Quintonil Restaurant
Polanco, Mexico City.
The dinner plans tonight were at Quintonil. Quintonil also manages a spot on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list at Number 22 for 2017. It is advertised as “clarity of flavor, alongside contemporary Mexican technique”. I managed to get a 7 PM seating via Open Table at about 60 days out. Even then, there was not a lot of open availability.
We took an Uber over to the restaurant from the hotel. On arrival, we were given a choice of dinging in the restaurant or in the outdoors (covered) area. We opted for the outdoors. This was supposedly the outdoor area, although it was completely sealed and warm.
Since we had just had the massive tasting menu at Pujol the night before, we opted for a lighter la carte menu tonight. There was a good selection available and the food that was coming out looked very interesting and appealing.
They also offered a set tasting menu, but we went with the a la carte options.
We trusted their better judgement and I had the sommelier recommend a wine. The sommelier recommended a Mexican Chardonnay Chenin Blanc blend called Afrodita. We have previously had some pretty bad locals wines over our trips. I rmember The Great Wall of China Wine in China; awful. The Tahitian Coral Wine; take it or leave it. However, we were blown away by the quality of the Mexican wines we had the opportunity to try. This one actually had a flavour profile that had some complexity. Most of the wines we tried came from Gualupe in Baja California.
MrsWT73 had the charred avocado tartare with mexican herbed chips. It was sensational. It loooked like a bomb had just gone off on the plate.
I had the crab tostada taco with lime radish and chile habanero mayonnaise. It was quite acidic but really flavorful when it was all mixed together.
For the main course, MrsWT73 had the turkey in recado negro sauce, scented in caco husk with vegetables and burnt onions.
I had the braised pork jowl with blue corn segueza with lettuces and picked “rajas”, which was good mixed together.
MrsWT73 liked the servers and the atmosphere was casual. Food was super yummy and more complex than the usual Mexican tasting notes that I was used to.
After dinner, we ended up walking over to Cinuanta wine bar and shared a half bottle of Mexican Nebbiolo on the patio before heading back to the W Mexico City. Despite the safety reputation of Mexico, we found it to be no problem walking around the neighborhood.
Between these two wonderful dining experiences, I think I enjoyed the excitement and food of Pujol more than Quintonil. The new space at Pujol seemed to have a slight edge on Quintonil, with a contemporary vibe and a super deluxe crowd. Admittedly, you can't go wrong with either of them since they both offer an excellent product.