#11 Quintonil

During my first visit to CDMX, I concluded that Quintonil had the most creative, interesting and delicious dishes; although I wasn't particularly impressed by neither the ambiance nor space. My second tour of the cities most renowned restaurants reaffirmed these sentiments.

The space is a bit crowded and a lot of noise from the open kitchen bleeds over to the dining area and you can barely make out the music that playing. It feels loud, busy and lacking ambiance. But the food is amazing. I'd come here with someone just looking to eat good food and leaving without much sobremesa time. From start to finish, the meal took about 2 hours.

The meal started with a corn chileatole and tubes of daikon with peas hiding underneath. It was like a lighter, cold corn chowder with a little kick from the drumstick tree oil, onion, garlic and herbs.

The second green dish that followed was a dollop of spider crab meat sitting in a pumpkin seed and thai basil curry. The curry was dotted with kale oil and topped with blue corn tostadas and greens. That crab was on top of a light and creamy aioli. It reminded me of the crab meat in a California roll, only made with real crab meat in a nutty curry with bitter notes from the kale oil.

More crab followed on a sope. The soft shell crab from Veracrus was lightly breaded and perfectly crisp. The tomatillo salsa was a little sweet with a hint of mango, but overall the sope was an excellent bite.

The next dish was my least favorite, but it might have been a symptom of the food getting cold as the patron next to me momentarily distracted me with good conversation. Underneath the greens and dried mushroom thins was a small tamal filled with quesillo. This all sat in a guajillo chile adobo. It tasted like a simple cheese and mushroom tamale with an adobo mushroom sauce on it. Next were the mains.

The first main was striped bass cured for 4 days on top of a cauliflower foam. Underneath the foam covered a Veracruz salsa of tomatoes, pine nuts, squid and mushrooms. The foam had a taste reminiscent of cream soup. Salsa was like a sweet squid ragu. Fish was also fantastic, the combo of the ragu and the foam made fo a rich, savory bite; more meaty than fishy.

The second protein was a piece of glazed pork chop in a "seguesa" with polenta and an apple "pico de gallo" relish. The onions garnishing the dish were sweet, tart and savory. The seguesa was a bit salty and sour, but good. The relish was a a bit odd on its own, but addition of texture and bitterness. Honestly, I just wanted more of the pork chop. So soft and tender, but meaty as the fat was made firm in how it was prepared.

The last main was like a chicken porchetta roll roasted over charcoal with fried leeks on top. It was accompanied by a mole made of macadamia nuts, nectarine and pickled clams. The chicken was so good. There was a layer of crispy skin on the outside, then what seemed to be a layer of light meat then dark at the center. Almost like a beef wellington. Chicken was super tender, juicy and flavorful. Leeks were a nice touch of crunch.

At an hour and 45 mins in, a cactus sorbet palate cleanser arrived. Tasted almost like a bitter aloe, likely made from prickly pear. It was soft, neither icy nor rich. A good sorbet.

The highlight of the desserts was the berries chaos. Marshmallow and strawberry ice cream was topped with a merengue, dusted with fresh and freeze dried berries then dotted with camomile white wine gel. The ice cream was great and the freeze dried berries dissolved like cotton candy or the marshmallows you find in some breakfast cereals. Gel was slightly sweet and complimented the tartness of the berries. Excellent dessert.

Finally, the mango colada. It was composed of a coconut yogurt made in house, a mango sorbet that had a gel like smoothness and nice pops from toasted rice puffs. Fresh mango slices as its base added the additional texture and light tartness.