Cabo San Lucas and area
A week in Cabo (two nights on Pacific side at Pueblo Bonito Pacifica, lovely, quiet, isolated), five on Sea of Cortez side near San Jose del Cabo at Westin Resort and Spa -- great place, but you'll want to make sure you have a car) resulted in a handful of good meals:
Aire: The poolside restaurant at the Pacifia. It was late, we were tired and had gotten lost on way from airport, and we just wanted a quiet and casual dinner. Aire lived up to the resort's claims of having fresh, high-quality ingredients, with an outdoor kitchen/grill and gas-lit heaters to warm us as we listened to the surf. Shrimp quesadilla, chicken quesadilla, both with freshly made guacamole. And excellent margaritas on the rocks. Much better than I expect from hotel food.
Mi Casa in Cabo San Lucas: Other reviewers on Chowhound have discussed Mi Casa, and when we first tried to go we were turned away because we didn't have reservations. The hostess recommended a nearby restaurant, O Mole Mio, and gave us a card for free drinks there. We wish we had ignored her advice; the menu was limited (apparently geared toward someone's idea of what American tourists might like), the tortilla soup was just okay, and the steak fajitas were lackluster.
But based on reviews, I still wanted to try Mi Casa so we made a reservation later in the week and were delighted with our dinner. Try the mixed seafood platter for two to share; the fish was fresh, the flavors and sauces distinct. Plus it was hilarious listening to the mariachi band playing American pop tunes.
Miguel's in Todo Santos: The sign says "Best Chili Rellenos," and I can't disagree. They were out of lobster by the time we stopped for lunch, but the shrimp chili rellenos to die for.
Buzzards, near San Jose del Cabo -- sort of. You take a dirt road from town but hit pavement before long, passing turnoffs and rotaries for the marina and a resort or two, passing through Pueblo La Playa. Mostly you pass desert scrub and an occasional cow into the road. And then appears the sea and a tiny hamlet with Buzzards, an outdoor cafe and bar. I stopped here the first time while heading for the East Cape Road (a misnomer; it's dirt, and be careful what you're driving) because I wanted to see more of the non-tourist Sea of Cortez and its great beaches, whales just offshore, isolation, etc.). Buzzards is just before the start of the East Cape Road. Excellent fresh fish tacos (I think the fish was dorado). I went back the next day with companions who enjoyed it just as much, and we shared a delectable appetizer of coconut shrimp.
Nancy's, in Cabo Pulmo. This is way off the beaten path, and it requires a detour about midway up the highway between San Jose del Cabo and La Paz.. It also requires a spirit of adventure, because the only way to get here is to drive down a long dirt road -- I'm guessing about eight miles or so, maybe a little shorter, with quite a few rocks. This gets you to the upper part of the East Cape Road, and the only people around Cabo Pulmo were serious divers and adventurers (because there is a coral reef here). Everything is solar powered; you are truly off the grid. And here is Nancy's, with pots and pans hanging from the ceiling, a stove in the middle of the room, and great reviews. They even have cooking classes on occasion. It's part of a B&B. My wife had lobster fajitas, I had a lobster relleno. You have to really, really want to go here to wind up here, and I suspect this is further from civilization than 99 percent of Cabo visitors ever get. But we sure liked it, and the overall experience was our most memorable of the trip.
