Random Thursday dinner. Andrea has been wanting to come back here. I certainly enjoyed our previous 3 times we ate here, but didn’t love it as much as she did, but this time I definitely did. We did plan to come here during Dia De Los Muertos, but it turned out that way. We wanted to come here before our upcoming trip to Mexico City and Oaxaca. We were not disappointed and quite the contrary had a fantastic experience.
We were seated near another diner, Clarence, who had been dining here for 9 years ever since they first opened and knew the chef. He had been seated a half hour or more before us, so it was interesting to see what he was served as a preview of what was coming for us.
We’ve always enjoyed the first couple bites – a tostada and a sope both with a masa base. The caviar presentation was very unique with a potato soup paired with a fantastic 2010 Chablis, which was probably our favorite wine from the pairing.
After that came the 3 tacos which I thought were fantastic. It’s always about the layers of flavors – the initial taste of the protein, but then the sauces and seasoning, usually with just a bit of heat to give it a little more complexity.
The main meat courses – duck and domestic wagyu were delicious as well. At this point, Chef Val came by to talk to Clarence and he introduced us to him and we were then invited to see the kitchen and the wine cellar which we were super interested in seeing, esp. since we hadn’t seen either. The kitchen was quite large and impeccably clean. We mentioned to Chef Val how we were going to Mexico City and Oaxaca and he later gave us a list of restaurant recommendations in addition to the ones we already had lined up. How cool was that? The wine celler was amazing (I could see the Chateau Mouton Rothschild from where I was sitting in the dining room) and all of ther other wines were so great to see.
Dessert was also interesting with mexican chocolate of course, a churro, and a cotton candy type dessert with lime sugar, jamaica, tajnin. The chocolates were, of course delicious. The salted caramel was of course delicious, but I think I actually lliked the banana and peanut butter ganache.
We also had a Clase Azul Reposado and a Mezcal as our aperitif to round out the evening. The reposado was quite nice with some fruity notes to it…the mezcal was very good as well (we don’t usually drink mezcal neat), but was just a touch harsh for my palate.
A great meal and ordered a Waymo to take us home since I hadn’t taken one at night. It drove impeccably, albeit a bit slow and conservative, but better that than rash.
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