Led by an impressive slate of celebrity chefs and homegrown talent, dinnertime in Los Cabos is now an exercise in inspiration. Enrique Olvera, whom many credit with reigniting the food world’s love affair with Mexico, made a bold statement when he signed up to oversee a restaurant in the region. It makes sense when you learn he sources most of the fish for his celebrated Mexico City eatery, Pujol, from Baja. While the anthropologist-minded Olvera seems to stray at uber-sleek
Manta (pictured; located in The Cape, a Thompson Hotel), upon closer inspection his commitment to place is evident. The lauded chef worked with the hotel’s architect and designer to conceive a glassed-in cube with unobstructed views of Los Cabos’ famous Arcos rock formation. Interiors come alive through copper accents and custom details that celebrate the country, like the textured dinnerware he co-designed with a ceramicist in Guadalajara. A stone’s throw away, Richard Sandoval’s
Toro Latin Kitchen & Bar is a sight to behold with its cuboid exterior, sunken bar, and floor-to-ceiling walls of ceramic pots. Located within the same posh community of Esperanza, Auberge Resorts
’ open-air
Cocina del Mar is completing a top-to-bottom renovation with a revered L.A. designer who gathered materials (stone quarried from a nearby mountain, dinnerware made in a village en route to Todos Santos, honeyed parota slabs) from within a 500-mile radius. In the middle of the hotel-filled corridor that connects Cabo San Lucas and San José, you’ll eat little masterpieces from one of Los Cabos’ few Michelin-starred chefs at the all-inclusive Grand Velas, a Mexican brand that applies exclusivity to the package-deal experience.
Cocina de Autor, helmed by Dutch chef Sidney Schutte, retains the gold-tinged elegance of the fine dining restaurants of yore (tasting menus, white-glove service, and lots of shiny glamour), but adds the mid-century shapes and playfulness preferred today. Back in downtown San José,
H Restaurant runs under the radar and leaves a lasting impression. Intimate dining rooms are sandwiched between planked wood ceilings and traditional tiles. Brick walls, shelves full of books and curios, and a charismatic piano player fill the space between.
Another family-run outfit,
CárbonCábron, achieves the same warm, underground-like atmosphere, except with a darker, highly stylized vibe. Brothers Alfonso and Ignacio Cadena (one a celebrated chef, the other a guns-blazing architect) came together on this brawny live-fire restaurant, where five communal tables stretch out between partitions of stacked logs, all pointing to a hefty custom charcoal grill and wood-burning oven.