Cabo Flats (Delray Beach, Palm Beach Gardens)
***** Cabo Flats, 14851 Lyons Road (Delray Marketplace), Delray Beach, Florida 33446, (561) 499-0378.
Last night Jeff Eats gave Mexican joint–Cabo Flats a shot. Just so you know, Cabo has 2-south Florida locations 1-in Palm Beach Gardens, 1-in Delray Beach. The one I’m talking about- is the Delray Beach outpost which opened about a month ago in the Delray Marketplace.
Let me start by saying that Cabo Flats is an absolutely great looking restaurant. Trust me on this, Cabo ain’t a “mom & pop” joint…the Delray Beach location is probably 10,000 square feet- seating maybe 250 and there is an outdoor patio that probably seats close to 150. Jeff Eats is gonna guess here, but I’m thinking that the owners probably went for some heavy duty cash building this joint out—I’m figuring something like $1.5 million. When you check www.caboflats.com for menu/prices you’ll also find décor photos. Cabo has an indoor bar/window outdoor bar—and some real high ceilings.
As I mentioned above, Cabo Flats is located in the Delray Marketplace. Don’t really have the time to go into Jeff Eats’ opinion on this center, but if you do some checking- you’ll find a writeup on why I think that this relatively new center is a “disaster” in the making.
Anyway…
Cabo Flats is a real good looking joint–I will tell you, that no question in Jeff Eats’ mind, it’s way too big for the area’s demographics…also, its high ceilings and open doors/open bar window are going to result in “ac” electric bills that will probably shock its owners’ collective conscience. But hey, I’m sure they thought all this out before they started construction.
Let’s talk food.
Last night Jeff Eats and Mrs. Jeff Eats ate “outside”…service was real good- we ordered guacamole el cabo ($9) which came with a nice sized portion of corn tortilla chips, cabo wings ($10), gringo burger with French fries ($9), chicken fajita ($14), shrimp quesadilla ($13). First let me say, Cabo has its pricing right on the mark–very reasonable and there is no skimping on portion size. Absolutely loved the cabo wings–which were in a mild-bbq sauce. As for the rest of the “dishes” decent enough…but nothing that you guys won’t find in chains like Friday’s-Chili’s. Now-please don’t get me wrong, Mrs. Jeff Eats and I thoroughly enjoyed the meal, but Cabo is basically serving what I call chain food.
So what do we got here?
Great looking joint, with decent enough tasting/priced food, in a humongous space-with a high ceiling/open doors/open bar window, in a center that “imho” will suck wind.
To wrap this one up, give Cabo Flats a try. It definitely got the job done for Jeff Eats…but please check your “dynamite” food expectations at the front door. On the business side of the equation- Not so sure as- to how happy its owners are going to be with this “project”– only time will tell on that.
Cabo Flats is open Monday-Wednesday 11:30am-1am, 11:30am-3am, Saturday 11am-3am, Sunday 11am-1am.
saw the restaurant. really well done. hasn’t got a chance in the delray mktplace. there aren’t enough people in the area to sustain it.
Jeff,
Was at the Marketplace last night around 8pm. Cabo was busy but there were open tables. Terrific looking restaurant. Have to agree with you way too big. Can’t see it making it there. By the way it started to rain about 8:15 and people were running like crazy for cover. Very poorly planned center.
very well said,
don’t own restaurants, just eat in them.
I once invested with some friends in a restaurant and the thing was a freaking nightmare. problems with employees, health dept, and you sit and wait for customers to come to you. there is always something going wrong like broken freezer, or a flood in the kitchen.
Like Jeff said, the food is chain food. Decent but nothing out of the ordinary. The new Delray location looks great.
Jeff, maybe in s beach but on lyons rd in Boynton beach, you can kiss this one goodbye. they overbuilt this one by about 8000 sq feet. why do folks like this not learn a lesson?
Jeff Eats,
Hey, love the blog.
