Just to be clear, we did more than just eat at Hyatt Ziva Cabo. We spent a fair bit of time floating in the various beautiful pools, enjoying the beach, working out in the gym and even watching my workmates participate in a poolside beer-drinking contest (but only as an observer). We also walked into lovely San Jose del Cabo (a vigorous 45-minute hike) and enjoyed the little town.
But back to eating! The specialty restaurants were generally open for dinner only. On our first evening, we made a reservation as a group for Bon Vivant, the resort's French restaurant.
There were 2 items on the menu that were either vegan or vegan-friendly and obviously, I ordered them both. The appetizer was an asparagus thing with a balsamic drizzle. Again healthy like the buffet vegetables but this was pretty impressive and delicious!
Next up was another roasted vegetable stack on cous cous. More of the balsamic but this time with some good olive oil. Again, it was tasty and substantial enough. I don't whine that there was no souffle for me. Of course, there was no dessert either. This was a beautiful room with French-style service so no complaints!
I had high hopes for El Molino, a Mexican restaurant in a resort in Mexico. Despite my cliched idea of refried bean Mexican rice and tortillas, there was nothing vegan or vegan-friendly on the menu. Still, the hostess encouraged us to come by and see what they could do for us. Thank goodness for salsa and guacamole!
We left the chef to his own devices. He used a portabello mushroom as the basis for his creation and the result was another healthy stack of vegetables, which was fine. People assume that I do this for my health maybe, but I really just wanted something Mexican at this point. This dish was a little bland but it could have been rescued by a nice mole sauce. I'm pretty sure Mole can be vegan. It depends on whether they fry it all up in lard before blending it. I resorted to covering this in the salsa from the previous photo. Still, I appreciate the effort. 
We did our best at Dozo which was a pan Asian restaurant. I started with a pretty basic sushi roll, not unlike what I had eaten at the buffet earlier in the day but it was nicely presented.
They had 2 more dishes on their menu which were vegan-friendly so I ordered both because who knows when I would eat again. The first was a Yellow Curried Tofu which was possible the best thing that I ate here all weekend. It could have had a little more heat but I understand that we are catering to the tourists and there was some nice flavour there.
The other dish was Fried Rice which really hit the spot. I guess the simple carb levels in my blood had been a little lacking and this was full on vegan comfort food. I am happy to report that I left here fully satisfied but even before that there was dessert!
This was not offered as a vegan dessert. It was grilled pineapple on ice cream but I asked if I could have just the grilled pineapple! It arrived but with a coconut sauce which made it a nice fruity concoction!
This was another nice room just as all of the restaurants here are. If you are wondering about my wife, she is not vegan and therefore had her choice of fine meals but the purpose of this blog is to make vegans and omnivores alike aware of what cruelty free options are available or not. The other restaurant here and open during renovations was the Hacienda Baja Grill but we gave it a miss. The meat case inside the doorway gave away the premise although even here, I was assured that the chef would put something together for me.
Worthy of honorable mention was the poolside smoothie bar which would whip something up for you from a whole menu of healthy concoctions. I showed up there a few times.
Overall, I did not starve and the various food service folks did there best to keep me fed and happy. As the world in general steers a little more towards the necessity of becoming a more plant-based world (I am sure progress will slow significantly during the next Republican presidential term in the USA) it behooves resorts like Hyatt to include the 5% or so of people who are already vegan in their plans. How are they doing? I think management could try a little harder with food choices.
Still we got the sun and sand that we came for!
No comments:
Post a Comment