De Cortez — Restaurant in Baja California Sur

2nd Visit Aug 2025

Wanted to leave a review for De Cortez from our second visit there during our recent stay at Hacienda Del Mar. Much improved on the second visit. Israel was our server, service much better! Carpaccio, grilled romaine and the ribeye tomahawk were all good. We finished the whole steak! Nice desserts too! Deserves a visit…

Update Aug 2025

De Cortez continues to be a very poorly managed restaurant. Venue is beautiful, seaside/beach front, crashing waves all evening. The great experience stopped there. We tried booking a group of 9, but the restaurant refused, claiming that keeping track of separate checks (3) would be a problem. Our group sat at two different tables. Both tables waited hours for food, a meal of a salad and an entree look over 2-1/2 hours. Some in our group simply got up and left, went back to their rooms without eating. The food that did show up was OK, many of the sides were cold. If you’re there with the resort’s meal plan, it’s an extra $35/person just to dine there. A total rip-off! No assistance from wait staff, manager, etc., all just shrugged and offered to explanations or resolutions. So sad to have taken new guests there, total disappointment. For the prices charged, your money is best spent elsewhere! Avoid this place!

Update July 2024

We're staying at the Hacienda Del Mar resort in Cabo San Lucas, and one of the main restaurants (out of three) available for dinner is De Cortez. We had a wonderful experience there. We enjoyed the atmosphere at the bar before dinner, the bartender was very good, the Mezcalitas were on top. We are beginning to explore the world of mezcal, and these cocktails were a nice experience on that journey.

We did have the crazy experience of watching the frenzy of the restaurant service staff vacate the row of tables next to the sea wall; it was the night of the full moon, and a monster wave came crashing over the seawall... after the soaked scramble, the vibe returned ... De Cortez really presents a very nice atmosphere, very comfortable, nice fire pit, live music in the bar area that can be heard throughout the restaurant.

Our first course was the grilled romaine salad and the endive and blue cheese salad. Both were excellent, very fresh, well-balanced ingredients. The second course entrees included the NY steak, presented at the perfect temperature, and the fresh catch of the day (seabass), also prepared very well. The sides of mashed potatoes and fresh asparagus were delightful!

We finished up with a couple of glasses of wine and the caramel tartlet. The wines were perfect (although a bit pricey), and the dessert was sublime, with just the right amount of sweetness.

An excellent dining experience ... we plan to do it again! Update Oct 2023

We dined a De Cortez during our first weekend at Hacienda Del Mar... what a disappointment ... The service was poor, the food average at best, and the overall experience was only 2 stars, if that...

The one positive was the Somm, Christopher, great job helping us select a Mexican Aglianico wine, well cellared, temperature perfect, decanted at the table, delicious!

Our food courses started with salads, the Romaine salad with cheese and the Endive and Blue cheese salad. While at first visually pleasing, upon getting into the dishes the lettuces were old, grey and wilted, and the endive just plain rotten in the cores of the leaves. Much of the romaine lettuce was also old and brown.

In addition, one really bizarre issue with the endive and blue cheese salad was that it was served on a plate of rocks... maybe that's "creativity" but you cannot cut the salad on rocks, so we assumed it was intended to be finger-food, really unappealing for a salad...

After finishing what we could salvage of the salads, the dirty dishes sat on the table for 30 minutes, not that there weren't waiters/servers around, they just didn't bus the tables and clear the...

Food: 6* Service: 5* Ambiance: 5*

The service was excellent. Attentive but not annoying, helpful but not hovering. The ambiance was open air with a live guitar playing hits next to a fire pit. You could hear the ocean waves lapping ashore while seeing the ocean crowned in silvery moonlight.

The food, can we talk about the food? 6* out of 5 does NOT do it justice.

For an appetizer, I had a dozen oysters. Being February, I asked if it was advisable to eat them as I had always heard only eat oysters in months that end in R (e.g. September, October, ...). Well mine were delicious, plump, juicy, and briny. Wow!My partner also ordered scallops. They were sea scallops, big, juicy, and plump. We washed it all down with an espresso martini, delicious!

For the main, I had the lobster tail, thinking only a small langoustine or small single tail. Was I pleasantly surprised to find 3 x 4 oz. Lobster tails. They were plump, sweet, me ample. My partner had the New York steak. Normally we choose rib eye in the US, but we have found the New York steak in Latin America to be superior to rib eye from the same region, it was succulent, juicy, and seasoned perfectly.

Our friends shared a tomahawk steak. It was huge. But, fryer tasting it, I preferred our New York much better, for its flavor and tenderness.

We asked for Cabernet and they gave us one from "California" he said. What he meant to say was Baja California. It wasn't bad but really sub-par. We asked for an Italian and he produced a Montepulciano and it was delicious and for the same price. I would...

I cannot say enough good things about this restaurant. We had absolutely amazing service from the second we arrived. While we were eating the most delicious food, the owner and chef came to check on us and see how we were liking things, which is always great customer service in my book. They ended up being the sweetest team of professional waitstaff, cook staff, and management staff we have ever had the pleasure of spending an evening with. In addition, the view is insanely beautiful, the decorations are so welcoming and the music was outstanding. We recommend the beer mojito, the gazpacho, the onion rolls (included in the meal), the slow cooked pork belly, the salmon, the shrimp, the cheesecake, and the passion mouse and caramel biscuit, and the truffles. As you can see, we recommend everything we ate because it was all spectacular. But even more so, the people that worked there made it the amazing experience that it was and we are so grateful we had the opportunity to dine with them. We HIGHLY recommend...