THATCH INCREDIBLE

Where: La Zebra, Tulum, Mexico

Why Go: It's less hippie—and more chic—than similar beachside cantinas along this sleepy stretch of the Riviera Maya.

A Side of Atmosphere: Imagine your most effortlessly stylish boho buddies opened a hotel on a prime piece of Tulum beachfront (with the requisite straw-topped huts and curving palms strung with colorful hammocks). In the platform restaurant, where candle-filled chandeliers swing from the thatched ceiling, you'll get almost as buzzed from the tickling trade winds and sultry salsa beats as you will from the potent margaritas.

Appetite for Seduction: The back-to-basics menu revolves around a single element: fire. A starter of spicy, seafood-based "firestone" soup—named for the single red-hot rock that's added to make it simmer—is ladled tableside. The most succulent entrées, like the slow-cooked, beer-marinated lamb wrapped in banana leaves, come from the brick-lined barbecue pit.

The Hot Seat: Couples gravitate toward the single table on the stand-alone circular platform: It's under palm trees, away from the restaurant and even closer to the electric-blue Caribbean.

La Zebra
Boca Paila, Km 8.2
Tulum, Mexico
Tel: 52 998 112 3260