We're heading to Cabo in about 3 weeks and would appreciate any recommendations for good retaurants in Cabo, priced around $30-$50 for two people, including a drink each. Lively is fine, but we're around 60 and are not looking for places where young folks are trying to see who can be the first to get sick. Authentic Mexican places would be nice as well.

Thanks.

My favorite Cabo restaurant: www.misionesdekino.com It's a little hidden gem of a place downtown near Mar de Cortez hotel on V. Guerrero. Beautiful patio setting. Seafood, Mexican, Italian on the menu. Sometimes live music.

I also like Maro's Shrimp House, a very casual place with shrimp and lobster prepared simply and served by weight. It's on M. Hidalgo. Right across the street from Maro's is Mama's Royal Cafe an excellent place for breakfast. At night the same place turns into Felix's, a Mexican restaurant.

For breakfast on Medano Beach, I like The Office.

A bit fancier and Italian food www.caposangiovanni.com was very good. They have a really nice patio setting. Salvatore's at Siesta Suites hotel is another Italian place, more casual setting.

Gordo Lele's taco shop on Matamoros (also near Mar de Cortez hotel) is cheap and very good. Open approx. 11am-7pm.

Dave, Go to the Cabo San Lucas forum at Trip Advisor & there's a great group of active posters who will help you out. There's a restaurant list by "Trapper" you can print there that he keeps current and pretty much sums up all the best choices for where to eat in Cabo.

Thanks for your suggestions, Suze. I'll definitely also check out Trapper's recommendations.

Dave

I'll second the recommendation for The Office. My hotel was right next door, and I ended up eating two lunches and one breakfast there. Breakfast is great, but I thought the fish tacos at lunch were even better. Just make sure you get a table that's at least one row back from the beach, otherwise you'll get bothered by some of the vendors trying to sell their items while you eat.

One that looked great but I didn't make it to (peaked in but was not at a mealtime for me) is called 'Mariscos las Tres Islas'. It's a local seafood restaurant inland downtown. It consistently gets excellent reviews and judging by the kitchen prep I saw going on, very fresh. It seemed mostly locals eating there.

On Trip Advisor someone thought Capo San Giovanni may have closed. Their website is still up so I'm not sure.

Suze- I need a little help. I went to TA, certainly found lots of listings and reviews for restaurants, which was great. But I did not see how to navigate the site to find reviews by specific people such as Trapper. Can you give me some direction on that?

By the way, we've been to CSL and to the Office, which we do like. Last time our table was on the porch.

Dave: Here is the link to Trapper's list:

http://www.trapperscabolist.com/


We also like Tabasco's on the beach. Less expensive and not as rowdy as the Office can get later in the day.

For nice dining and a pretty setting, we like Mi Casa $$

Another nice setting, but can be $$$, depending on what you order is Las Golondrinas.

Have a great time and report back.

MY

Thanks MichelleY for posting Trappers List. The only problem with it is that he does such a good job covering so many places (it is updated regularly) you still need help in narrowing down where to eat -lol!

I agree, I only like the Office for breakfast and the earlier the better. Later in the day and evening the atmosphere changes and it's too busy, hectic for me. In the evenings they have shows and stuff.

Suze: I think the Office has gotten way overpriced in the last 5-6 years. Plus, the crowd gets way too rowdy and drunk by late afternoon. Several years back we were there for dinner with our then tween daughter. It was definitely getting "R" rated. Embarassing.

So little time and too many great places to try!!

The Office is still VERY nice for breakfast I was there just in '09. A beautiful way to start the day. It was a teeny bit more expensive than downtown, but not by much. You're right from what I saw as well, by later in the day not so much.

Thanks to all. We'll be eating our first dinner down there a week from now. I'll post a report after I get back. Maybe my big activity for the week will be keeping notes on dining. That shouldn't be too tough.

Dave

We like Edith's for dinner, which can be a touch pricey. I love the Stoplight or Senor Greenberg's for lunch, both are quite reasonable.

