Hey look, a Mexican restaurant, must be … oh no, wait, it’s actually my pick. Fooled you.

You might remember that Ted and I switched weeks last week so he that could make us honorary Hungarians for the evening and visit the Hungarian Club in Barberton. So it was my turn this week, but far be it from me to bunk our tradition of visiting a Mexican restaurant every third week of this adventure.

I learned of this place while in the Valley one day and noticing a Tulum sign on a building, which led me down an online rabbit hole trying to figure out if the sign was old or foreshadowing a new opening. You’d think that would be easy to figure out but lo and behold I still don’t know, so if you do please let me know.

Like I know I’ve eaten Mexican food in that location at some point in the past decade, but could I tell you the name of the place? Nope.

So anyway while that mystery remains unsolved, I did discover a place with the same name is now open in Twinsburg.

And so here we are. 

Tulum is what I would call “fancy Mexican.” I guess it’s technically called “artisan.” Which is really just a fancy way of saying fancy, no?

So let’s start with artisan drinks. No margarita pitchers here when you can chose fun flavors like cucumber (Shane’s pick) or spicy pineapple (Ted and I).

Can you tell them apart? Yeah we couldn’t either. On closer inspection it seems Shane’s was in a slightly different glass. But other than that your guess would’ve been as good as ours if they hadn’t been set in front of each of us specifically.

Let’s also point out that for the second time in as many months Ted was served a drink on fire. Didn’t have that sentence on my bingo card for 2025.

Although it’s slightly less impressive when you look around and realize they all arrive that way. Like all of them. At every table.

We were probably more impressed that we all got our own separate dishes for salsa with the chips. That’s just good service.

We all enjoyed the salsa. It was just spicy enough that you didn’t have to add anything but it also leave you feeling like you needed a glass of milk to regain your sense of taste after every bite.

Staying with the artisan theme, I got the Mexican artisian tacos with steak and chorizo.

Shane got the enchiladas rancheros.

Ted got the mahi gaujillo. Which, if you’re like me and didn’t take Spanish in school, means it has garlic, not cheese. Ted asked to be sure. 

Let’s just clarify that if we hadn’t asked then our noses would’ve told us as soon as the plate got within a few feet of our table. Ted commented that he for sure wouldn’t be kissing anyone tonight.

But he said it was really good and he was very happy with his meal. I mean for starters he didn’t have to pick off any cheese, so that’s a win right there. But it was also very tasty.

I liked my meal too. I thought it was like the salsa – spicy enough but not overwhelming. The meat was tender and the sauces that came with it added a lot of flavor.

Meanwhile Shane gave his meal a solid “eh.” Which in Shane rating language means he really wasn’t impressed.

Which was also how we felt about the drinks. For being specialty, top shelf drinks you really couldn’t taste the different flavor that the name suggests. Shane said he didn’t get any cucumber flavor from his. And before you argue that cucumber is supposed to be more subtle, I’ll say that Ted and I also said the same about our supposed spicy pineapple drinks. It was disappointing to say the least.

Bur probably the biggest disappointment of this evening for us was the service. We only saw our server one time after the meals arrived, and by that point we had pretty much already finished eating. So good thing we didn’t need anything of importance or anything, no? I mean, a refresh on chips and salsa would’ve been appreciated. And sure we were disappointed with our drinks but it would’ve been nice to at least be offered the opportunity to order another round to try something different. But I mean, thanks for saving us the calories and cash? Cool.

Overall I guess the biggest thank you is saving us a return trip, since there really wasn’t anything we felt we would absolutely need to return for. Sure, if we were in the area and had a hankering for Mexican food and a drink on fire maybe we would swing in for a return visit. But I don’t think it would be anything we would specifically seek out.

Picked by: Steph