus a long breakfast list where half a dozen dishes contain no meat and no fish.

We're also not going to tell you something is vegan: our menu carries no vegan or gluten-free labels, and we won't invent them here. If you avoid dairy, eggs or honey, ask the team at the table what goes into a preparation — they'll tell you straight. Read everything beforehand on the full menu with prices.

The restaurant lives inside Mezcal Boutique Hotel and is open to everyone — you don't need to be a guest. It's a jungle hidden in downtown Cancún: palms, a cenote-style pool, and a glass dining room with air conditioning for when midday gets heavy.

Starters: five vegetarian plates, not garnishes

The starters are where a vegetarian wins the meal. Five of the seven contain neither fish nor meat:

• Beet salad · $130 — roasted beet, fresh greens and a light dressing. The cheapest plate in the section and the best opener.
• Guacamole · $150 — fresh mashed avocado, lime and salt. Three ingredients, no decoration.
• Tzatziki · $150 — cucumber, garlic and olive oil, for dipping.
• Greek salad · $150 — tomato, cucumber, olives and feta.
• Roasted cauliflower · $170 — roasted cauliflower with cheese sauce. The most substantial thing in the section, and the one that converts sceptics.

Order all five and you're at $750 for the table — less than two main courses, and enough for the vegetarian in the group to eat as well as everybody else.

The sushi bar has a vegetarian roll and a vegetarian yakimeshi

This is the part most people don't see coming. The November sushi bar lists two vegetarian dishes by name:

• Vegetarian roll · $180 — asparagus, cucumber and carrot, wrapped in avocado and fried leek. Ten pieces, like every other roll on the list, and cheaper than five of the other seven.
• Vegetarian yakimeshi · $185 — rice stir-fried in the wok. This is the hot, filling plate a vegetarian normally can't find in a seafood restaurant, and it's the least expensive of the seven yakimeshi.

Together they rebuild the shape of a proper meal: something fresh in the middle, something hot in front of you. Beet salad, vegetarian roll and vegetarian yakimeshi comes to $495 — a full meal for two people who don't eat meat.

What we won't dress up: the pokes are built on rice, vegetables, avocado and cucumber, but the menu only lists them with catch of the day, tuna, shrimp or salmon. There is no printed vegetarian poke, so if you want one, ask at the table rather than assume. The nigiri have no fish-free version either.

What is not vegetarian, named out loud

It saves everyone time to say this plainly. The whole raw bar — oysters, ceviches, aguachiles, tostadas and tiraditos — is seafood. None of the main courses is vegetarian: the charred shrimp, the shrimp in filo pastry, the grilled salmon fillet and the seafood fettuccine come from the sea; the tempura chicken and the 250 g rib eye from the land. And among the yakimeshi, only the vegetarian one qualifies — chicken, tuna, salmon, shrimp, mixed and beef don't.

Put differently: your vegetarian main course here is the vegetarian yakimeshi ($185), and your generous alternative is to build the table out of starters. There's no hidden third route.

Desserts: all four are meat-free

The dessert list is the easy part of the evening, because none of the four involves meat or fish: fried plantain ($165), Catalan cream ($165), chocolate cake ($210) and the Basque-style cheesecake with truffled cheese ($250), signed by @JONAPLAZAS. The two cream-and-cheese ones are plainly dairy; with the other two, ask first if your diet is strict.

Meat-free breakfast, every day from 7:00 to 12:30

If you're vegetarian and travelling, morning is the best time to come. The breakfast list is the friendliest section of the menu for anyone who doesn't eat meat, and it runs every day from 7:00 to 12:30 in the garden beside the pool.

The light end starts with the seasonal fruit plate ($110) — watermelon, cantaloupe, papaya and banana — the citrus fruit cup ($110) with orange juice and mint, the vanilla cinnamon oatmeal ($110) and the MERO 18 fruit & yogurt bowl ($165) with Greek yogurt and mixed nuts. The sweet end: classic pancakes ($150), French toast ($195), the banana chocolate waffle ($195) and the cinnamon waffle ($195).

If you eat eggs, the menu opens right up: Mexican-style eggs ($175), eggs your way ($185) — scrambled, fried or as an omelette, with beans, bread and tortillas — divorced eggs ($185), Spanish tortilla ($185) of egg, potato and onion, red or green chilaquiles with egg ($195) with cream, panela cheese and red onion, shakshuka ($215) with feta and sourdough, MERO 18 Benedict ($220), egg toast ($175) with guacamole and cilantro, and the egg bagel ($225) with beans, gouda, tomato and onion.

Two warnings so nobody is caught out: the Motul-style eggs contain ham, and the enfrijoladas are filled with chicken. To drink, freshly squeezed orange juice ($110) and ten cold-pressed juices between $110 and $125: Green Reset, Deep Green, Coco Verde, Red Vitality and the rest. More on that stretch of the morning in our guide to brunch in Cancún.

Three vegetarian tables, built from the real menu

• A full meal for one ($475): beet salad ($130), vegetarian roll ($180) and fried plantain ($165). Starter, main and dessert without leaving the vegetarian column.
• A mixed table of six ($985 of vegetarian food): guacamole, tzatziki, Greek salad and roasted cauliflower in the middle, plus the vegetarian roll and yakimeshi for whoever skips the seafood; everyone else orders their raw bar in peace. For a bigger party, our guide to group dining in Cancún covers the logistics.
• A slow breakfast ($315): a Deep Green cold-pressed juice ($120) and green chilaquiles with egg ($195). Want it lighter? The fruit & yogurt bowl ($165) and a cappuccino ($85) by the water: $250.

Where to find us

We're on Avenida Carlos Nader, in downtown Cancún, inside Mezcal Boutique Hotel and open to everyone every day from 7:00 to 23:00, without a break in service. Freshness is the one thing we don't negotiate — the raw bar is opened to order and the catch of the day is the catch of that day, even when what you're ordering is vegetables. We hold 5.0 stars on TripAdvisor and 4.9 on Google.