I Went To The Most Exclusive Restaurant In North America & It's Nothing Like You'd Think
I know it’s a cliché, but everything about this dining experience is off the beaten path.
We live in a world where every restaurant is documented on TikTok; where suddenly your favorite coffee shop becomes overrun with tourists; where paparazzi capture celebrities going to their favorite strip mall sushi spot so often that the restaurant has to unlist their phone number. So when I heard that a dining experience at the Four Seasons Los Cabos at Costa Palmas was brand new and had never been filmed or photographed, I knew I was in for something special.
“The beaten path” to said experience, called Zest, starts at the Los Cabos International Airport, on the southern tip of Baja California, Mexico. Cabo has long been a popular vacation spot for Americans, but while everyone else leaving the airport is driving west toward Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo, we go northeast. We drive for 40 miles away from the crowds on a two-lane highway to the small town of La Ribiera in what locals call the East Cape.
The east side of Baja along the Gulf of California has long had a cult following among American expats who come here for the amazing fishing, surfing, and sailing. The landscape is a mix of desert and rolling mountains, and the coastline features the softest sand and the bluest water this side of the Caribbean.
The Location
Our driver turns off the highway onto a dirt road marked only with a triangular metal sign. If you’re not paying attention you might miss the small Four Seasons logo stamped into the metal. Nine miles and three security gates later, we make it to the entrance of Four Seasons Los Cabos at Costa Palmas.
Costa Palmas is a new luxury development that spans 1,000 acres along the shores of the Sea of Cortez in the southern Gulf. The neighborhood features extraordinary homes, golf courses, a marina and sports complex, and multiple world-class restaurants from the likes of Ludo Lefebvre and Nancy Silverton. The gem in the middle is the Four Seasons Los Cabos resort, which has its own immaculate collection of spectacularly designed suites, casitas, waterfront residences, and extraordinary restaurants—all overseen by executive chef Fabio Quarta and executive sous chef Gonzalo Torrado.
Chef Quarta has been on the company’s global culinary team for 15 years, and most of the restaurants here are what you would expect from the Four Seasons brand: creative interpretations of the region’s cuisine and local ingredients and well-appointed spaces that showcase the natural surroundings. The Los Cabos at Costa Palmas property features two beautiful beachfront dining areas and a sushi bar that both highlight the super-fresh local seafood, plus an outdoor garden cafe called Limón, named for the small lime grove that wraps around the restaurant.
The Atmosphere
Limón honestly looks more like a magic garden than a restaurant. Despite being in the middle of everything, it feels so unassuming and organically woven into the resort’s landscaping. And just out of view and off the main walkway is a path hidden by trees that brings us to the exclusive dining experience we’ve heard so much (and yet so little) about: Zest.
Although the resort opened in 2019—and has been awarded some of the travel industry’s top honors—Zest opened at the end of July. It was developed by Chef Quarta to highlight the best of Baja cuisine. He and his team only cook for one party each night, up to 12 people. They create nine courses with ingredients that either come directly from the resort’s garden or the surrounding communities. Even the water was infused with limes and lemons picked from groves on the property.
We make our way to our table—THE table—which is strategically hidden from resort guests. Set beneath a pergola covered with edible greens and passionfruit trees, the table is dressed casually with lemons and flowers from the garden. The sun is setting over the Sierra de la Laguna mountains, and the lanterns are lit. Rather than being overly fancy or pristine—like so much high-end dining seems to feel these days—the whole scene is relaxed and elegant, like you’re in your fabulous best friend’s perfectly appointed backyard. (And at some level you are: The resort likes to call this “Chef Quarta’s personal garden.”)
The Food
And just as if you’re dining with friends, the entire culinary team is warm, enthusiastic, and deeply accommodating. I suffer from an avocado allergy (a huge bummer in Mexico), and my daughter can’t eat gluten, yet no one on staff batted an eye when they had to slightly alter our meals (a rarity at high-end restaurants where “no substitutions” looms large at the bottom of most menus). They were able to adjust the courses while still staying true to the chef’s vision.
I shouldn’t focus too much on the specific courses Chef Quarta and his team presented to us, because by the time you read this and have a chance to visit, the entire menu will have changed. But each dish was perfect in its own way and allowed us to enjoy the ingredients without feeling overwhelmed.
A few highlights: A salt-baked beetroot tartare dotted with salmon roe; heirloom tomatoes topped with tuna otoro from the Gulf; a strawberry gazpacho with vanilla-poached shrimp; and a divine rigatoni cacio e pepe (a nod to Chef Quarta’s native southern Italian roots). Even the main course is a communal affair: a strip of perfectly charred, locally raised beef brought to the table on a small grill that had been made by Mexican artisans.
Two hours later, the meal comes to a close (but not before a perfect berry-mascarpone meringue). All of us are truly enthralled by what we’ve just experienced—perhaps in part because very few people have ever had the privilege. When Chef Quarta comes out to thank us for allowing him the pleasure of cooking, it’s clear that he and his team aren’t in this to become TikTok-famous. For them, it’s all about the pure joy of making people happy with food. And we’re all too glad to have taken the road less traveled to be there with them.
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