Sunset Da Mona Lisa
Prior to the trip, I had discovered this restaurant during restaurant scouting research and was super interested in visiting for a dining experience. Typically, if a restaurant has an amazing view, the food is not all that great or vice versa. However, our personal concierge highly recommended that we visit this place during our trip and boasted about the amazing view of the Cabo rock formation and the sunset from the restaurant. From the looks of the picture, it looked like the restaurant was located on some sort of rock or cliff and I just had to figure out what it was all about. I decided to get really dressed up in a long gown so that it could blow in the wind!
We visited the restaurant at 6pm on a Saturday evening and witnessed a beautiful sunset wedding and a proposal. This is one of the ultimate places you take someone special to create a memory. Just look at the breathtaking pictures. To be honest, this has to be one of my favorite restaurant experiences of all time! I put this on the level of Chinois on Main (remember the Mona Lisa of the Taste Buds) article and how ironic that the restaurant name also includes Mona Lisa.
Sunset Da Mona Lisa is an Italian and Seafood Restaurant located at Carretera Transpeninsular Kilometro 6.5, Cabo Bello Plaza del Rey 7 y 8, 23455 Cabo San Lucas, B.C.S., Mexico. It took about 30 minutes to get there from the hotel and cost about $35. The restaurant is nearly next door to the Villa Serena from Part IV, however, it was a longer drive from the highway to get to the Oceanside restaurant. One thing to note is while it is beautiful to watch the sunset and have that experience, it is also very hot! I was wearing a long sleeve gown and while the fabric was light, it was still hot! The sun glaring in your face can be a bit much as well. But it definitely worth the experience. I cannot stress that enough!
After we watched the sunset nuptials, we ordered our drinks which included mango sangria, mango margarita, and a lime margarita on the rocks. Everyone love their cocktails including myself however, the mango sangria was extremely sweet. It consisted of mango nectar at the bottom of the glass with sangria on top. When mixed together, it was not so sweet but it was definitely overwhelming during the first sip from the bottom of the glass. There was a lot going on after the wedding and the restaurant started playing some beautiful live jazz music. Hard to focus on what to eat with so much beauty around.
After we ordered, we took a photo break to capture the beautiful moment. This is something that I recommend you do because these pictures will be some that you will want to remember. Once we got back to our seats, the servers bought out a cucumber gazpacho (Gazpacho is a soup made of raw vegetables and served cold, originating in the southern Spanish region of Andalusia.). This was not one of my favorite dishes but others in my group did enjoy it. However, I’m not a fan of cucumbers so that also did not help. But I will say that the ingredients were pretty fresh.
Next, the servers bought out the bread basket and breadsticks. I tried the rosemary tomato bread which was wonderful. The black breadstick was also a hit at the table as well as the jalapeño bread. They had an option for olive oil or butter and both complimented the bread wonderfully. This meal was truly off to an amazing start.
At least three of us in the group decided to do the three course dinner for $52. It included any starter, any entrée, and any dessert. It was truly an awesome deal! The other two in the group decided to opt out but one of the pretty much ended up getting three courses anyway. In an effort to try different appetizers, I ordered the Tartar di Salmone ($18), there were several orders of the Calamari Fritti ($14), and Cappesante aka Scallops ($22). When the appetizers arrived, which took a little while; our dinner took a turn for the worse.
The moment the appetizers arrived, the sun was setting, and a swarm of flies were all over our food. It was disgusting! Everything we ordered was delicious but hard to enjoy because the flies were relentless. OMG! The staff said that due to the rain and the sun setting, they would be a nuisance but would go away in a few minutes. I wish they would have held the food until it did but whatever. The Tartar di Salmone included Alaska marinated salmon tartare with shallots and lemon moussline. It was served with 2 black bread slices that looked burnt but were seasoned perfectly and lightly toasted. I have no idea how they did that and I have never seen that before but black bread is amazing! The only weird occurrence during the meal was that my mouth started to itch randomly as if I was allergic to fish but I do not have a fish allergy so I was a bit confused. My mother does and was just as perplexed as I was.
The big hit of appetizers was the Calamari Fritti which included fried squid and zucchini with Pecorino Tuscan cheese served over a bed of lettuce with chef’s dips. The portion of this appetizer was enough to share and got a bit overwhelming at some point. The squid and zucchini were lightly fried and the dipping sauce almost worked better as a salad dressing with the lettuce! This dish was delicious! Lastly, the Cappesante included seared scallops with sautéed spinach and oyster sour cream form and truffle caviar. We did not pay attention to the caviar so my mother had to be very careful but luckily, she was able to enjoy the appetizer without any problems. The scallops were delicious the sauce that accompanied them was quite flavorful and blended well the taste of the scallops. Other than the attack of the flies, this appetizer portion of the meal was amazing!
In between the next course, we saw pieces of beef tenderloin being cooked on a heated lava rock tableside. It was quite a site and luckily I got a photo. In addition, my friend decided to order the lemonade sangria which was a lot less sweeter than the mango sangria. However, the sweetness started to grow on me. One major downfall of the meal was that because of the heat, we requested a big bowl of ice and found a piece of plastic in the ice chips. That could be really dangerous! It also took the staff an extended period of time to bring the ice as requested which took away from the experience.
