This post is written by JJ, you can see the author of all posts on the top of the page under author.
I spent July 4th in the stunning Zadun Ritz Carlton Reserve with my wife to celebrate our 10th anniversary.
I shared my trip on Instagram stories at the time, you can watch those highlights here.
When I arrived at the resort, there were 2 other kosher guests. By the time I left, the resort was at capacity for kosher guests, and at least half a dozen of them informed me they booked their rooms after seeing our stories!
Disclosure: I was comped for the first 3 nights of my 5 night stay, though I still paid for food and other expenses out of pocket. With that said I made sure to talk to other kosher guests, and everyone was blown away by the service and kosher food offered at the Zadun.
1. Each room has a personal Tasoani aka butler in the native tongue. The best part is that they are available 24/7 via WhatsApp! Here we are greeted by one of the butlers as he pours us a shot of Mezcal to welcome us to the property.
2. 5 Star service starts before you even arrive. I was asked the reason for my trip and my wife’s favorite color. They arranged pink (her favorite color) rose petals to line our room before we arrived. They also accept other custom requests and are incredibly accommodating.
3. Here is where the real fun starts. Every day has 3 Kosher menus. One for each meal. Each day has different menus. There are also kosher snack menus and a special menu for your arrival day. There are also Friday night, shabbos day, shabbos snack, and motzei shabbos menus.
And all of that is aside from their custom menu. Head Chef Nico, LOVES to make his kosher guests comfortable. With enough notice, he can make any dish you want! Saw a dish at a restaurant that looked amazing, but isn’t on the kosher menu? They will get the Chef that made it, to prepare it just for you in the kosher kitchen! The sky is the limit here.
This was our first course at the Zadun. We loved the fresh made guacamole so much that we had one sent to our room every evening as a late night snack!
4. I could share over a hundred pictures of the incredible food here. But it is the attention to detail that really makes them stand out. Shabbos is where they really shine here. They send an engineer to your room to turn off all automation. They send shabbos candles, wine, and even a crockpot for chulent upon request! The Mexican Chulent was incredible!
For dessert, they offer homemade frozen fruit popsicles; the kosher guest experience may be even better than regular guests!
5. Breakfast was my favorite meal here, and I don’t usually eat breakfast. The breakfast menu was mostly the same day to day so throughout our stay we got to try every dish. The Brulé Banana Pancakes and Eggs Florentine were absolutely perfect dishes. I could eat both of them for breakfast every day.
6. To attain the level of a Ritz Carlton Reserve property, there must be something truly unique and special about the location. You are immersed in nature.
Each day after breakfast, this male cardinal would come and feed our leftovers to his babies right in front of our eyes. It was an incredible sight. We also got to watch Manta Rays flying out of the ocean in the evening and hear the waves crashing into the mountain at night.
7. The Zadun does offer some activities for kids from their Ambassadors of the Environment team. But I do recommend this as a more romantic couples getaway due to it being on the more expensive side and the vibe of the resort. With that said, there are many fun activities a family could do in Cabo, and you can have a great time there all together.
Such a good dad:
8. There are 4 restaurants at the Zadun. With Kosher meals, you can choose where you’d like to dine.
Food is delivered from the kosher kitchen in a sealed warming box and served to you with real plates and dinnerware.
I’d recommend trying all of the locations. For meals there are three main options.
Humo is an intimate rustic restaurant great for dinners.
El Barrio is a fun pool side vibe, great for a relaxing lunch.
Equis is a Beach Side gorgeous location to enjoy lunch while taking in the sun and waves nearby.
These Fish Tacos we enjoyed at Equis were out of this world:
9. I enjoyed dining at non-restaurant locations as well. There are great lounge chairs on the beach, and you can eat your meals there. The Ocean here is not for swimming. It is a very rough sea and has an immediate drop from the coastline. But it had the most incredible waves to watch and listen to at night.
We spent entire days enjoying cabanas and chairs on the beach here.
10. We ate breakfast every morning on our private patio overlooking our private plunge pool and the ocean.
11. There is a lap pool next to the gym, as well as a stunning pool overlooking the ocean with access for all guests. In the spa there is a huge section of the resort, that is more exclusive and serene.
