We totally came back to the Thompson nine months after our first visit, this time with our kids, my parents, my brothers, and their partners. We ate and drank at HAO every day, and I think the staff was always happy to see us, as we were always good for a heavy food order and several rounds of cocktails. Special shout-out to Pedro, who took great care of us whenever we saw him.
My mom is a Hyatt Globalist, and she managed to get breakfast included for all our rooms. We rolled into HAO every morning and ordered from the a la carte menu (no buffet here, which was fine by me). I'm now a huge fan of HAO's chilaquiles with chicken, both red and green but especially the green. They're super delicious, and I had them several times during our stay.
Service suffered a little when we ordered lunch from the beach. You should account for long waits, even for like a bottle of wine. No matter, lunch on the beach was still great. The green aguachile is pretty ideal for an afternoon at the beach, a bright, zesty dish of lime-cured shrimp and raw scallop in a roasted chile and cucumber broth. I also liked the marine bowl, a sort of Asian rice bowl with raw tuna, grilled shrimp, raw scallop, and octopus over basmati rice, with eel sauce and citrus. The basmati rice felt like a slight mismatch, but the seafood was all quite tasty. The octopus tacos weren't my favorite, unfortunately. The octopus was just kind of dried out, though the avocado purée and citrus aioli helped.
I did love the shrimp and ribeye tacos, which we had at dinner. The shrimp tacos were delicious, with shrimp marinated in dried chiles served with tzatziki, cabbage salad, and cucumber on fresh tortillas. The ribeye came with avocado, onion, and a crust of crispy cheese. We had two sit-down dinners here, all eight adults and two children around a long table, and everything we ate was quite tasty (and there was butter pasta for the toddler). In addition to the tacos, I'd recommend the octopus zarandeado style, marinated in dried chiles and served with asparagus, tomato, tzatziki, grilled lime, and pita. The cochinita risotto was a nice dish too, pork cooked in banana leaves in a risotto with saffron, xnipec sauce, and grana padano cheese. The hibachi sets were great for our big party, just a lot of grilled meat and seafood that we could all share. The seafood hibachi came with lobster, octopus, shrimp, tuna, mahi-mahi, and scallops, the farm hibachi with ribeye, flank steak, beef tenderloin, and chicken breast. There was also a surf and turf option with lobster, ribeye, shrimp, beef tenderloin, and octopus. You can also get the lobster a la carte, the langosta zarandeada. This was fantastic. There was dessert too, though I don't remember it all. I know we got a spread one night and everything was tasty.
I also have a particular fondness for the HAO bar. My husband and I really enjoyed leaving the babies asleep with my parents and coming down to drink with the other adults. The Thompson is a spacious resort, with a lot of amenities for a small number of guests. I think the hotel was fairly full during our stay, but we were often the only, and always the last, people at the bar, and Pedro kept the drinks coming until last call. I was pregnant on my first visit to Zihuatanejo, so I spent this whole trip inhaling margaritas and mezcalitas in every flavor--guava, passionfruit, pineapple, as well as just, you know, margarita and mezcalita. I had a piña colada, properly loaded with alcohol, as well as a very good carajillo.
We had so much fun at the Thompson, I'd really love to come back as often as possible. I look forward to my next visit to the hotel, which will include my next ten visits to HAO. read more