Restaurant Review: Eating lavishly in Cabo San Lucas

In this post:

• Clase Azul Restaurant - La Terraza

• Rosa Negra

• Arbol at Las Ventanas

• The speakeasy at Las Ventanas

The Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo area has quickly become one of my family's favorite destinations for a quick 3-5 day getaway. It's just a 2-hour direct flight away from LA to a place where the sun seems to always be shining and the weather is always a perfectly dry 80 degrees. Rich and I got married here, and now have a part-time house here, and we love it! It has a little for everyone - beautiful beaches, casual beach bars, lively nightlife, and high end gourmet dining. This review is focused on my most recent girls-only trip, where we celebrated a friend's birthday in style; we left our husbands and kids back in LA and treated ourselves to a few days of poolside drinks and high-end dinners. I would not particularly recommend any of the below restaurants for a night out with the kids - certainly not for the under 10 crowd, but also likely not for your tweens or teenagers, unless they are foodies and you don't mind spending quite a bit for them to eat out. I'd probably reserve these spots for a special adults-only night out as these were lavish in every sense of the word - lavish in taste, lavish in decor, and lavish in cost. But all well worth it in my eyes, you have to treat yourself once in a while!

La Terraza

First up, the restaurant nestled on the back patio behind the Clase Azul store at the Palmilla Shops. Even though our house is at Palmilla and we've been to these shops many times, I never knew this restaurant was back there! You enter through the shop and are led to a beautiful bar and dining room that is indoor/outdoor - beautiful vines and plants adorn the ceiling, and the vibe is very relaxed. We got the corn ceviche, roasted duck and catch of the day. They definitely understand the concept of eating with your eyes first - the presentation was gorgeous, almost too pretty to eat! But not fall victim to form over function, each dish was also just as delicious as it looked - we loved the crunchiness that the roasted corn provided in the ceviche and the duck was cooked to perfection. The service was excellent, which you would expect in an intimate space like this. Drinks and dessert also did not disappoint - we left quite full and happy. The bar is also beautiful and I could see bellying up there being a fun experience!

Rosa Negra

The birthday girl chose Rosa Negra for the official celebration night - and we immediately figured out why. The minute we stepped foot into this upscale and beautifully designed indoor/outdoor dining space we were surrounded by beautiful people dressed to the nines, loud and lively music, and sparklers everywhere! This is definitely the Mecca for birthday and bachelorette parties - every time a table springs for a bottle, about a dozen scantily clad and gorgeous staff parade through the restaurant waiving sparklers and sing to "Who Let the Dogs Out" and make a spectacle of the guest of honor. And there are LOTS of them in the house, as this seemed to be happening every couple of minutes or so. In-between, there was a very cool fire dancer show at 9pm that ended in the most amount of pyrotechnics I've ever seen for such a small space - the place looked like it was on fire! Mix in some bongo drummers, wait staff breaks to wave (yet more) sparklers and sing, and it's just a party everywhere you look. Service, predictably, was slow, but I could not imagine being a waiter weaving through all of the madness all night - all things considered, the service was probably better than I would have expected in a place like this. The food was also pretty good - we drooled over the seafood fried rice, and this coming from four Asian women, so you KNOW that's some good rice! The one thing that surprised us was that there was no real opportunity to stay and party after dinner was done - there was no bar scene or dance floor, even though there was plenty of space for them to create one. So it's a fun spot to grab a very lively dinner, but then find somewhere else to continue to party afterwards!

Arbol at Las Ventanas

As we were staying at Las Ventanas, we definitely had to check out Arbol - it's uber romantic and relaxed, so no sparklers here sans the occasional birthday dessert. The setting is stunning - the indoor/outdoor space is lined with leafless trees made from what looked like reclaimed wood to create dramatic and desert looking tree structures with lanterns hanging from them that surrounded us with soft light as we dined. The menu leans heavily Indian and pan-Asian and includes items like sushi and curries. We had the soft-shell crab as well - all was delicious! The setting really took the cake here, though, for me - I thought the food at Clase Azul was probably my favorite of trip, but I could have sat at Arbol all night staring at the decor. Service was wonderful as it was everywhere at Las Ventanas - I'd highly recommend this for a romantic dinner out with your partner!

To put it lightly, we definitely at and drank very well on this trip and I've found a few new spots to put on my recommendations list. Needless to say, drinks were also all great in these places, though if you are able, stop into the speakeasy at Las Ventanas after dinner one night - we were there three nights total and loved it every time! They have a wonderful live band and singers, plus dancers on the weekends - it's a small space, so it's very intimate and crowd participation is strongly encouraged! We found ourselves dancing every night and making new friends - probably my favorite part of this trip! Again, none of this came cheap - but definitely worth the splurge if you are able!