On our visits to the restaurants in Plaza Novvo, we had noticed an interesting restaurant right across the street – Cabo Grill Shop and Spoon. Opening in May of 2023, Cabo Grill Shop is a family friendly hidden gem in Los Cabos. There is seating both outside and two seating areas and a bar under the palapa at the back of the property. The outdoor seating area is covered in artificial turf. In the center of the outdoor seating area of the restaurant are a series of refrigerated display cases, which hold the product of Spoon, a delicatessen that originally opened in Cabo Bello and then moved to Plaza Novo. Spoon offers homemade salsas, pies and other bakery items. The Cabo Grill Shop is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner from 8:00 am to 10:00 pm every day except Tuesday.
One of the first things that you see when entering the restaurant is a very large play area for children on the left. It contains a trampoline, slide, swing set, small play set and even a mini-climbing wall. Miguel Leon and Barbara Puig said that they wanted to create a place where parents could enjoy their friends and meals, while the children also had fun.
The menu offers a wide range of choices for all three meals. For breakfast guests can choose from many preparations of eggs, omelets, waffles, pancakes, French toast, breakfast sandwiches and healthy choices of fruit, granola and salad. For lunch there are a great choice of chicken, pork and brisket sandwiches, burgers, wings and salads. The dinner menu adds to the lunch dishes appetizers like tuna tartar and tostadas, sausage, burrata salad and main courses of fish, chicken, ribs, steaks and pork loin.
Miguel was going to study to be an architect but also loved the kitchen and ended up studying to become a chef, even taking special courses at the Culinary Institute of America offered in Mexico City. His first six years in Los Cabos were as a private chef in Palmilla and then as part of the catering team at Lazy Gourmet. He described how he makes most of the food, sauces and salsa in house, with a small herb garden beside the kitchen. With the salsa creations for Spoon, Miguel’s skill with combining sweet and savory is quite amazing. The sausage and hamburgers are also ground with special spice additions at the restaurant as is the bread for the buns, pita and other dough-based items on the menu.
We started are meal with two appetizers – the tuna tartar and the sausage. The sausage is made in-house with a little spice built in and served on a sweet potato purée. The tuna tartar is the best that I have ever had. The tuna has some small pieces of strawberry mixed in and the avocado base includes pieces of apple. The whole dish is in a ponzu sauce that also has some habanero mixed in. The combination of the sweet and savory in every bite was amazing. The tuna tartar was served with crispy wontons to add to the flavor.
For a main course, Beth ordered the Crispy Chicken Sandwich (with no cheese), with was served with coleslaw, French fries and a small bowl of pickles. It was a large sandwich, which meant that half went home for lunch the next day. Beth loved the flavor of the coated chicken with coleslaw and the very crispy fries. I chose the Pork Loin for my entrée. The large slab of sliced pork loin was served over a plantain purée with grilled orange and purple organic carrots. Once again, the sauce of the pork loin was incredible – initially sweet and then the chile flavor hit in the back of the mouth. The plantain purée also combined the banana-like sweetness of the plantain with some habanero spice in it. It was also such a generous portion that I took about half home for my dinner the next day.
Given the display that we had seen of pastries in the Spoon cases, we knew that we were going to try dessert. We had choice of pies – blueberry, apple and apple blueberry – or two different chocolate slices – one with mezcal and the other with blue cheese mixed into the chocolate. I love blue cheese and so that was my choice. Beth is also a chocolate lover and decided on the other. Both came with raspberries, blueberries and boysenberries and whipped cream. The chocolate with mezcal also had fruit inside with a lighter texture that the chocolate with blue cheese mixed in. Both were delicious.
The Cabo Grill Shop is pet friendly and one of the friendliest was the owner’s dog, Chester. This English Sheep Dog, only a year and nine months old was adorable and spent time with us.
The food was truly exceptional. The service friendly and even more so the owners Miguel and Barbara. We will be back soon to try the breakfast and with our friends from Colorado when they arrive in the middle of October.
The restaurant is easy to find across from Plaza Novvo a few blocks behind Costco in El Tezal. For more information about The Cabo Grill Shop visit them on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/cabogrillshop
For more information about Spoon Food Shop visit them on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100036759561783
