Poolside Lunch from Agave at Sandos Finisterra

Tasty lunch from Agave!!   You could order pickup service from the podium and bring to your chair. Only took twenty minutes.   Fish tacos, shrimp tacos, chicken taquitos and a chef"s salad.  Chef's salad had fresh crispy lettuce, cucumbers, avocado and bacon with a savory herb dressing.  Taquitos would have just been generic, except they added some crispy shredded lettuce, crema and my favorite Mexican cheese.  Cojita!!   Very fresh, crispy and tasty.   Both tacos were prepared similarly and had a warm flour tortilla dressed with a chipotle crema and a slightly spicy vinegar slaw.   The fish tacos were my favorite since they were a bit crunchier.  Both outstanding!!  Always great when you can get food at your pool chair.  I understand that during "normal" times, the pool waiters will take your order for both the Pizzeria and Agave and bring to your chair.   Great start to the afternoon!!

Dinner at Tortuga Beach at Sandos Finisterra

Great dishes at Tortuga Beach tonight!!!  Hard to pick a favorite but have to go with the seared tuna main dish.   The rub had just enough heat and the fish cooked perfectly rare.  Also great was the guac and spicy crab dip - very much like a deconstructed California roll.   Shrimp wontons had a creative presentation where the wonton was wrapped around the whole shrimp then fried.  Scallop salad with almonds and asparagus also delicious.  They know how to cook seafood here.  And for dessert, had to go with the whoopie pie and a scoop vanilla!!

Lunch at Seaside Grill at Secrets Los Cabos

We had most of our lunches here at the Seaside Grill.  Sometime it can be hard to find ala carte lunch at an all inclusive so it was a great option. So many good choices.  These are an accumulation of several lunches.  I didn't want you to think we ate all.of these at the same time.  

When you first sit done, they bring you some freshly fried and salted tortilla chips along with one bowl of refried beans and another of fresh made salsa.   In most "Mexican" restaurants in the United States, they have extremely poor versions of refried beans.  Usually pasty, gluey and no flavor.  Not here at Secrets.  These are authentic, creamy and with a bit of heat from Chipotle.  The Salsa had a good amount of heat from chipotle and also some sweetness, perhaps from agave.  And then there was some brinoised cilantro which added some freshness.  

Octopus tostada was a creamy blend of chopped octopus in a mayo-bassd sauce.  

Tuna sashimi was some freshly slice pieces of tuna sitting in top of a slightly sweet sauce which has some rice wine vinegar, thinly sliced jalapeno and cilantro.  

Pesadilla were corn tortillas stuffed with Baja style fish and then deep fried.   They were so good we had them for every lunch.  They were fantastic with the salsa.

Fish tacos had some of the same type.of fish used in the pescadilla, but larger pieces which had been fried.  

This was a shrimp Po Boy.  The shrimp were pretty well fried but there was simply too much bread.  I just ate the shrimp.  

This was the grilled fish.  Simple prepared and pretty tasty.

The executive  chef Israel had come to our table at Oceana the night before and asked where we were having lunch the next day.  We told him Seaside Grille and the he asked what one of our favorite dishes was.  I replied that we loved fresh fried fish.   

When we shows up for lunch, Brenda the restaurant manager brought us to our two-top table and suggested we order a few small appetizers since they would have a "surprise" for our main.  We ordered some pescadilla and a shrimp cocktail.  When we were done with those, Brenda came over sna said we had to move because our table wasn't big enough for what was coming.  What was coming?  You can see below.  An amazing fresh fried snapper.  Probably about six pounds.  And it had been coated in a very flavorfful rub with spices but it didn't overpower the flaky fish.   And it had a great crispy exterior but still maintained a moist inside flesh. 

We spent at least 90 minutes going through each tasty morsel of fish.  One of my favorite parts is the bony collar where you can find lots of the best meat.  Darker in color and so much flavor.  They also had fresh corn and flour tortillas along with a spicy chili oil for drizzling.  Added just enough punch.  Without a doubt, my favorite dish at Seaside Grille.  

Room Service at Sandos Finisterra

Definitely the fastest room service I have ever had at an all-inclusive!! Only took twenty minutes.   And hot food as well.   Tasty, beefy cheeseburger, crispy fries and Mexican shrimp.cocktail.  I just love the sauce they use for the shrimp.  Slightly tangy with some sweetness - perhaps from agave.  And there were about eight medium sized shrimp, really well cooked.  Not mealy as can happen when they are overcooked.

Dinner at Emiliano's at Sandos Finisterra

Good start to our stay!!  Dinner was at Emiliano's.   Our starters were an artichoke antipasto with Serrano ham, beef carpaccio and cream of tomato soup. Beef carpaccio was very tasty with crumbly parmesan. The artichoke antipasto had deliciously marinated artichoke and salty ham. Good combo and I think the best dish of the night.    Mains were beef lasagna, veggie ravioli and mushroom risotto.  The risotto was some of the best I have ever had.  Beef lasagna has some good flavor but I would have liked more Italian spices.   The veggie ravioli dough was very thick and pasty.  Really detracted from the filling which was very good.  

Went to Cupcake Cafe for a really great mini lemon meringue pie.  The meringue was very much like marshmallow and was a nice contrast to the slightly sour lemon filling.  Finished the night at Whale Watchers with a Tamarind Margarita.