As I noted before I went, I am posting my report. I wrote way too much to type it all, but I will note the highlights and lowlights.

Suze and MichelleY, you are very right about the Office for dinner. I don't think I saw a entree for less than $20, the menu itself didn't appeal to us and we were seated about 10 feet from the stage. I couldn't hear my wife, Kittycat48 or the waiter. We walked out. We went to Billygan's next door and were pleasantly surprized by the guac and chips (us),good enchiladas (me) and good shrimp ceviche (Kitty). All for about half of what the Office's prices for similar entrees.

One night, we went to Felix'. I thought their food was pretty bland, but I give them credit for having a good selection of regional dishes from around Mexico and a big (30-40 item) salsa bar, including many items I have never seen. The owner suggested mixing two of the salsas to enchance the flavor of my dishes and that did help.

A big highlight was the Los Cabos Winery and Restaurant. Off the beaten track, about 4 blocks up from Cardenas on Francisco Villa, the owner, Robert, is from California and gets his grapes primarily from there, and makes the wine in his wine cellar, which he shows you if you are interested. We were. In the afternoons, they offer flights of their 6 wines, but in the evening, they will give you a taste of ones you don't order. We particularly liked their sparkling wine and the red one from Argentina (I think, but it may have been from Chile). They offer tapas, dinner versions of the tapas and other full dinners. We really liked the coconut shrimp with mango sauce (not so much the shrimp with a chile-garlic sauce, sort of flavorless, plus the sauce needed to be served warm or hot) and loved the filet steak, which was the most tender steak either of us had ever eaten. On Saturdays, when we went, they have music from a piano payer and a chick singer (she called herself that). They mostly did American songbook tunes (Gershwin, Porter, Rodgers, etc.) and were excellent. The room is set up in an unusual maner, with mostly with couches and high bar tables, only a few regular dining tables. We just had a great time.

A woman at our resort recommended the Baja Cantina for appetizers and cheap drinks. It's at the Marina. Appetizers were $3 each. She was right. The food was good, especially the calamari strips, tostadas, taquitos and nachos. 5 drinks and 5 appetizers for $31, plus tip.

Along with the wine bar, Maro's Shrimp House was our most satisfying dinner. They butterfly the shrimp and serve it with a butter sauce. What they don't do is overcook it, and from my personal experience, overcooking shrimp is easy. I had my 6 jumbo prawns with a New York steak, almost as tasty as the one at the Wine bar. Kitty had a dish in a bowl which included cheese and her 6 prawns and really liked that. Maro was a little upset and was showing a trip advisor review which was somewhat negative. I think he was sort of soliciting rebuttals! Most on that forum are positive like mine, and several other people at our resort ate there, also with positive reports. A couple of those people told us that the lobster was really good.

On our last night, we went to the Hacienda Cocina and Cantina, which was a mixed experience. Since this was an upscale place and was at a resort, I expected more than from a cheaper place. The appretizers were good. Kitty again had ceviche (she loves ceviche) and I had the tortilla soup, which was spicier than most, but very good. Kitty had enchiladas which were tiny, and I had a chile relleno, which was not soft, but sort of crunchy. I think that's wrong, and I didn't like it. Neither plate came with side dishes and we it really was not enough to eat, even for Kitty, who eats much less than I do. I hate to give a restaurant additional buisness by ordering something else when that happens, but we did order dessert and were glad we did. We had churros, which came with two cauces, chocolate and caramel. We agreed that the caramel was great.

Just before we took our taxi back to the airport, we had lunch at the restaurant at our resort, Club Cascadas de Baja. Kitty again had enchiladas, which she really liked and I had a grilled chicken sandwich which I though was really good, too. One thing that is great about Mexico is that they almost always going to give you either avocado or guacamole as garnish, and the chicken sandwich had avocado. I not only love that as part of the sandwich, but it is a great substitute for cheese.

Thanks again to all for your suggestions. Happy travels!