Our Honeymoon was over a year ago at this point, but I felt sharing my thoughts on the places we dined in Cabo San Lucas Mexico was necessary….Okay, okay, I fail at being timely with my reviews sometimes, especially the larger ones, but it’s better late than never right? RIGHT?
Me overlooking the resort.
This will be a two part series: A review of our experiences on the Pueblo Bonito Sunset Resort property, and a review of our experiences eating in downtown Cabo.
Pueblo Bonito Subset Beach Resort is a bit secluded from the rest of the hotels and resorts located in downtown Cabo, being about a 15-20 minute shuttle or cab ride from the center of town. Therefore, it’s pretty self sufficient in and of itself and includes 9 restaurants and bars throughout the resort. In addition, the suites come with a fully stocked and equipped kitchen. When selecting a room you can choose to have all inclusive, which would include a meal plan for most of the restaurants on property, or not. After speaking to a manager we opted not to do all inclusive, allowing us the opportunity to dine out in town or cook on our own without ‘wasting money’. Before we dive into the dining experiences we had on the property here’s some suggestions for dining in Spanish speaking countries on a gluten free diet: 1. Remember the Spanish words for Wheat (Trigo), Rye (Centeno), Barley (Cebada), and Oats (Avena). Gluten in Spanish is well, simply gluten. 2. If you aren’t a conversational Spanish speaker consider bringing a copy of a gluten free dining card in Spanish. Triumph Dining sells packs, but you might also find some for print out by googling.
3. If you want nacho’s consider ordering them as ‘lite nachos’, or asking for them baked if your server doesn’t understand what that means. This was taught to us by one of the bartenders on the resort, and worked wonders to eliminate the cross contamination and give me the opportunity to have nachos and other fried items.
I’ve tried my best to briefly sum up the experiences we had dining gluten free on the property below.
LaFrida:
LaFrida is Sunset Beach’s Mexican Cuisine restaurant, who’s design was inspired by artist Frida Kahlo. Only open for dinner Tuesday-Sunday, they are on the pricier side of the cost spectrum and are not included in the all inclusive option. I honestly would NEVER eat here if it wasn’t a honeymoon, and was disappointed with the prices. Staff seemed knowledgeable, with the help of the dining cards, and were willing to accommodate our needs. Many dishes were safe without question, and other things could be altered.
We ordered two dishes to share, and were also given a few things on the house to taste. Our dinner included Bluefin Tuna Tartar, a soup of Asparagus, Spinach, Parmigiano cheese and white truffle oil, a salad of beets, pecans, greens, raspberry, and honey, white chocolate rosemary ice cream, and a few drinks. Overall the food was very high quality and delicious, although the portions were small. We found the staff to be helpful, although quick to get frustrated and annoyed. I can attribute this somewhat to the language barrier, but at one point one gentlemen who clearly understood what we were saying took offence to us saying we couldn’t have the complimentary dish and rushed off with an audible sign and an eye roll. This being our first experience I was a bit upset and worried for the week to come, that is until the manager came over to apologize for the confusion and offer us another dish. Here’s the final verdict:
Gluten Free Options: 1
Atmosphere: 1
Price: 0
Hospitality: .5
Food Quality: 1
TOTAL SHAMROCK SCORE: 3.5
The Bistro:
The Bistro, sunset’s international ‘family style’ dining experience is one of their more causal restaurants and is open 24 hours. The place has indoor and outdoor seating galore, allowing for minimal wait time and beautiful views of the ocean (and whales!). The first time we went here I used the dining card with my waiter, and our presence and needs spread throughout the staff like wild fire. Every server after that knew instantly what I was speaking about when I started the gluten free introduction, and was happy and willing to accommodate or answer any questions we might have..
This became our go to spot, and I felt comfortable exploring new dishes. I honestly can’t find anything wrong with any of the dishes we had here (which included items for breakfast, lunch, and dinner). We had dishes like Shrimp tacos, Sashimi with jalapeno, Sea Bass with Vegetable sides and rice, Fish A la Talla, Breakfast omelettes, salads, nachos, plenty of drinks, and flan. The flan, my god the flan: It was amazing. All delicious, all good portions, all decently priced, and all served with a smile.
Gluten Free Options: 1
Atmosphere: 1
Price: 1
Hospitality: 1
Food Quality: 1
TOTAL SHAMROCK SCORE: 5
General Resort Accommodations:
Outside of the restaurants, there were many small bars and swim up spots (Yes I could swim while eating a taco and drinking a margarita) where we could grab a quick bite to eat on the resort property. We learned quickly that if we wanted nachos that weren’t fried we just had to ask for ‘lite nachos’, which meant they were baked, so a variety of nacho dishes became a good go to snack. We also had access to gluten free sushi and sashimi, salads, ceviche, tacos, dips and salasa, and other items. Oh, and Drinks. Lots and lots of drinks. After day two or so EVERY server we spoke to knew of our needs and was happy to accommodate, make suggestions, or answer questions about the various menus at each location.
There were only two things that weren’t gluten free friendly about the restaurant. First, their breakfast buffet was almost entirely gluten based so it wasn’t worth our money. A few additions to this would quickly solve this problem. Secondly, there wasn’t a large convenience store on the property that had a lot of gluten free options. Although there was one that offered deli sandwiches and salad options in addition to some of the grocery staples there weren’t many fresh ingredients, or gluten free selections here. We found it easier to shop in town at one of the other resorts that had a small supermarket. It was also cheaper to do this.
Overall our experience at this resort was fantastic, and far from the disaster I was anticipating. Once we were understood, and the language barrier crossed, we were accommodated happily (mostly) and served wonderful food. I would highly recommend it for a trip to Cabo, regardless of the fact that it’s slightly biased because I have no experience with other resorts anywhere. Either way, you know it’s a safe option!
The Bistro, sunset’s international ‘family style’ dining experience is one of their more causal restaurants and is open 24 hours. The place has indoor and outdoor seating galore, allowing for minimal wait time and beautiful views of the ocean (and whales!). The first time we went here I used the dining card with my waiter, and our presence and needs spread throughout the staff like wild fire. Every server after that knew instantly what I was speaking about when I started the gluten free introduction, and was happy and willing to accommodate or answer any questions we might have.. 
Thanks for this great info. Going there in August and this was very useful info.
You are welcome Alyssa, I am glad it was helpful! Have a wonderful time!