Dinner at Oceana at Secrets Los Cabos

Here in Los Cabos, the landscape is so different than the east coast of Mexico.  Where Riveria Maya is mostly flat, Los Cabos is almost mountainous.   Such interesting terrain.  So while we were excited to eat at Oceana since we have dined at the same venue at other Secrets resorts, we weren't expecting such a great view from our table.  

What a great table!!   So many things to try.  I think I could have ordered one of every appetizer but decided it would be prudent to narrow it to three so we'd have room for mains.  

First up was Shrimp Aguachile Sinaloa style.  I had not had this dish before so excited to try it.   It is similar to a ceviche except it is shrimp and not fish.  Also, the shrimp is whole with tails in.  The liquid is a blend of lime juice, sal, chili peppers and cilantro.  It also has sliced cucumbers.   The acid really brought out the shrimp flavor. 

Next up was Peruvian ceviche.  This was more you think of when you order ceviche. Small bite sized pieces of fish that is marinated in lime juice and pepper.  I loved the addition of the pickled onion and fresh slivers of peppers. 

My favorite appetizer was Esquites which is commonly refered to as Mexican street corn.  I have had this dish a few times.  The traditional preparation is where the corn is grilled in the husks and then the corn is covered in mayonnaise, chili flakes and cojita cheese.  Cojita has a similar texture and flavor to feta cheese. I have also had it where the corn is taken off the cob and then mixed together with those three additions.  I had not seen such a creative version as what was served at Oceana.  You had a dish if fresh corn with nicely cooked shrimp.  And then separate dishes of mayo, chili powder and cojita cheese.  And you then made your own perfect bite of Esquites.  So creative and so delicious.  

Our first main was the butter octopus. 

Over many years of travel into Mexico, I have always found the preparation of octopus to be so much better than any I have had in the United States.  And this dish was no different.  It can be easy to have octopus be tough and chewy.   Here it seems that the octopus has been braised and then grilled briefly.  It came in a buttery sauce with just a hint of garlic.  People will always say that lobster is their idea of an indulgent, succulent bite of food. I would strongly disagree.  Octopus, cooked properly, is so much better.  

Our other main was a fish fillet.  And like most great fish dishes, this was simply prepared.   Grilled but still moist.  

And the best part of the dish was it had been topped with minced pieces of octopus and shrimp.  Those had been also grilled separately in butter and garlic.  They were slightly crispy so it added some needed texture.  A real clever preparation. 

With such a great view, we didn't want the evening to end so we ordered two desserts.  First was a passion fruit cheesecake.  

Mild cream cheese flavor, punched up with a slightly sour passion fruit sauce. I loved that this wasn't overly sweet.  

Second was a chocolate mousse.  

Smooth chocolate inside a crisp outer shell.  

Dinner at Portofino at Secrets Los Cabos

 Dinner at Portofino Restaurant at Secrets Los Cabos

If you have stayed at a Secrets resort, you will find that they all have some similar restaurants.  This helps with brand loyalty so that when you visit a new Secrets, you can find your favorites.  This is true of the italian restaurant Portofino.  This was dinner for our first night.

They brought a great selection of bread and poured olive oil and balsamic on a side plate for dipping.  I usually don't eat the bread, but here it looked so good I had to try. My favorite was the focaccia with onion.  The cracker was also so tasty.  I expected it to be super crisp, but it had a nice flaky texture - almost like thin pie dough.

Started off with a delicious beef carpaccio.  This was delicate, thinly sliced beef with arugula, olive oil and some especially tasted crunchy parmesan crumbs.  Hard to describe them any other way.  Parmesan is a staple of most carpaccios but to see it used in a more creative way says a lot about the chef.  Added some much needed crunch.

Next up was something I also order at an italian restaurant.  Just like I will always try the burger and fries at a pub, you can see a lot about the chef at an italian restaurant by trying the lasagna.  

This wasn't the best lasagna I have ever had.  For that you would have to go back to my blog from Live Aqua from earlier this year.  That one would be hard to beat.   This one at Portofino had it's merits.  The pasts was cooked properly and not gummy.  The bolognese sauce was not overly complicated.  You could clearly taste the tomato and meat.  It could have used some more savory notes  It was topped with a creamy bechamel sauce with some drizzles of pesto.    I would order it again.  But they may want to visit Live Aqua for some pointers.

Next up was shrimp favoli.  This was delicate pockets of pasta with just cooked shrimp.  Simple and delicious.  I usually don't order shrimp in restaurant because I find they get overcooked to easily.  And like most seafood, it is not forgiving when overcooked.  The sauce may have had a bit of fontina cheese.  It complimented the shrimp and was helped by a reappearance of the pesto drizzle.

I also tried the mushroom risotto.  This had deep mushroom flavor. The arborio rice was cooked to al dente but the dish had been over reduced.  It wasn't salty, but the result was a little gummy.  So great flavor.  Just more like asian sticky rice than risotto.

The last dish of the night was my least favorite.  It was a beef tenderloin and spicy pasta special.  I had asked for medium rare and the beef was medium well.  It did have flavor, but was a bit tough due to it being cooked too much.  The pasta was cooked al dente and the sauce did have a nice kick.  They kept it simple since it seemed to only be tomatoes, red pepper flakes and probably a little sugar and salt.

I would return to this restaurant but probably start here for appetizers and move on to a different restaurant for entrees.  What is your favorite italian dish?  Leave me a comment.