Don Chendo

Wow! This place crushed it. Just off the main drag. Get away from the tourist traps and go get a taste of home. Reminded me of some of my favorite neighborhood pizza joints in the US. The Chendo Sauce is bomb, great service from the friendly staff too.

Awesome Italian find in Playa! We ordered the Caesar salad, Chendo pizza, and the brownie for dessert. Everything was extremely delicious and fresh ingredients! It was well worth the walk off the beaten path and a quaint restaurant with wonderful service!

Have been here twice now. Yummy deep dish pizza place! Also heard their pastas are great but never had one. The staff is friendly and attentive. The seating is outdoor mostly so no a/​c but they have fans going. The pizzas do take quite a bit of time to come out but I’m sure that’s because they are deep dish and everything is made to order. I’d recommend if you’re craving some Italian food while in Mexico.

Based on Trip Advisor reviews, we decided on a highly-​rated pizza place, Don Chendo. The taxi driver had trouble finding it and Google Maps was a little weird about it, but it is located on 30^th Avenue just north of the Mega. As several other reviewers mentioned, the blue VW van was parked out front of the 30^th Avenue shop. The interior was not large, but the furniture was sturdy and nice. We were greeted promptly and soon had drinks, chips, and pumpkin seed salsa. As other reviewers have mentioned, we asked for a wine recommendation and were pleased. For dinner, we had the meat lovers pizza. If you love Chicago-​style pizza, be aware that this is a slightly modified Chicago-​style pizza. It is cooked in a pan about half as deep as you would expect, though by no means was it a thin crust pizza. If you love to eat crust, you will be slightly disappointed. The crust tastes a little bland. HOWEVER, the texture of the crust is perfect, and it holds up well under the sauce and toppings. Sometimes, deep-​dish pizza crust gets soggy or isn’t baked completely. That is NOT the case with Don Chendo crust. It is soft, but firm with a little crispness on the bottom. The sauce is perfect. So perfect that they should bottle the stuff. It’s rich, has a robust tomato flavor, is slightly sweet, a little tart, and not too spicy. It’s perfectly balanced. I’m drooling just thinking about the sauce. The meat toppings included hand-​sliced pepperoni that was good, but nothing special. The sausage is made in-​house, and was good, but not as good as I hoped. The bacon was local, but very fatty. I prefer leaner meats. The cheese was rich, real, and delicious. Overall, the pizza was great, and I would go back, but I would try different toppings. For dessert, we had the brownie. It was mouth-​wateringly rich without being too sweet or too bitter. It was an explosion of happy in my mouth. The ice cream was good. The only recommendation that I would have is to serve the brownie heated. So, Don Chendo was great and we would definitely go there again. If you’re craving pizza while you’re in Playa del Carmen, this is the place to go.
UPDATE: At 6:00 on a Wednesday night, delivery from Don Chendo took 40 minutes. Fortunately, the delivery guy was able to bring his motorcycle down 5^th Avenue on the pedestrian-​only section. The pizza box was really hot, due to the heated box on the delivery motorcycle. I ordered the Margherita pizza. I was surprised to see that the pizza had not been cut. They did, however, include a plastic knife, and it was just serrated enough to cut the pizza. The pizza was delicious. The crust was soft, but firm with a little crispness on the bottom. The sauce was perfectly balanced, though the additional roma tomatoes didn’t add to the pizza, and I only ate about half of the tomatoes. The basil was chopped perfectly and spread evenly on the pizza. It was delicious. I would definitely order it again.

I was EXTREMELY skeptical that a pizzeria in Mexico was making authentic Chicago Deep Dish but as a former Chicago resident I can assure you that it is one of the best deep dish pizzas I’ve EVER had. We got a mix of the California and the Easterner… delicious!!! So, so good. Do not leave Playa Del Carmen without stopping here!!!

I’d like to begin by saying when we come to PDC we don’t come here to open our maws to anything other than little gems, and those gems are usually little spaces run on love, sweat and passion. The establishments are also usually run by an entrepreneurial Gen-​Xer Mexican who has come to love, cherish and take pride in their country’s rich history and heritage that can be told through food and food alone; no translator needed. They do this by either painstakingly learning great grandmother’s mole or by taking a more direct approach by simply employing her in the kitchen.
This place happens to be such a place that is run on love, sweat and passion, but also just happens to be run by a guy transplanted from the Northeastern part of the U.S. whose dream was, «to cook sausage and spaghetti and meatballs for people» and just happened to be doing it in Mexico.
Russell will give you the best. That’s it. Simple.
Tonight we had a glitch… it happens. I’m GF. I was excited. GF pasta​.in Mexico. I was beyond excited to dive into an abnormal carb frenzy and cheese delirium of Double Butter Alfredo… but it was not to be, as Russell said to me, «I’m out every day looking for the best gluten free noodle, and if I can’t find it, I won’t buy it.» So instead, he created a beautiful dish of homemade sausage on a bed of spinach with crisp grilled broccoli and zucchini. It was exactly what I didn’t know I wanted.
This restaurant is exactly what you didn’t know you wanted. In Mexico. Because you come to Mexico, to PDC, to go eat some of the best Italian food of your life.