12. Here is the pool open to everyone with a view from El Barrio restaraunt:
13. Even working at our villa was relaxing 🙂
14. Lounging at the pool here was wonderful and they have waiters that can bring you drinks. There is a kosher cocktail menu which is prepared in the kosher kitchen. We personally found the cocktails to be better when we ordered them at the bar and checked the ingredients ourselves.
15. You can opt to pay for a private dining experience at different locations around the property, where they will offer a curated special menu and amenities available only for the Beyond Dining experience.
16. The Zadun has a full schedule of classes and activities available throughout the day and they have the option for a private star gazing experience in the evenings.
This is not a massive resort, it has a romantic intimate feel. You are more likely to be looking for anyone else on the beach than you are looking for an empty chair.
17. The resort itself is very beautiful to walk around, with lots of flowers, plants, birds, and nature to enjoy, including possibly a few bugs and critters as well. There are many activities available outside the resort as well, on our trip we chose to just relax the whole time, and we loved it. Cannot wait to go back!
18. For our final dinner, we ate in Humo and I splurged for the Beverly Hills Cowboy steak, and the chef even prepared my favorite, a whisky peppercorn sauce to go with it. The steak was absolute perfection.
If you’d like the menus I suggest emailing reservations and asking for the current ones.
I loved trying all the different dishes offered. And I didn’t even come close to trying everything they can make, as it is literally limitless. But some of the standout dishes were definitely the skirt steak, fish tacos, guacamole with extra
Pico de gallo, pancakes, corn tortilla soup, cheese empanadas, Mexican chulent, and eggs Florentine. The only dish I would recommend avoiding is the Chicken Breast as it is a high price point due to import fees and rather plain.
19. We had one last breakfast and it was off to the airport. We also ordered some deli sandwiches to go for our flights. We also ordered delicious El Mariachi Burgers from Ray’s Restaurant (menu here) which delivers to the resort. This adds an entirely other kosher option for Cabo, although with the options at the Zadun it isn’t necessary to order. But I did enjoy their burgers a lot.
If you are considering booking at the Zadun, they are offering DansDeals readers 20%-30% off stays that include kosher breakfast for a limited time.
You MUST email reservations by 11/8, and then you have until 11/21 to finalize your booking.
Book your room today via email: reservations.zadun@ritzcarlton.com
View this post on Instagram
Leave a Reply
11 Comments On "The Zadun Ritz Carlton Reserve, Glimpse Into The #1 Luxury Resort For Kosher Travelers In 19 Photos From My Recent Trip!"
All opinions expressed below are user generated and the opinions aren’t provided, reviewed or endorsed by any advertiser or DansDeals.
Can we book this with points? Lol
How is the food cost?
Available from approximately 410,000 and up Marriott points for a 5-day stay.
It’s an incredible value.
That won’t come with free breakfast though.
Food varies so much by item.
Fish is local, incredible, and cheaper.
Chicken is a fortune.
Meat comes from Los Angeles last I checked, and some cuts are normal price while others have a large markup.
Not bad! thankd for the info!
Thanks Dan :p
I was looking into this resort mainly because of the kosher, i was told that i needed to order all meals 24 hours in advance, which was a bit of a turn off to me. Was this the case for you or you were able to order it on the spot?
So much to cover for this place.
So, first of all the reason the kosher food is so incredible is because it is made fresh.
That poses a few issues when you have a small kosher kitchen and want to be able to make any food the guest orders.
The way they handle it is by having your butler help you order meals in advance.
Before you arrive you order your lunch and dinner for day of arrival.
Then while there your butler brings you a crafted menu for the next day, and you order, choose where you want to dine, and what time you want to dine.
All of this is seamless and the butler takes care of everything.
Don’t love the menu options? Order something else!
There were times when we wanted something right away, such as guacamole or sushi, and they had no problem accommodating our request. It’s just going to be a question of timing for meal service, staff on hand, and ingredients available at the moment.
All in all, I give the service 10+ stars out of 10.
They go above and beyond in all aspects at the resort, especially when it comes to accommodating kosher.
Feels like just yesterday Dan announced your engagement
Haha, time flies with good times BH!
What would you say is average cost for a meal for 2? I saw you said in another comment it varies a lot, but what is ball park range?
Would you say it’s more pricey than higher end kosher restaurants in the US on average?
Didn’t Rays lose its kosher status?
It is kosher Fleishigs under Chabad of Cabo. Located in the community center.