At Las Ventanas al Paraiso
Km 19.5 on Highway 1, The Corridor
Halfway in Between San Jose del Cabo & Cabo San Lucas
Tel: (624) 144-0300
Date of Last Visit: 27 July 2007
The Victim: Mom
The Damage: Roughly $140 for two for lunch.
The Background: Nick San was fantastic, but I am STILL so mad about Mi Casa that I am looking for ways to eradicate the entire waste of a dining experience from my memory. I decide that we should have a Day of Me (or Mi, as the case might be) and I take us to Las Ventanas for an outrageously expensive lunch.
Las Ventanas is the type of hotel that doesn’t have a sign out front. So we go around and around in a big circle a few times before finally figuring out that that big weird white gate is IT. We are met at the gate by security and I have to give our last name and reason for visiting.
The Entrance: We are met at the front of the hotel and greeted by name. They take away the rental car (a gray minivan…very stylish, just like me) and a member of staff walks us all the way to the restaurant, which is open-air, facing the Pacific. It is beautiful. And I feel very expensive.
The Starters: They bring us some homemade tortilla chips, along with some guacamole, Mexican salsa (the chopped up tomato kind), and regular salsa (the more saucy American kind). They also bring me a huge margarita, and it is so ginormous and so delicious that I ponder it sadly, knowing that I will have to leave the majority behind because I am driving the sexy gray minivan (or people carrier, as the case may be).
Now all this might sound just a little bit not-exciting. Chips and salsa and a margarita? You can get that at TGI Fridays. But it was all in the lovely little details. The explanation of the salsas served, the information about the tequila in my margarita, the way they called my mother "Senorita." It was all just so very nice. Plus, I really want that tablecloth.
More Starters: We get the trio of seafood salad–ceviche, three ways, more or less. And it is unbelievably good. There are four mussels and it’s like they were just plucked from the sea. Never have I had mussels so fat and lovely and delicious. (And you should know that I’ve eaten a lot of mussels in my day. This one time, when I was about 12, my father took us to Maine for two weeks and we visited every all-you-eat-seafood-bar up and down the coast, where they frequently served mussels by the BUCKET. Buckets muy grande.) There is thinly sliced fish served with avocado. And a light seafood salad that we scoop up with the homemade tortilla chips.
The Mains: I order seafood salad and it comes with a whole avocado, sliced up perfectly. The seafood salad itself is amazing. There’s octopus in there and I fall in love with Las Ventanas forever. Honestly, the seafood salad is just so fresh and it’s dusted in just the right amount of citrus juice. I am in heaven.
The View: Amazing.
The Verdict: When can I move in?
