Snobby travel privilege alert: We just spent 4-plus months in the Los Cabos area of South Baja in Mexico trying to avoid the Covid-19 crisis and looking to live (and continue to dine) outside in the warmth during the winter months. Success. We spent the first month in Todos Santos, the second in Cabo San Lucas, and we finished it up with two months in San Jose Del Cabo. Simply put, the three areas can’t be more different.
We’ve talked at length about TS, and said all we have to say about Cabo, so now it’s time for SJD and, to make this one a little different, we’re just going to talk food. Yeah, it’s warm. Yeah, the beaches are good. Oh, look, there’s a whale and a place to get cheap Viagra. Yada, yada, yada. Food is the only thing that really matters to us here, so it’s the only thing we’re going to write about.
San Jose Del Cabo is a sneaky good food town. Of the Los Cabos towns, Cabo gets more press and has a wider variety of places and probably a larger selection of higher-end establishments, but for my money, SJD is just better.
As I’ve said before – at length – I’m not a travel blogger or food blogger. Tastes vary. Opinions vary. What I think about food and restaurants is different. That said – again – below is a selection of places to check out if you’re in town. You won’t be disappointed.
La Lupita
Mexico is all about tacos, and La Lupita doesn’t mess around. This is the famous one, kinda. Ask anyone who visits San Jose about tacos and you’ll probably hear La Lupita. It’s becomming an institution. It has a great atmosphere. It’s kinda quirky, has and interior courtyard patio with nightly live music, and enough of a menu to please any palate (the menu has like 30 different tacos). Of course the al pastor is quality. Of course the suckling pig and barbacoa are quality. I particularly liked the octopus, duck with mole, and crunchy volcano, but that’s me. Oh, and the churros at the end are fab.
Pro Taco Tip: Do not disturb the taco. Lift slightly and hold the taco, then move your face to meet it. See below.
Norte Chilango
Like I said above, La Lupita is the famous one, but Norte Chilango is the better one. It’s less popular, less known, the menu is much smaller, and the place is unassuming – it’s outside and looks like a deconstructed food truck under a tarp and surrounded by cinder block walls. But the tacos are the shit. This place is just good. End of story.
Flora Farms
Okay, where to start here. Flora Farms was started by a couple from Sonoma California (and man, does it show). This place is the class of the farm to table experience in South Baja, and just about anywhere else to be frank. They have their own farms for harvesting, animals for butchering, spas for yoga-ing, cooking classes for learning, pizza ovens for pizza-ing, villas for living, and trinkets for buying. This is high-end excellence. It’s a true Southern California farm and spa experience in Baja California. It’s a little out of the way, but definitely worth the visit if you are a foodie – or you want to think you’re in SoCal again.
Pictured below: Desert tamale with vanilla ice cream. Fab.
Acre
This is a hard one. Acre (pronounced ah-kray) seems to be trying a little too hard to be Flora Farms. Man, the place is hand down beautiful. The grounds are incredible, surrounded by lush gardens and private residences (we even saw a peacock running around). It has an incredible presence. But it’s just a little underwhelming in the food and service arena. You’ll love being there, you’ll never forget the splendor, but then you’ll probably easily forget everything you ate and drank on the way back to wherever you’re staying in a $25 taxi.
Baja Brewery
Colorado craft beer lovers rejoice. Baja Brewery has been around for a long time. It was started a couple decades ago by a couple craft beer veterans from Fort Collins, has beer in every bar and restaurant in town, and their own brewery in DT SJD has become quite a fixture. It has good craft beer and okay brewery fare. It’s just a cool place to go, grab a pint or two, and feel like you’re at home (see Flora Farms).
Chula Vegan Cafe
Chula is another hard one for me. First of all, they make a really good vegan cappuccino – although I would never try a vegan cappuccino. I just heard someone say that. Vegan cappuccinos are abominations from the devil himself. What Chula does have that I like are vegetables. I mean, you can only have so many pork tacos before things start to get, shall we say, difficult to process. Sometimes you just need some roughage, and it’s definitely the best selection for a vegan, vegetarian, or whatever in town. It’s really good quality, but sadly lacks just a little flavor (cue the carnivores laughing at me as if to say all veggie food lacks flavor. “Want flavor, put some meat on it,” I hear them snickering in their deepest meathead voices). The salads and bowls are definitely worthy, as is the vegan burrito, the juices, and protein bites. No matter your tastes, it’s totally a nice break from the overwhelming meat presence of Baja.
A few more:
French Riviera
Our go-to for great croissant and other pastry. I mean, I can’t be expected to go more than a few days without fresh French pastry, can I?
Choriarte
A very good Latin food experience. Think Peruvian and Argentinian street food. Great atmosphere, really good cocktails, live music, a quirky car remade into an outdoor grill where they cook their house-made sausages and all other kinds of meats. It’s just a good spot to be. I really liked the sangria and smoked watermelon sashimi.
Koi sushi
Just yummy sushi at unbelievable prices (like a $5 tuna sashimi platter with tuna caught that morning). The location isn’t great, but who cares. The chef catches the fish himself each morning and you can have said sashimi platter, a couple rolls, and a couple drinks and get out for like $20. Find me a place in The States where you can get that now-a-days. Fresh is always best.
Last but not least:
Drinking Time Snack Bar
This was our local bar. And by that, I mean it was close to us and filled with locals (meaning snow bird Canadians). It’s not much more than a shack on the side of the road, but it always had cold Cerveza Sol (my favorite), good bites, and friendly service. And it was cheap. Like really cheap. We’d see the same folks there most times, fishermen after their daily tours, contractors after work, and the Canadians…lots and lots of Canadians. It’s everything you want in a local bar.
The Take Away
That’s it. Yeah, there are dozens of other nice restaurants, tons of really cool galleries, and a weekly art walk. Yeah, there are burger places, churro places, and a shit-load of cars parked on the roads, trunks open to reveal coolers filled with what are surely the best tamales known to man. And yeah, I’m not mentioning coffee places because I am constantly horrified by the Starbucks-ification of the North American coffee culture and my lack of ability to find a proper caffè. But, after a couple months of living there, and more than four months in the area, these are the places we visited with regularity because they deserved it.
Time for a salad.
