Iflyfish
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3747
Registered: 10-17-2006
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La Tinidad Restaurant Review (East Cape)
In my now over 45 years of travel in Mexico I still maintain my phobia of fresh vegetables and particularly salads. I have spent too much time hugging
a cold porcelain princess and remaining glued to it just to experience the coolness on my face after a night of retching.
So it is with great pleasure that I can report that we are indeed eating salads here on the East Cape along with everyone else and still have our guts
about us.
All this is of course the introduction to my promised review of La Trinidad Restaurant at La Trinidad RV Park and Restaurant in La Ribera, Baja Sur.
The restaurant is a large Palapa made in the traditional style of the East Cape. It is buttressed by large poles and the ceiling is covered in palm
fronds. It is very open and airy with one wall open to the verdant wilds were numerous bird feeders dominate the view. There are scores of different
birds that frequent the place including a humming bird that is only found in southern Baja, the Xantus's Hummingbird, which I have taken to calling
the Xanax Hummingbird because of it capacity to tranquilize Mrsfish, who has spent hours gazing at it. She says she is “shooting it” and I must
caution her over and over not to say it in that way, “photographing dear, photographing”, but it hasn’t seemed to stick.
The restaurant/bar at La Trinidad is the sort of place that one would picture in a Hemmingway novel with its necessary dead fish pictures and stuffed
marlin on the wall. There is also a barrel filled with various canes, the source of which I have yet to determine, there are fine ones with duck and
various creature heads on them. But you are probably more interested in the food and drink here so I will stop digressing and get to the point.
The drinks here are of killer proportion and I have now experienced the delirium that accompanies the consumption of too much damiana, the herb made
so famous by Carlos Castinada in his famous works that involved his apprenticeship to a Yaqui shaman. I can now see why he spent so much time trying
to find his place of power, one can readily loose that and more drinking this stuff. Damiana is the liquor that is ubiquitously found in the
margaritas of the southern Baja, as if the rocket fueled margaritas found here were insufficient to do the job! I can attest to you that the drinks
served at La Trinidad are both ample and powerful! One of these beauties is served complementarily at the beginning of your meal. Mike, who runs the
place is enamored of his Scotch, so the rest of the bar is left unmolested by him and we all benefit from this happenstance.
Dinner is served here on Friday and Saturday with a Sunday Brunch of alternative Sundays. The locals gather here for these feasts and there are also a
smattering of folks from surrounding communities and last night an entire Mexican family from Cabo San Lucas who came here for their dinner. That
alone says something about the reputation of this place among the locals.
I have now eaten two meals at La Trinidad Restaurant. The first meal consisted of very meaty dry rubbed pork ribs that were cooked to perfection and
fell off the bones. Now I want you to know that I really don’t like Texas style ribs and to my great disappointment I traveled to Texas to try them.
My taste runs more to the Kansas style that drip with sauce that runs down your forearms. I firmly believe that Texans are prone to hyperbole and that
clearly is the case with their ribs. The La Trinidad ribs were excellent though I missed the elbow staining sauce. Having said that I would order them
again and again if given the chance. The ribs are self serve and all you can eat. There is also a salad bar with very fresh and tasty veggies and a
wide variety of dressings to choose from. To my great delight I found among the vegetables some wonderful pickled beets which is another first for me
in Mexico. I marvel at both the freshness and the quality of this self serve salad bar out here in the remote reaches of the East Cape.
The steamed vegetables are served in a steam tray and unfortunately were overdone both times that I ate at La Trinidad. I found this odd as everything
else is done perfectly. This overcooking of vegetables may simply be an idiosyncrasy of the cooks, or they were raised with the same cook the veggies
to culinary institute my mother was taught at on our farm in the Midwest of America in the 1940s, and we had a couple acres of organic garden before
the term was invented. The veggies are all high quality, just over cooked for my taste.
The second night I sampled steak, lobster, shrimp and local Cabrilla. The steaks were done to order and the chef clearly understood the difference
between medium rare, medium and well done. The steaks were well charred and delicious. One had a choice between numbers of cuts, my taste runs to the
rib eye and it was very good indeed.
I have for decades had a bone to pick with Baja lobster, which the locals like to fry in oil, which in my opinion sucks out all of the sweetness that
one can find in these lovely critters. The lobsters here were served two to an order and broiled to perfection and served with clarified butter. I
could have eaten half a dozen if my mind were not addled with damiana. In my book these were some of the best lobsters I have eaten on the Baja. They
were cooked to perfection with little bits of seared bits with the centers hot and moist.
The shrimp were served sin casa, without the shells, and were also delicious. Shrimp is often overpowered by a sauce and these were el dante, moist on
the inside, served in their natural state, sautéed in very mild garlic butter and served naked of any sauce. They were delicious. I would order these
again in a heartbeat.
Next I ordered the Cabrilla which was very fresh, lightly battered and cooked in garlic butter. The Cabrilla was good but uninspiring. For those who
like this fish I think that you would find it to your liking and I would not turn it away, it’s just that beside its glamorous counterparts, the jumbo
shrim, lobster and cuts of simmering steak, it just didn’t finish in the running.
If you are in the East Cape this is one restaurant I would highly recommend for your steak and lobster splurge, actually the prices were not that high
considering the quality of the fare and the service is friendly, English speaking and excellent. The cost for dinner for Mrsfish and myself, drinks
included, along with a wonderful homemade cheesecake the second night was $578MX, about $46US.
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Diver
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 4729
Registered: 11-15-2004
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Although you are very good with words, I would prefer some photos to complete my meal ! 
Glad you guys are enjoying life !!
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Iflyfish
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3747
Registered: 10-17-2006
Member Is Offline
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Trieste, Trieste Diver, I have utterly failed to paint a picture of this place for you. Wasn’t the image of the white porcelain embrace enough for
you? Now Mrsfish wants to write her own review saying I neglected to mention the excellent bbq chicken that was served with the ribs and Mike is all
over me now over the fact that the “marlin” I saw hanging from the ceiling in my altered damiana state was actually a Wahoo, and that I had badly
misrepresented his fine establishment and he is now threatening to withhold the gratuity he promised if I wrote good things about La Trinidad. Things
have gone from bad to worse here, I am so sorry I followed through with my promise to my Nomad amigos to review the restaurant, what a mistake that
was!! Now you, you want pictures! Mrsfish of course already has your base covered and is now exploring how to post them. My lies will now all be
exposed, my marriage in ruins and I now crave damiana so much I am starting to shake in the afternoon if I don’t get my portion. Anybody want to buy
some fly rods?
Hope to see you down here so I can get my revenge!
Iusedtoflyfishbeforebeingvisitedbythedamianaprincess
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