Jevay 
Last week I traveled to Mexico City, Mexico for a much needed vacation with friends. Because we’re foodies, we had to stop at the restaurant that is currently sitting at #7 on the world’s best restaurant list and proudly boasts two Michelin stars, Quintonil.
Before I begin my thorough review, here is my rating based off of service, overall creativity, and aesthetic: 25/30 or 83%. I will break down my grade further into this article.
Date Visited: Nov. ’24
Price: $4,500 MXN
Aesthetic Score: 9/10
Restaurants are generally massive in the United States. Unless you’re in a larger city or downtown area, the restaurants will take up a quarter of the block plus parking. In Mexico, restaurants are literally holes in the wall; in a good way! They are so quaint and tiny, usually offering a few tables for outdoor seating. Personally, I love this model. I read somewhere that restaurants are the #1 business to start and the #1 business to fail. I believe this is due in part to the sheer size of the restaurant and the owner’s inability to pay for the overhead. If all restaurants were the size of the typical restaurant in Mexico City, maybe many of them would survive past their first year.
That paragraph was a tangent, but I said all of that to say that Quintonil is a rather small restaurant. It’s positioned in the middle of the block and the signage was so small that our Uber driver missed it twice. When we finally found the restaurant we were shocked that the #7 restaurant in the world was a 1/3 of the size of a standard Texas Roadhouse!
Even so, Quintonil was decorated quite well! The rectangular space can sit about 30 people, has a sitting area in the front, bar, and an open kitchen.
I even loved the sitting area that Quintonil created at the front of the restaurant. The decorated bookshelf, and couch made the place feel home-y in a good way.
I also performed a “loo-review“! This is when I check out the restrooms that are available. I heard once that in order for a Michelin star restaurant to be a Michelin star restaurant, they must have a bathroom that matches the aesthetic of the restaurant. I would say that Quintonil’s restroom was cute! The perfumed jasmine spray in the bathroom was pleasant! I also noticed a space for toothbrushes, and toothpicks; such a nice touch in a restroom.
The Menu: 6/10
The Chef’s menu started off with two vegetarian dishes. The first of which was the Chileatole with huitlacoche and mexican herbs. This soup was deliciously light, and had strong notes of green onion. The second dish was a brown butter butternut squash and tomato salad with rice horchata. This dish had a spicy kick to it! The seeds had been rubbed in chile powder from the Oaxaca region.
Overall, I enjoyed both dishes as a starter. They were incredibly light, but the flavor and texture was spot on for both dishes.
Dish 3 was a blue fin tuna with wasabi ice cream, pickled watermelon, radish, and mustard. This dish was interesting. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, honestly. However, I was hit with multiple temperatures, a hint of mint and ginger. Overall, this beautiful dish was tasty.
The 4th dish was impressive! This was a spider crab in pipian verde with sunflower seeds, makrut lime, Thai basil, and blue corn tostadas. Now this dish I really loved. It was fragrant, light, and the snow crab was very good! I will say that this dish was a wee bit salty, but still high on the flavor profiles and a dish that I remember.
Dish #5 was a grilled pickled mussel tostada, mole del mar, and charred onion. I wished that this dish was more than one tostada because it was so tasty. We were instructed to eat it in one bite, but I was very side when that bite was gone. That bite provided a burst of flavor! It was incredibly tasted, and the mole read as a soy sauce. Simply tasty!
Dish #6 was a duck tamale with young corn cream. This dish tasted like “home”. Despite its size, it was a hearty dish. I love tamales and this one filled with duck did not disappoint. If I could go back to the restaurant, I would ask for a regular serving of this tamale. The sweet corn worked in perfect harmony with the duck and I would say they shined equally through to the end of the bite.
Dish #7 was grilled striped bass in sake lees with rice and coconut foam; essentially, flakey fish and salty rice. I couldn’t rate this dish highly because it was just a bit boring. However, the preparation of the fish was superb. From what I gathered from the waiter, the fish was tempered and torched to get that wonderful skin. It’s a very slow and laborious bake and I could taste that in the final product.
