Quintonil

This is by far the best restaurant in CDMX. Nothing comes close. Two Michelin stars well deserved. If you have the resources go. Period. The day we were there Chef Vallejo was out. Nevrmimd Chef Geraldine ran kitchen impeccably and produced food worthy of three stars. She was quiet, in charge, and supervised every single dish. She too will win stars soon. Sommelier Hector was incredibly knowledgeable and detailed. Sit at bar. Wondeful open kitchen and show. We tried mexican wine maridage and it was unexpected and superb. Our waitress Ana was fabulous. You can only have fixed menu and should be comfortable with sauces made with prehispanic foods, including insects. But, pretty please do not let this deter you. The food is as good as top Paris. I won't go into dishes since they change with the seasons. But the twelve bites were perfect and not too much. The sole caveat is the place is so successful it is hard to get a reservation and front office staff has gotten arrogant. I.e. you're ten minutes early go wait in street. Our sole couch is busy. Had the restaurant been full OK but this was as it opened. Could have easily sat us down and said have a glass of wine, we will start in ten if you don't mind.

I was hesitant about how to write this review, but I guess I'll just be 100% transparent. We had tried to visit this 2 Michelin star restaurant for a while but it was either fully booked or we had to reschedule for business trips that we got and so. Finally, when our reservation approached, I got sick (stomach infection) just one night before the reservation and of course rescheduling was not an option anymore. We reached out to the restaurant first thing the next morning and they told us they would contact people from the waiting list to take our reservation and get our pre-payment refunded. Not sure how hard they tried, but of course no one accepted to use our reservation the very same day that they were communicated about it. So... Yes, we were forced to go (to avoid loosing our 6K pre-payment) with me dying slowly. I was really mad about that, but I least I got to see my wife enjoying the totally worth 2-Michelin star menu and I can confirm that their bathrooms are really comfortable and sound proofing (they also gave us the table closest to the bathrooms, so... I guess, thank you?). On the other hand, I can tell that the staff was really kind asking me about how I was feeling and they offered me an alternate single dish menu (rice, some vegetables, rib eye mini steak) which was pretty good (at least the 30 min it stayed in my stomach). At the end, they also mentioned they made some sort of exception with us by using the pre-payment when they should have not because I did not eat the tasting menu... I mean, really? So I don't know... From a business perspective I understand why they did not allow us to reschedule our reservation, but from a customer perspective I would have preferred the outstanding reschedule than the good attention they gave me during our almost 4-hour stay. I don't think that would have hurt so much their financials.

For a world-renowned restaurant, the service and ambience are surprisingly relaxed in the best way. The team made us feel right at home, patiently walking us through the drinks and dishes and later sharing some of their favorite spots around the city with us as visitors. Several courses were especially memorable - the mussel tartlet, stone crab, trout, pork tamale, and duck with mole. It was a delight to experience refined cooking with Mexican influences woven in so seamlessly. For drinks, the Agua de Quintonil was a favorite, and the Beetroot Coffee (their take on an espresso tonic) was wonderfully refreshing. We also appreciated the fun incorporation of insects throughout the menu! With its reputation as one of the world’s best restaurants, expectations were high. While it’s hard to say if it fully lived up to the hype, it was still a fantastic and memorable flavor journey that we were happy that we got to experience.

As others have stated, Quintonil has extremely impressive, attentive and comprehensive service (hats off to Israel, Jesus, Pablo) but the food at this price point should be delicious with perfect execution across the board. Two huge problems: the lack of heat and somehow, undercooked beans. It makes no sense how a restaurant with this much talent and recognition could get these things wrong. It goes without saying, but one of the critical components of Mexican cuisine is spices and chilis. While these flavors were present, somewhere along the way someone made the decision to make every dish very flavorful but flat in terms of heat (especially given how many kinds of heat there are in Mexico). Pretty much every dish would be better if it had more heat but in order to please Anglo Michelin reviewers it's obvious things were muted. There was also a duck paired with what was my first sweet mole. Everyone agreed that the mole was cloyingly sweet and could have used more cacao/savory notes to balance. I could see how that mole would appeal to American/European palates, but to our Chinese/Mexican mouths it was like a syrup. The other savory course was a ribeye that came paired with some taco accoutrements (tortillas, avocado, etc.) and some sort of pinto bean sopa from Sinoloa. The beans were served hard and in some cases almost completely undercooked which confused us and especially confused the Mexican couple we were dining with as a hard bean in Mexican cuisine is unheard of. When squished between two finger the bean should smush not crumble, indicating under-rendered starch. Even more troubling was the kitchen doubling down when told about it. All in all, very creative food with some hits (the mussel tostada, the assorted lettuces, the desserts including the nopale sorbet) and a lot of weird misses. 2/5 go to Masala Y Maiz instead.