Cabo's Newest Restaurant, 12 Tribes Evokes Magic And Mystery

12 Tribes restaurant is a unique culinary innovation at the newly-opened Casa Dorada Los Cabos Resort & Spa in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico showcasing the ancient influences of the indigenous cuisines of 18 countries to which the 12 tribes of Israel migrated, including Israel, Iran, Ethiopia, Portugal, Spain, Romania, Turkey, Georgia, Armenia, Yemen, Russia, France, Germany, Italy, Egypt, Hungary, Tunisia and Asia. The 200-seat indoor/outdoor dinner-only restaurant celebrates the diversity of the world's food traditions through a vibrant mix of global flavors and honors the Jewish heritage of the hotel's owners.

The 12 Tribes concept was developed by Casa Dorada General Manager Victor Gomez, who worked closely with hotel executive chef Fabian Rios and food & beverage director Ra�l Badillo to research the dishes and write the recipes. After months of delicious experimentation, the trio unveiled an irresistible menu inspired by some of the world's favorite cuisines.

Guadalajara-born chef Fabian Rios, 26, has sourced approximately 400 different ingredients from 30 countries including a wide range of nuts, grains, herbs, spices, exotic fruits and vegetables. Seafood is pulled fresh daily from the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Cortez. Each course is listed on the menu with a wine and a beer suggestion, along with a bit of background on its ethnic or geographic roots: not just the what but the why. Rios will change his menus seasonally.

Russia's vibrant multicultural mix, for example, inspired a dish of grilled salmon with vodka sauce and fresh herbs, served on a givetch of eggplant, mushrooms, peppers and onions, garnished with potato/beet puree. The home cooking of Armenia, influenced by the flavors of both Eastern European and Middle East, is represented by a tender annatto-crusted lamb leg, roasted with rosemary and served with baby-garlic potato gnocchi and toorshi-style pickled vegetables. Rich Yemeni culinary traditions, quite distinct from those found in more widely known Middle Eastern cookery, are deliciously displayed with yellowfin tuna in a hawayil-and-coffee crust, served with perfumed white rice, a roasted-tomato-and-bell-pepper matbucha and a touch of zhug (Yemenite garlic and hot-pepper sauce). From Romania comes a rack of lamb with apples and plum brandy, served with roasted sweet-corn mămăligă and a fruit-and-nut charoset. The cuisine of Spain, with its strong Jewish and Moorish influence, inspired a crispy roast duck, glazed with olive oil and apple gravy, served with baked pears, stuffed herbed potatoes and dried-fruit tzimmes. Rooted in both Jewish and Arab cooking, the Israeli kitchen gives us grilled beef loin with orange tequila sauce, a garlicky tomato-and-pepper matbucha and a beet-and-sweet potato puree.

In one signature preparation, guests select from a range of meats or seafood, sliced thinly and seared tableside and on a special hot stone.

Appetizers from the opening menu include an Israeli-style couscous; duck carpaccio; saut�ed wild-mushroom with horseradish, curry and sherry; Syrian garlic soup; cream of white asparagus with Roquefort; and smoked salmon gravlax with cr�pes, avocado cream and cooling yogurt/cucumber sauce.

Sorbets are homemade each day in exotic flavors such as rose petal, jasmine, mango/chile, cucumber, pomegranate and avocado. The dessert menu also includes cr�pes flamb�ed tableside, fresh fruit compotes and more.


12 Tribes offers both � la carte and multi-course tasting menus with suggested beer and wine pairings. Appetizers average $13 and main courses $28.
The restaurant's wine cellar houses 80 to 85 labels priced $20 and up, with an emphasis on New World wines and boutique producers. The list features 20 Mexican wines such as Adobe and Casa de Piedra, all of them produced in