My husband and I ate at Delray’s Cabo about a week ago and enjoyed the food. As you correctly pointed out, it’s cahin type food but all in all it was pretty good. You are also so right about it being a terrific looking restaurant. We chose to eat after looking in and seeing how great and colorful it was. You are also right that the prices are very fair.
The sad part of the Cabo story is that it’s so huge that we can’t figure out how it will do enough business to pay the bills. As you said it’s humongous.
We wish Cabo the best. We plan on eating there again in the near future.
Jeff,
Outside of agreeing with you that it’s a great looking restaurant, the food and service are an abomination! Jason and I had dinner there a couple of weeks ago and it was a total disaster from the moment we were seated. Waitress asked to ‘card me’ when I ordered a drink. Looked her straight in the eye and asked if she was joking. She wasn’t. I asked for a manager. As an over 60 year woman….possibly I should have taken the carding as a compliment? Had to return my drink and my dinner because both were disgusting. The Strawberry Daiquiri had the consistency of a strawberry foam whipped drink that was sour. The chicken in the fajitas was rubbery. The trio platter Jason ordered was nothing but mushy soggy mess of melted cheese and no chicken in site. We both felt everything we ordered was nothing more than microwaved food.
forgot to add…..
forgot to add…..
after having to call the waitress and manager over to our table numerous time to complain ….they then presented us with a bill. I was so infuriated over this entire experience, that I called the waitress over and handed her back the billfold and sweetly told her to bring it to a manager and if he was smart….he’d zero out the bill. That was the ONLY positive thing that occurred that evening.
Sherry,
I have eaten in Cabo twice. The place is only a month old so maybe it got better after you ate there which was two weeks ago. Like Jeff and you both said great looking restaurant. As Jeff also said strictly chain food with nothing great happening. My wife and I both enjoyed the food knowing it was nothing special. Enjoyed the restaurants’ vibe and colorfulness. On the waitress carding you, take it as the ultimate compliment, but you know she was just an idiot.
Jeff, was there last Sunday pm. food was ok. service a bit slow but passable. really great looking place. way too big for the area. way too south beachish for the area. going to be a bitch for this one to stay open. owners really don’t the know area based on what they opened.
WHAT WERE THESE GUYS THINKING WHEN THEY BUILT SUCH A GIGANTIC RESTAURANT? They obviously weren’t thinking at all, as it will fail big time.
Jeff
Perfect description. Big beautiful restaurant with great vibe and loads of tvs, ok but not great food.
ate there last night. food was good. great looking restaurant.
There today for lunch. Busy. Good looking restaurant. Decent enough food.
Living in the area, we were excited to have a large Mexican restaurant open up close by. Mexican is one of our family favorites. The atmosphere is great and the decor is fun, attractive and festive, but the food is not even close to good enough. We grew up on LI having access to some delicious Mexican food including Pancho Villas of Huntington, all the way to Dos Cominos in Manhattan…..After our 3rd and final meal (3 strikes and your out) at Cabo Flats, our party of 5 all agreed, while the service was good enough, we would have rather eaten at Chipotle for half the price. I ordered the Oxaca and it looked like something my 5 year old would have constructed. All of the ingredients were dry, probably sitting around the kitchen for too many days (I watch Restaurant Impossible). The flavors were basic and boring, nothing I couldn’t get in my grocers freezer. My Husband ordered the shrimp burrito and it was the same size as my mini burrito, with only a few shrimp in it. The shrimp were small but OK in flavor, just a little heavy on the blackened seasoning. It was so pathetic that even the waitress (that was new) agreed with us apologized and sent her Manager over who then explained that they have several new cooks in the kitchen and he’s really sorry for the sub-par food. Well I sure hope they train the staff a LOT better then whats happening right now or this place is going to fail, fail hard.
The higher prices would happily be accepted if the food was actually good. I guess for now we will have to travel to PGA or downtown West Palm for Roccos Tacos if we want the kind of experience we were hoping Cabo Flats was bringing to our area.
Non-Tourist area…Delray Beach? Try to get a table in town anytime between Christmas and Easter and then you may want to re-think Delray being a non-tourist.
Ate in Delray not good. Garbage.
Out of business.