Damiana

After finding what is to date the best tamales I have ever had at a street cart in San Jose del Cabo I didn’t really feel the need to continue on to dinner that night. I was perfectly happy eating more street food and calling that dinner. Luckily, my friends convinced me otherwise and we ended up continuing on to dinner at Damiana on our second to last night of our new year’s eve trip to Baja California. This ended up being my favorite sit down meal from my entire 11 day trip through Belize and Cabo.

It started off very promising with some outstanding tortilla soup. After having quite a bit of tortilla soup at various Mexican restaurants it was nice to have some that really stood out. Something about it seemed fresher and more flavorful than any of the other renditions I have had before. Then the main courses came out. My sister and I shared an order of the stuffed peppers (chile rellenos) and the guajillo shrimp. Its been a few weeks now so I don’t remember what specifically was so different about the chile rellenos, but like the tortilla soup, it was a dish that was especially amazing after having so many times before. The guajillo shrimp was my dish of the night though so I am now on a search for a good recipe. It would be lovely to recreate the flavors I remember having in the warm weather down there while in my apartment in the frigid northeast.

The other mains that were ordered were lobster and a pasta dish with shrimp in a cream sauce. The lobster was fresh and sweet as it should be. Its hard to get seafood that fresh in the states for some reason. The pasta was nothing to write home about and I wouldn’t suggest ordering it unless you were really craving some form of Italian food and got dragged to an amazing Mexican restaurant instead.

And then as a finale to an amazing meal you get a free shot of their homemade damiana liqueur at the bar on your way out. It is made from a plant that supposedly has aphrodisiac properties when brewed as a tea. I am not sure it had the same effect when fermented into an alcohol more so than a shot of anything else…

It is very close to the tamale cart I mentioned earlier, but I would recommend keeping your appetite wide open for the tasty treats here and not snacking on tamales prior to dinner.

Damiana Restaurant Bar and Patio
Boulevard Mijares #8, on the eastern side of Plaza Mijares
San Jose del Cabo, Los Cabos, Baja California Sur, Mexico
+52 (624) 142-0499