Every Cabo trip has a rhythm by now. Saturday was Harry’s out on the Tourist Corridor, Monday was Greek at Ilios, and Tuesday night we stayed home — home being Solaz, and dinner being Riccio di Mare, the resort’s Italian restaurant.
We’ve eaten here many times across our stays, and at some point we stopped pretending we were going to explore the menu. We each order the same two dishes every single time, because they’re that good. This is a post about a standing order.
The standing order, part one: Bucatini Cacio e Pepe
Classic cacio e pepe is three things — pasta, cheese, black pepper — and Riccio di Mare respects that, then cheats a little: their version ($440) folds in Italian sausage, grilled and laid right on top. Thick bucatini in a glossy Pecorino Romano and Parmigiano Reggiano sauce, flecked with cracked pepper, a sprig of rosemary over it all. It’s rich, it’s peppery, and the sausage makes it a full meal instead of a pasta course. There’s a reason it’s one of the two dishes carrying the menu’s signature-dish marker.
The standing order, part two: Ossobuco alla Milanese
The other signature marker on the menu belongs to this one, and it earns it. A 320g veal ossobuco ($920), braised until it’s barely holding together, set over saffron risotto the proper Milanese way and finished with a lemon-and-parsley gremolata that cuts right through the richness. The risotto is the deep gold you only get from real saffron, and it soaks up the braising juices from the shank. It’s also, for what it’s worth, one of the heartiest dishes on the menu that happens to be gluten free.
What we drank
Le Volte dell’Ornellaia 2022 — the Toscana IGT blend from Ornellaia’s Bolgheri estate, the same house behind one of Italy’s most famous wines. It’s the estate’s more approachable bottle, but there’s nothing small about it: dark fruit, a little spice, and enough structure to stand up to a braised veal shank. With Italian food this classic, we drink Italian, and this bottle has become part of the ritual too.
Update: we went back. And back. And back.
One dinner at Riccio turned into four this trip — Sunday, Tuesday, our birthday/anniversary dinner on Wednesday, when we cancelled our off-property reservation and stayed home instead, and our last night in Cabo on Thursday. When a resort restaurant earns that many return visits in a single week, the standing order isn’t the whole story anymore.
Wednesday’s birthday dinner brought one break from the ritual: Melissa went off-script with a linguine vongole — clams and blistered cherry tomatoes — alongside a cleaner plate of the ossobuco over its saffron risotto. And the kitchen sent out a chocolate dessert with “Tanti Auguri” piped across the plate, which is Italian for the occasion and about as good as a birthday plate gets.
The detail that says the most about this place, though, is a jar of salad dressing. On our March visit, the chef made Melissa a batch of his homemade Caesar dressing to take home — and gave her the recipe with it. Thursday night, our last, he did it again.
And Thursday narrowed the ritual to its essentials: we split the Caesar to start, then both of us ordered the ossobuco — absolutely amazing, again. The chef came out to the table, and the dressing arrived boxed and tied with twine, hand-addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Conrad from the Riccio team. That’s not a menu item and it’s not a loyalty program. It’s a kitchen that remembers you. It’s also, more than any single plate, why Riccio is the restaurant we keep coming back to at Solaz.
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5/5
The room is part of why we keep coming back: open and airy, with none of the stuffiness that can sneak into a resort dining room. The service is always great, too — one of the constants of our stays here. Put that together with food this reliable, and it adds up to the word we keep using for this place: fantastic.
Highlights
- The Bucatini Cacio e Pepe — a classic, plus grilled Italian sausage, and better for it
- Ossobuco alla Milanese over real saffron risotto, with the gremolata doing its job
- Both dishes are the menu’s designated signature plates — and both are our standing order
- Le Volte dell’Ornellaia 2022: a serious Tuscan bottle that suits the food
- No drive, no reservation scramble — it’s downstairs at Solaz
Good to know
- Riccio di Mare is the Italian restaurant inside Solaz, a Luxury Collection Resort, KM 18.5 Carretera Transpeninsular, Cabo Real, San José del Cabo
- Resort phone: +52 624 144 2100 — reservations through the resort/concierge
- Menu prices are in Mexican pesos and include tax (bucatini $440, ossobuco $920); the menu notes a 15% service charge is added
- The ossobuco is marked gluten free on the menu
- The occasion: a birthday/anniversary dinner at Riccio Di Mare on Wed Oct 21, 2026 — our third Riccio night of the trip
