The most spectacular tables in Los Cabos face the water at sunset. El Farallón is carved into the Pacific cliffs at Pedregal, Sunset Monalisa looks across the bay to the Arch, Manta frames Land’s End from The Cape, and Comal sits just above the Sea of Cortez at Chileno Bay. Each has food worth the trip, which is not always true of a restaurant with a view.
For dining with a view in Cabo, the details decide the evening: which coast you face, which seating you book and which table you ask for. Here is how to get each one right.
How we chose
A view alone does not earn a place here. Every restaurant below pairs a setting you will remember with a kitchen that holds its own, and each is either on The Cabo 100 or part of a resort that is. We also looked for places that make the most of the light, because in Los Cabos the hour around sunset is the main event.
One rule applies to all of them: sunset tables are the first to go. Book well ahead between December and April, and check the sunset time for your dates before choosing a reservation. In midwinter the sun goes down before six, so the sunset seating can mean an earlier dinner than you expect.
El Farallón: dinner on the edge of the Pacific
At Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos Pedregal, El Farallón is built into the cliff itself. Tables sit among rock carved from the headland, the kitchen is open-air and the Pacific breaks on the rocks below. Because Pedregal sits on the ocean side of Land’s End, the restaurant looks straight into the sunset.
The menu is sea-to-table in the most direct sense. Executive chef Gustavo Pinet builds dinner around the day’s catch from local fishermen, and you choose your fish from a display on shaved ice before it is weighed on an old-fashioned scale, with the team suggesting how to cook it and what to serve alongside.
How to do it: arrive early for the Champagne Terrace, which pours an ever-changing selection of 20 champagnes by the glass, by the bottle or as a three-flight tasting. Watch the sun go down there, then walk down to dinner as the sky turns.
For the most private version, El Farallón by the Sea is a single table on the sand for up to four guests, reached by candlelit steps and served from a seasonal menu. It is the proposal table of the Pacific side, and there is only one, so book it first.
Sunset Monalisa: the Arch from a cliffside terrace
Sunset Monalisa occupies a multi-tiered cliffside site at Km 6 of the Corridor, with terraces stepping down above the bay and a direct view of the Arch at Land’s End. The restaurant has recently been renovated, and its kitchen has a new team: Domenico Stile, chef of the two-Michelin-star Enoteca La Torre in Rome, as culinary advisor, with culinary director Emanuele Olivero.
The cooking is modern, relaxed Italian with handmade pasta and the flavours of an Italian family table. Order à la carte on the terrace, or let Stile choose with the Chef Experience tasting menu.
Ask for: the first seating, which is timed to the sunset, and a table at the front of a terrace. The second seating is the livelier one, with a Cuban band playing after dark, and suits a group better than a couple.
Manta: Land’s End through a dark frame
Enrique Olvera’s Manta, at The Cape, a Thompson Hotel, overlooks the Arch from the Corridor just outside Cabo San Lucas. The dining room is deliberately restrained, drawing the eye outward to the ocean and the changing light.
The cooking is contemporary Mexican with Peruvian influences and a Japanese sensibility, built on Baja ingredients, and seafood is its strength. A separate handroll bar offers a more intimate, counter-style meal for two.
Make a night of it: take the lift to The Rooftop and Glass Box for a nightcap by the fire pits, looking back over the bay you just watched at dinner.
Comal: the Sea of Cortez at your feet
For a softer, calmer view, Comal at Chileno Bay Resort & Residences spreads across three levels of indoor-outdoor space with the Sea of Cortez as its backdrop. It is recommended in the Michelin Guide, and the menu reinterprets regional Mexican flavours, from a live raw bar of ceviche and crudo to braised short rib and hibiscus-flower doraditas.
Ask for: a table closest to the water, which is the resort’s own advice to couples. The aperitivo hour, from 5pm to 7pm, lines up with the golden light over the bay, so come early and stay for dinner.
Pacific or Sea of Cortez?
The two coasts give two very different evenings. On the Pacific side, the sun drops straight into the ocean and the surf is part of the soundtrack: dramatic, windy and best for the moment itself. On the Sea of Cortez side, the sun sets over land, so the colour is reflected and softer across calmer water, and the evening is gentler.
The Cabo 100 take: for a proposal or a milestone, choose the Pacific and El Farallón. For a long, easy dinner where the view is a backdrop rather than the headline, choose the Sea of Cortez and Comal. For the Arch itself, Monalisa and Manta are the two front-row seats.
Views by daylight
Sunset is not the only hour that rewards a good seat. Some of the most beautiful meals in Los Cabos happen in full sun, when the water turns from turquoise to deep blue and the coastline is at its sharpest.
- Sea Grill at Las Ventanas cooks seafood over wood-burning grills beside the ocean, and lunch there is the resort at its most relaxed.
- El Farallón’s Champagne Terrace opens in the afternoon, which makes it the right place for a long, late glass before dinner rather than after it.
- Acre trades the ocean for palms and fields, and its own advice is to arrive for the golden hour, when the cocktails come out under the torchlight.
A good rule for a week: one Pacific sunset, one Arch sunset, one calm Sea of Cortez evening and one long lunch by daylight.
Timing a dinner with a view
- Check sunset times. They shift through the year, so plan the reservation around the date rather than a habit.
- Arrive 30 to 45 minutes before sunset. Have a drink while the light changes, then sit down to eat as the sky turns.
- Bring a layer. Open-air terraces can be breezy after dark, especially in winter.
- Arrange a driver. Several of these restaurants sit on cliffs and on the Corridor, so let your hotel handle the transfer.
A view is a wonderful frame, but the meal still has to be worth the evening. For every restaurant we rate, from Michelin-starred tasting menus to farm dinners in the foothills, browse Dine on The Cabo 100, and join the Insider List for new openings and seasonal menus.
