Located on Calle de La Playa on the west end of the Alegranza Resort is Alegria by Casiano. Chef Casiano had originally opened a restaurant at this location and the space was later taken over by Mirai and Cava Clandestina. Recapturing the space, it has had a complete renovation combining the garden dining area, a bar and lounge and a terrace and indoor-dining space. The renovation has created an amazing atmosphere with great views of the sunset from all areas of the restaurant.

The restaurant is managed by Alejandro Mariscal, a sommelier and the chef and co-owner, Alejandro Magallanes, both of whom worked with Chef Casiano in the original restaurant. The two Alejandros were previously at Phortal creating a different multi-course meal with wine pairings every night. The core menu at Alegria by Casiano is small, focused on Baja and Mediterranean dishes with seafood – mussels, oysters, tuna tartare, octopus, grilled kampachi – and meats – beef tartare, steaks as well as beet carpaccio. What is very different about Alegria is that with 24-hours-notice, the chef will prepare almost anything that you would like for your meal – Mexican, Mediterranean, and more.

We made an early reservation for Friday night. On Fridays, Alegria by Casiano offers its three- or five-course Chef’s Tasting Menu. We decided to try this alternative as it would let us explore many of the items on the menu. Alejandro asked us what we would like to drink to start. Beth chose a limonada with mint and I asked for a glass of chardonnay. Our tasting menu began with an amuse bouche of a baked oyster with three drops of a delicious sauce on top. Then, we were offered warm sourdough rolls with three different butters – garlic, pistachio and regular. The garlic was amazing as were the rolls.

The first course of our meal combined two items – tuna sashimi with an aguachili sauce is a small squeeze tube and a caprese salad on a base of tomato purée. The presentation was beautiful and the flavors even better. I even got a few extra pieces of sashimi (as Beth doesn’t eat much raw seafood). The next course combined two more dishes – a pasta made from peas with chocolate clams and a lobster empanada. The pieces of lobster in the empanada were huge. Again, both the flavor and presentation were excellent. The third course brought together both meat and fish – a grilled steak (Alejandro asked in advance how we would like them cooked) with a blue cheese sauce on a parsnip purée with small grilled vegetables and a grilled Kampachi with on a pineapple purée with tomato sauce on top. The pineapple and tomato sauces complemented each other incredibly well. Presentation and flavor again topped the charts. The final course – dessert – included Tiramisu with blueberries on top, vanilla ice cream, strawberry compote and chocolate sauce. What a treat!

I truly believe that this was one of the best presented, most flavorful dinners that we have had in Los Cabos – even topping Phortal. We highly recommend it.