3 Best Restaurants in Ixtapa and Zihuatanejo, Mexico

When was the last time you enjoyed a plate of stingray in black butter sauce? This unimposing restaurant encases the heart of Zihuatanejo's most deliciously inventive cuisine. Owner-chef Ricardo Rodriguez, who worked in Paris before returning to Mexico, applies deft Mexican and Mediterranean touches to seafood dishes in a beachcomber aura overlooking the bay. The melt-in-your-mouth abalone and exquisite grilled mahimahi under a sweet, spicy pineapple sauce are popular choices, but the house specialty remains patata rellena—potatoes stuffed with shrimp and lobster in a fresh basil-and-garlic sauce.

The slightly formal take on the typical toes-in-the-sand dining experience is evident in the fact that this popular spot on Playa la Ropa accepts credit cards. Among the seafood specialties here are filete La Perla (fish fillet baked with cheese); lobster thermidor; and yummy fish or shrimp tacos made with homemade flour or corn tortillas and served with guacamole. There's a nice wine list and Havana cigars for after dinner. And you don't have to get your feet wet or sandy at all: you can sit in the palapa-covered restaurant under the trees or take a stool at the corner bar, where there's always a game on satellite TV. But plenty of customers just sit on the beach and sip a drink.

The menu at this solo effort from the longtime chef of La Casa Que Canta features dishes such as braised pork in tomatillo salsa with black beans, stuffed Cornish game hen, tuna in a lemongrass sauce, and many more choices. There's a short list of mostly South American wines.