For the main course, I ordered the Branzino ($32) which included local/ fresh caught sea bass, peas puree, and calms with a white wine sauce. This dish alone and the appetizer were worth the $52 price tag. My entrée was light, fresh, and flavorful! I did not think that I would be full with fish and mashed peas but I was. The seabass and the sauce were wonderful! I truly enjoyed my meal! The calms were also delicious and then there was a slice of bacon added on the plate that w a bit difficult to understand the cohesiveness of the meal altogether. It was almost as if they just threw flavorful items on a plate with sauce and then decided to add a bacon slice at the last minute. However, I would order this dish again and definitely enjoy it.
Another member of our party ordered the Salmon all’aceto ($29) served with braised Alaskan salmon with broccoli puree, fennel confit, and lemongrass foam. The foam was a bit different but she enjoyed every bite of her meal. The foam added wonderful flavor to the dish and the broccoli puree was also very much enjoyed. My mother ordered the Octopus and Porcini ($27) which included grilled octopus with porcini mushrooms, vegetables fresh chips, and black truffle. The dish was served with three dipping sauces and my mother was very pleased with her dish. The presentation of the octopus was beautiful and she would definitely order her dish again.
As for our last two in our group, they both ordered the Pollo Organico Farcito ($24) served with truffle flavored organic chicken stuffed with porcini mushrooms, artichoke cream, with sweet potato chips. The dish presentation was beautiful. Almost too beautiful to eat. It wasn’t a large portion of food but it was filling enough that my friend had to take some of it home for later to save room for dessert. They both exclaimed that the sauce was flavorful and the chicken was tasty as well.
As we waited for dessert, we saw a woman order the Sfera De Cioccolato Araguani ($11) which included a bitter chocolate sphere stuffed with mandarin sorbet and peppermint. The presentation of this dessert was so amazing because the waiter poured the chocolate on the plate and the flow of chocolate created a stream of fire as well as the bowl of chocolate had a blaze. In the dark, it was a very cool looking dessert. It should also be noted that because our table was close to lamp, it attracted quite a few insects but nothing nearly as horrible as the swarm of flies from earlier in our meal. And it always seems like it’s just us who are affected by the bugs.
I ordered the Soufflé Al Cioccolato Manjari ($13) which included a classic chocolate soufflé accompanied with sambuca (an Italian anise-flavored, usually colorless, liqueur) foam and coffee with vanilla ice cream and anise (also called aniseed, is a flowering plant in the family Apiaceae native to the eastern Mediterranean region and Southwest Asia.). My dessert took an extra 15 minutes to bake which I was notified upfront. Other than the sambuca foam, this dessert was pure magic! I had been craving chocolate and the warm chocolate soufflé was everything I could ask for and more. It had a dusting of powdered sugar on top and the vanilla ice cream was also so delicious with the soufflé. I literally cannot ask for a better dessert.
My friend ordered the Nostra Cheesecake ($12) which is their version of two different cheesecakes with lemon and rosemary sorbet. The cheesecake was a lot less than what she was expecting but she enjoyed one of the cakes and the sorbet but the other part of the dessert was not pleasurable. Finally, my mother’s friend ordered the Millefoglie E Meringa ($12) which included a pastry filled with Chantilly cream, red fruits with a meringue texture, and a fresh raspberry and strawberry sorbet. The presentation of this dessert was impressive and again one of those situations where the food looks too good to eat! She enjoyed her dessert as well and found the freshness of the berries to be a wonderful addition.
After the dessert plates were cleared, the servers brought out a tray of other small bite size desserts and since there was a mention of a foundation, we were not sure if they were complimentary or if eating the desserts would cause us to be charged. However, we were fine and enjoyed them anyway. The chocolate liquor was amazing (I did not get the shot in the initial picture so I took a picture of another tray to show you). The traditional Mexican candies on the end closest in the picture were also very good desserts. They are like gummies and have a passion fruit flavor to them. It is sweet but not too sweet and the sugar added on top is also quite wonderful. The other two desserts which included macaroons were tried just to say we did and were both equally delicious.
Overall, we had an amazing meal. We equally spent $63.31 after the exchange rate was adjusted and my mother paid $150 portion of the meal which would bring our total after the tip to roughly $404. That amount included our meal, drinks, tax, and tip. However, the meal, the view, the experience was worth every penny. I am so thankful that I got to experience that and I look forward to visiting that restaurant during my next trip! The following is my Seven Mac Score for the restaurant:
|
Sunset Da Mona Lisa |
|||
| Criteria | Scale | Score | |
| Accessibility | 0 | N/R | |
| Customer Service | 1-25 | 22 | |
| Cleanliness | 1-10 | 5 | |
| Food Presentation | 1-10 | 10 | |
| Price Value | 1-10 | 10 | |
| Taste of Food | 1-30 | 29 | |
| Overall Experience | 1-15 | 14 | |
| TOTAL: | 90/100 | ||
Please look out for Part VI of my Cabo Dining Adventures series! 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!
finediningdiva 