MANTA: COULD ENRIQUE OLVERA’S CABO RESTAURANT BE BETTER THAN HIS WORLD-FAMOUS PUJOL?
The Cost -$102 per person including a mandatory 15% gratuity
The Atmosphere – Located inside The Cape, one of Cabo San Lucas’s most luxurious hotels, you will find Manta, a sleek, modern restaurant with floor-to-ceiling glass windows overlooking the ocean and some beautiful sunsets. The restaurant is a perfect place for a date night, a special occasion, or a treat-yourself meal. Reservations are required and should be made well in advance to guarantee a spot. The restaurant has both tasting menu and a la carte options and only offers indoor dining.
Opened in 2016, Manta is one of Chef Enrique Olvera’s newest restaurants, adding to his collection of world-famous restaurants such as Pujol (Mexico City) and Cosme (New York), ranked 9th and 22nd on San Pellegrino’s 2021 World’s Best Restaurants List, respectively. Manta’s focus on gastronomic creativity, as well as its Asian and Peruvian influences, are on display from the beginning to the end of the meal and local, sustainable ingredients from Mexico’s Baja California are present in nearly every dish.
The Order – The Avocado and Maracuya cocktails along with the Sliced Fish, Beetroot Ceviche, Fried Oyster Burrito, Sweet Potato with Mole, Catch of the Day, and a Tres Leches.
The Phenomenal – The Sweet Potato with Mole may have been one of the more mundane-sounding dishes based on its menu description, but it may have been the best mole I have ever had. The mind-blowing almond mole, which was not too heavy, too chocolatey, or too spicy, sat atop a large chunk of sweet potato and was served with excellent, handmade tortillas. The beautiful flavors from the homemade mole were incredible and the sweet potato, which was first roasted and then grilled, provided a unique and creative vessel with which to enjoy the mole’s brilliance. The dish was exceptional and is an absolute must-order.
The Fantastic – The Sliced Fish consisted of ten wonderful raw kampachi slices covered in an orange and serrano pepper sauce and topped with a fresh piece of cilantro. The worm salt in the dish along with the orange-serrano combination gave the dish its Mexican flavors while the fish’s preparation showed off some of Olvera’s use of Japanese influence. Overall, it was an excellent appetizer and an easy one to share.
The Great – The better of the two drinks that were ordered was the Avocado cocktail which was made with unaged tequila, Lillet Blanc, yuzu, avocado, and chamomile. I expected a heavier, creamy texture to the drink because of the inclusion of the avocado, but the drink was actually very light and had a watery texture. It had more of a melon-like taste than an avocado taste, but it was a lovely, creative drink that I did not regret ordering.
The Beetroot Ceviche is the savory dish that tops this category for me. Thinly sliced beets with ginger and habanero pepper and a slightly creamy Peruvian sauce combine with pickled onions and cilantro to form a bold-tasting vegetarian dish that is fresh, spicy, and healthy.
The Fried Oyster Burrito, which was filled with shredded fried oysters, large pearl onions, and teriyaki sauce, was a very nice dish. However, my favorite thing about the burrito was not what was inside, it was the flour tortilla itself. Razor-thin and crunchy with the ability to bend and form the burrito shell without cracking or breaking, the tortilla tasted great and was cooked to perfection. Per the chef’s recommendation, I added a few drops of the habanero salsa to the dish which gave it a nice kick. I enjoyed the burrito a lot but did wish that there was more oyster inside.
The Catch of the Day was the last savory dish that was ordered. The piece of cooked sea-bass-like white fish from the Gulf of California came with the choice of two side dishes, of which we chose the shishito peppers and the herb guacamole. The sauce on the fish was an árbol miso sauce that was very nicely done. The dish also came with some corn tortillas, diced onions, and a red salsa that was exceptionally good. The shishito peppers were tasty and were a lot spicier than the shishito peppers that you would get as an appetizer in a Japanese restaurant while the herb guacamole was good but didn’t really have a place in this dish and didn’t do well as a stand-alone side. At the end of the day, this dish stood out because of the amazing sauces which should be a hit no matter what the catch of the day is.
Finishing off the dinner was a Tres Leches, a typical Mexican sponge cake soaked in three different kinds of milk (hence the name). Manta’s tres leches was a flat, relatively short, rectangular piece of cake with a large dollop of vanilla cream and a scoop of black cherry ice cream on top. While the vanilla cream was delicious and paired excellently with the tres leches, the black cherry ice cream, while good, should not have been added to this dish as it overpowered the softer flavors of the tres leches cake.
The Good – The Maracuya cocktail was solid, but it was the only item that I likely would not order again. A mixture of mezcal, passion fruit, orange, and habanero bitters, the cocktail was served over ice and was a lot stronger and more alcohol forward than imagined. The fresh passion fruit was nice, but the combination of the passion fruit and the habanero bitters was quite tart and when combined with the strong mezcal flavor, it was not as easy to drink as I would have liked it to be.
The Verdict – The overall dining experience at Manta is incredible. From the beautiful space overlooking one of the most famous beaches in Cabo San Lucas, to the service, to the creative dishes and incredible seafood, Enrique Olvera has a winner in his first Baja California restaurant. In fact, I’d say that the dining experience at Manta is superior to that of Pujol and, at less than half the price, it certainly presents a much better value. Make sure you book a table in advance and do not forget to order the Sweet Potato with Mole.
Manta
Carretera Federal 1 Km. 5 Misiones Del, 23456 Cabo San Lucas, B.C.S., Mexico