Almost every year, my mother gets excited about visiting her timeshare in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico located in Baja Sur California. I have grown up traveling there and pretty much know my way around the city and have enjoyed our experiences at the Pueblo Bonito resorts. They have multiple resorts located in the city and after first discovering the Rosé resort many years ago, my mother became an owner there and at the Sunset Beach resort. After any ownership upgrades, she had bought the ultimate timeshare at the Pueblo Bonito Novaispania Residences located on the Sunset Beach resort on the Pacific side of the Peninsula. The residence has beautiful sunset views but visitors are unable to swim in the adjacent beach due to rough current. Until now, discovering delicious restaurants and rating them was not my priority when visiting Cabo, however, there are a few places we always made sure to visit during our trips. Since starting the blog, I did some restaurant scouting research and discovered a few gems. Follow me on my Seven Part Cabo Dining Adventure series as I share my experiences with you. Please note: I will not be rating the accessibility of any of the restaurants because I took cabs everywhere I went. Therefore, the customer service and overall experience ratings have been adjusted by 5 points to keep the scale out of 100 points. I will share how much the taxis were from my resort and how difficult it would be for a person with mobility challenges would be.
After checking into the resort, my friend and I decided to do a late Mexican lunch. After a quick review of the best Mexican restaurants in Cabo, I discovered Maria Jiménez Restaurante Mexicano. Located at Calle Narciso Mendoza S/N, Juárez, 23469 Cabo San Lucas, BCS, Mexico, this restaurant was roughly a 10 minute taxi ride from the hotel and cost about $10 to get there. Once we arrived, I quickly realized where we were in the city when I located one of my favorite restaurants just down the street. The cab driver mentioned that the Maria restaurant was good but also spoke highly of the seafood restaurant across the street called Mariscos Las Tres Islas. At the time, that restaurant was filled with locals which proved that this guy knew what he was talking about.
As we entered the restaurant, there was a large sign that said cash only! So, please remember to bring cash for your visit. This was not an issue for us so we sat down. However, due to the exchange rate, it is probably more profitable for the restaurant to do the street exchange rate than wait on the bank which may make less money. Once we were seated, we noticed a considerably large party of roughly 15 people dining that also looked like locals. We later discovered that they were employees of our resort. That means we were in good shape. The restaurant is semi indoor and outdoor and can attract a few unwanted insects due to the setting and take away from the cleanliness aspect. This restaurant did not appear to be difficult to enter for those with mobility issues.
The server came to the table and introduced the house margarita that included a blend of lemonade with mint. We decided to both try that because it was different than anything we had experienced before. Once our drinks arrived, we needed to stir the drink up a bit to mix everything together but the margarita was delicious. It the lemon and mint together was refreshing and almost tasted like basil, which is my personal favorite. We were off to a great start here. After we placed our orders, they brought out a fresh plate of salsa and chips. The presentation was beautiful and the salsa ingredients were so fresh, it was like they had made the salsa just for us. They also brought out 3 other salsas that were mild to spicy but our favorite was the fresh salsa on the plate.
The server than presented up with complementary sopes which is a Mexican street food that is made from fried masa (ground maize soaked in lime) with pinched sides. It is then topped with refried beans, crumbled cheese, lettuce onions, red or green sauce, and sour cream. Our sopes was served with refried beans and crumbled cheese and were tasty. Not something that I would order for myself but was pretty good. I’m not sure if these are customary or if they served them because I inquired about them when reviewing the menu. But nonetheless, we did not pay for them.
A few minutes later, our meals arrived. I ordered the Shrimp Fajitas and my friend ordered the chicken enchiladas with green chili sauce. Both of our meals were served with black beans and rice which were very well seasoned. My shrimp fajitas were cooked and seasoned perfectly. The presentation was wonderful and the tenderness of the shrimp was done just right. This dish was a bit oily but that for me did not take away from the experience. The dish was served with corn tortillas which is a bummer because I’m more of a fan of flour tortillas but they were served warm and would definitely compliment the meal if that is what you are into. The little serving of guacamole was also delicious and gave the meal some added flavor that was not required but appreciated. I definitely enjoyed my meal.
My friend also enjoyed her enchiladas. At first, she was not sure if she received the right order because it was served with a bed of lettuce and cheese on top of the enchiladas but once she got started, she appreciated those added flavors and textures to the meal. She raved about how much she enjoyed the enchiladas and the sauce and also enjoyed the rice and beans. She ended up taking a portion of her meal to go but sadly never got around to finishing her leftovers before the end of the trip.
I ended up ordering another house margarita and she ordered a mango margarita with included the glass rimmed with Mexican chili powder blend similar to that of the Lucas chili candy. She very much enjoyed her cocktail and I too enjoyed my second serving.
Overall, I truly enjoyed my dining experience at the Maria Jiménez Restaurante Mexicano and I would definitely go back to this place! I did not remember to take a picture of the menu to document the exact cost of the meal but I spent about $30 altogether on the meal. Customer service was wonderful and they made sure to inform us promptly about the cash only policy. The following is my Seven Mac Score for the restaurant:
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Maria Jiménez Restaurante Mexicano |
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| Criteria | Scale | Score | |
| Accessibility | 1-10 | N/R | |
| Customer Service | 1-25 | 25 | |
| Cleanliness | 1-10 | 8 | |
| Food Presentation | 1-10 | 10 | |
| Price Value | 1-10 | 10 | |
| Taste of Food | 1-30 | 30 | |
| Overall Experience | 1-15 | 15 | |
| TOTAL: | 98/100 | ||
Please look out for Part II of my Cabo Dining Adventures series with you! Also, you can find me on Instagram @finediningdiva and Twitter @moderndaybeauty. Also, if you would like to follow my blog to receive notification when a new blog is posted, please send your email to finediningdiva@gmail.com.
And remember: It’s a BIG world and we are going to eat our way through it!
https://www.yelp.com/biz/mar%C3%ADa-jim%C3%A9nez-cabo-san-lucas
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