Quizá el modo más astuto para entrar al mercado de la pizza en una ciudad como Playa del Carmen es vender una receta poco ofrecida: deep dish pizza. La primera vez que fui y ordené una para llevar, me di cuenta que acababa de ordenar la última pizza… y eran las nueve de la noche, lo cual no habla muy bien de su inventario en cocina. Si el servicio no es óptimo, su comida es punto y aparte. He probado la Hawaiana y la Del Este y son deliciosas. Una sola rinde para dos personas, lo cual no es práctico pero vale la pena una vez que la pruebas.

We heard about a place doing authentic Chicago Style deep dish pizza in Playa del Carmen. We had to see for ourselves! When we arrived at Don Chendo, we took the last available table. It’s a quaint space, but it turns over tables all night. The owner makes it a point to greet every table, I couldn’t help but chat him up. He’s originally from New York, but makes deep dish? How can that be? Well, he does a mighty fine job. The pizza was excellent. We had the Chendo: Italian sausage, peppers and onions. It might not look it, but it was better than majority of places in Chicago. No joke. I wish we didn’t wait until our final night to try it. We’ll definitely seek it out next visit.

Please don’t let it out that Don Chendo’s is importing real Chicago Pizza (deep dish) nightly into Playa del Carmen. We have to keep it a secret. Once the word gets out, that you can have the best Chicago pizza this side of Michigan ave…(I just can’t figure out how they get it across the border and to my table so quickly? the toppings include all the original favorites (my favorite is the meatballs (which are the size of golf balls)).The crust is just excellent. .just right… it will make you think you just saw the Bears lose another one in a bar on Division street.
No you don’t go to playa del carmen for great pizza, but if you are here and want an excellent pizza. .don Chendo your place. Ask for Russell, the owner. .and tell him” Joe sent me”…

Visited with my parents last night for my birthday and had a great experience. The place is small so we waited a bit for an outside table. The owner was super accommodating and gave us complimentary bruschetta while we waited. Once seated, I was able to get the special of the day which was the chicken Parmesan. WOW! This was the winner of the evening. The meatballs and caprese salad also looked delicious.
So get off the 5^th avenue and give this place a try!

Ordered 5 pizzas and a caprese salad. They said it would be an hour for delivery. 2 hours and 45 minutes later 3 pizzas and no salad show up. delivery man said they ran out of margharita pizza… apparently they ran out out of tomatoes and mozzarella also.

Tengo una ligera obsesión por el nombre de este lugar, me produce mucha risa el nombre de Don Chendo, aparte hace pizza italiana al mejor estilo de… ¿Chicago? Bueno, pues aunque no lo crean, en Chicago el significado de pizza dista mucho al tipo de pizza italiana que se puede encontrar en Italia o mismo Playa del Carmen.
La pizza italiana es delgadita, crujiente, casi que una hoja de masa con los ingredientes justos para que se puedan apreciar todos y cada uno de sus ingredientes y que, es cierto que le ponen pocos ingredientes, para que los disfrutes y no te sepa una mezcla de todo con sabor a nada. Bueno, muy al contrario de esa ideología, está la versión americanizada de esta pizza que originalmente es «modesta» en cuanto a la cantidad de ingredientes, pues ahora imagina esta delicia con las magnitudes de la gastronomía estadounidense. Con decirte que termina pareciendo pay de pizza rebozando queso. No hay duda que son deliciosas, pero yo creo que los italianos se mueren al ver esta versión de su tan intocable gastronomía.

Italia es pizza, pizza es Italia, Italia en México, Don Chendo, el padrino de la pizza en México con el sabor de Italia pero hecha por las manos americanas. Interesante combinación.
Don Chendo, lo encontrarás en la calle 30, entre calle 24 y 26 en Playa del Carmen. La especialidad de la casa, la pizza estilo Chicago ¿Cómo es esto? La Pizza estilo Chicago, tiene una base de pan gruesa y crujiente cubierta de queso y salsa de tomate, es una bomba. Tienen una gran variedad de pizzas desde la tan popular pepperoni hasta la posibilidad de poder armarla a tu propio gusto. Pero yo les hablaré de la vegetariana, esta esta hecha con mozarrella, salsa chendo, pimientos rojos y verdes, cebollas, champiñones y calabaza, con esto no querras comer jamás.
También ofrecen ensaladas, tales como, la popular capresse a sólo $ 85MXP. No hay que olvidar las pastas que pueden ser integral o libre de gluten, si tomas esta opción se lo suma $ 40MXP al costo del platillo.
Tienen una promoción bien entretenida, tienen una palabra mágica que ponen en sus redes sociales y si la sabes tienes un 10% de descuento sólo los días miércoles.
Tienen servicio a domicilio por si no quieres levantarte de tu sillón y los puedes contratar para tus eventos.
Don Chendo, es el padrino de la pizza estilo Chicago. ¡Capisci!

Fabulous! At last real American style pizza! Deep dish, New York style, everything Italian with sauces to die for!
I love the Chicken Fettuccine with a garlic sauce that is out of this world and my husband’s favorite is the Spaghetti with golf ball size Meatballs!
No more wimpy tasteless Pizza! Thank you Russell Granger!

Great restaurant! We thoroughly enjoyed our food and the great service from the staff. Our order (for 2 people) was a house salad, spaghetti and meatballs, The Chendo pizza, and a brownie. Food coma? Yes. Leftovers? Definitely. Regrets? Nope, not a one. Best meatballs I’ve had in a very long time and top notch Chicago deep dish! We’re only in Playa for a week but we are planning a return visit before we head back home.