Dish #8 was the entomophagy festival; or bug eating time! This was my least favorite course, and probably not for the reason you think. I’ve consumed bugs before in other restaurants and if prepared well they are quite tasty. However, this course was a self-made taco. All of the taco items were brought to the table. We were then told to create what we wanted. However, I do not think that all of these ingredients were cohesive and because we had no sense of what might work with what we just created what we thought made sense. I did not like my tacos and felt that the heartiest dish was the least favorable. I would have liked premade tacos so that I could get the intended taste that the chef had in mind.
Before the dessert course, we had the cactus paddle sorbet as palette cleanser and man did it open you up! This dish was very cold lol! It packed a punch and was almost sour. I found it to be refreshing, but definitely an acquired taste.
After the palette cleanser, we started the dessert course which is always my favorite!
Dish 10 was crème fraiche and melipona bee honey, physalis and caviar. Now, before this dish was served we were allowed to taste the honey that was to be the star of the dish. It was lighter, and slightly less sweet than traditional honeys that I’ve tried, so I wasn’t really sure of what to expect. However, this dish was my favorite dessert of the day. It was stunningly light, and the creme fraiche was beyond tasty. I assumed that the caviar would steal the show. However, it blended well with the dessert. This is another dish that I would have liked a lot more of.
Dish 11 was another dish that I was disappointed in, sadly. In my notes I wrote “drunk corn”. This dish was comprised of Mexican cornbread with rompope (a traditional Mexican liqueur), vanilla, and passion fruit. With each bite I got the strongest taste of booze and very little of the other ingredients. When I did taste the cornbread it was beautiful, moist, and sweet. I just feel the amount of alcohol took away from what could have been an amazing dessert.
The last two desserts of the day were served as one dish. 12a was a yuzu and strawberry tartelette complete with elderberry flower infused oil. The textures were spot on and the tartelette crispy and thin, but this dessert was easily forgettable. Dish 12b was a chocolate parfait with raspberry, olives, and black garlic. The chocolate parfait sort of melts in your mouth and on your heads due to the technique used to create it. Because I’ve seen and tasted this technique before, I wasn’t as impressed by it. I also got strong notes of chocolate, but could not taste the other elements.
Service 10/10
The service was top notch at Quintonil! The amount of personable attention that the wait staff amplified was my absolute favorite memory from this experience. They were kind, attentive, and proud to be apart of the culture.
When we first sat at the table we were expecting a drink menu. However, the waiter came over and said “I am the menu. Let me know what you want, and we’ll make it for you”. He was kind and very friendly. Throughout our service the waiters would be anxiously waiting to come up and tell us about the food that we had just consumed. They checked in frequently and ensured we were enjoying ourselves.
I asked the “menu” waiter what he loved about his job the most and he said “Talking to the people…You go to some fine dining places and no one talks outside of presenting the dishes. Here we specialize in conversation”. I wholeheartedly believed him and I felt that this was Quintonil’s winning touch.
Quintonil provided two gifts to our table. The first of which was a “places you should go” guide for Mexico City. It included a list of restaurants, museums, attractions, bakeries that were worth seeing. I loved this! How thoughtful of a restaurant to speak to other areas of interest?! I felt as if if they were saying “we are apart of this city and we want you to enjoy it as much as we do.
We also received this delicious traditional bread as we were leaving the restaurant. It was a vanilla, chocolate and cinnamon conche bread that was soft, and right on time! Surprisingly, I was a bit hungry after this tasting and this bread was much needed.
Overall
The culinary world is tough, and becoming the seventh in the world is an incredibly difficult feat to accomplish. While I wasn’t blown away by the menu, I was able to leave with gratefulness in my heart that I could taste a wee bit of Mexico through the eyes of chef Jorge Vallejo. I hope to return soon.
