Located in the small plaza beside the Hyatt Ziva Hotel on Calle Paseo Malecon in San Jose del Cabo is Macca Pasta Bar. This small restaurant with indoor and outdoor seating was one of our favorites when we lived at our condo in El Conquistador on the golf course. We were greeted at the door and led to the table that had been reserved for us. The inside has a long bar on one side with the kitchen behind it and some very interesting and playful art on the walls.

Macca Pasta Bar is unique in that the menu permits you to create your own pasta entrée or pizza by selecting all of the ingredients. With pasta you can choose the pasta you love from seven different ones – linguine, fettuccine, ravioli, spaghetti, penne, fusilli, riccioli – your favorite sauce from 13 and all of the additional ingredients that you want to add – vegetables, cheeses, proteins and more. The same is true with the pizzas where there are 21 toppings from which to choose or just select one of their specialty pizzas.

However, pasta and pizza are not the only things on the menu. There are appetizers – salads, corn ribs, calamari, garlic bread, stuffed portobello mushrooms, French Fries and more. There are also a number of specialty main courses – steaks, chicken, lasagna, meatballs, risotto, calzones and of course, desserts.

We knew from our previous visits that the portion sizes are large and so that we could share most of the items and create a multi-course meal and still probably take things home. We began our meal with the Beetroot Salad with baked beetroot, soft goat cheese over the greens. It was very good and a very large bowl. For our next appetizer, we decided to try a new addition to the menu since we had been there last – corn ribs. These are quarters of corn-on-the-cob with parmesan cheese and chili sauce on top. They demanded to be picked up and eaten the way corn-on-the-cob is meant to be savored. They were delicious. Again, the order was large with six corn ribs. As with any good Italian restaurant, our next course was pasta. It is served in a very large bowl with a plate that sits on top that holds a roll and parmesan cheese to add to the pasta. We chose fusilli pasta with a creamy cheese sauce and shrimps and tomatoes. Another amazing dish. For a main course, we selected the Macca Balls, another new addition to the menu – beef and pork meat balls in a tomato basil sauce covered with cheese and served with focaccia bread. The six golf ball-sized meatballs were excellent. We were stuffed but Isela that chef wanted us to try the pizza since we had explored most of the menu and brought us a pork belly and potato slice pizza. We each had a slice (and took the rest home). What a feast we had. In fact, three of us probably could have shared each of the items given the size of the portions.

Well, despite being full as we know that the head chef, Jorge was trained as a pastry chef, we had to try a dessert. The chocolate mousse ball with nuts was incredible. It has been much too long since we had been at Macca Pasta Bar. They have Ladies’ Night on Wednesdays with specials; free pizza for kids and often have live music. Macca Pasta Bar is closed on Thursdays.