Yes, we were back in Mexico City. We had enjoyed our last trip so much; that we decided to head on back during the President's Day weekend. And while this trip was not without some hiccups….more on that later; the linchpin of this trip was reservations at Pujol; considered by many to be the best restaurant in Mexico City; if not Latin America. so, we headed back on the Thursday before the long weekend. The drill was the same as before; though leaving before the long weekend was a blessing as CBX was a breeze. what wasn't a breeze was having had AeroMexico mess up our flight reservations. We made it across the bridge; only to be told that we had to go to the AeroMexico ticket counter because we had multiple reservations for the same flight. How that happened; I'll never know, but we'd lost our Business Class seats on flights going to, and returning from Mexico City. So, we ended up having to spend an extra hour at the AeroMexico ticket counter at the airport. I will say that dealing with the counter staff was amazing as they worked hard to straighten things out. and in the end, all was well, we had our seats going, and a flight change on the return flight.
Like on our previous trip; we got out of the plane, through all the gates, to our hotel transfer….and then had the six mile; forty minute drive to our hotel. We decided to stay at the same hotel as on our previous visit. We really enjoyed staying in the La Condesa neighborhood….and much like Paris, returning here felt much like coming "home".
The Missus decided that we'd walk from La Condesa to Pujol, which is located in upscale Polanco, which was about three miles and change, so about an hour-and-a-half before our dinner reservation we headed out. We'd never really been into Polanco before, so it was an interesting walk; many bars and restaurants; but the area seemed to lack the character of the Condesa and Roma neighborhoods.
We headed down one of the main streets that goes thru Polanco; Avenida Presidente Masaryk, which had me wondering why such a main thoroughfare in the area known as "Mexico City's Beverly Hills", would be named after the first President of Czechoslovakia. Here's a statue of him in one of the roundabouts on the avenue.
This statue was given to CDMX as a gift from Prague in 1999. As for the background on the naming of the street, you can find an interesting article here.
About five block further down the street, you take a turn on Tennyson and end up at the rather discreet entrance to Pujol. We had arrived about 30 minutes early for our reservation, which was no problem since our table was ready. We had a wonderful, discreet corner table, which we loved.
Service during our meal was excellent, very attentive, but not over-bearing. The pacing was a bit off, with some rather long waits between dishes near the end of the meal. But great service overall.
I started with a Mezcal Negroni which I really enjoyed; the Mezcal really tempered the sometimes overwhelming flavor of the Campari. The Missus who really doesn't care for Negroni, even in Florence, actually enjoyed this.
The Missus ordered something interesting from the drinks menu; a Junmai Gingo from Nami, the first Sake producer in Mexico. The sake had a light fruity nose, very clean finish, definitely not a Daigingo Junmai, but I thought this would go really well with our dinner. The only problem was it as served at almost room temperature. We both ended up ordering a second round and asked that the sake be put on ice, which fixed things up nicely.
So here's the part in the post where I need to apologize for the quality of photos. We loved our cozy corner table, but the lighting gave me fits….and sorry, but I'm not one of those folks who fiddles around waaaay to much before taking a photo with a gigantic DSLR. I prefer not to draw attention to myself. My point-and-shoot usually has excellent low light capabilities, but this was not one of those days.
There were two tasting menus available and we decided to get one of each, after all we share tastes. The Missus got the "Maiz" (corn) and I chose the "Mar" (sea).
Things started off with two lovely "Street Snacks". First, a wonderful, mini-sope topped with a lovely, mildly sweet butternut squash….great corn flavors shone thru.
Next, a smoking gourd arrived at the table.
This contained one of Pujol's signature dishes; a baby corn version of the ubiquitous street corn dish Elote. I can see why folks rave about this item. The baby corn has the wonderful, slightly sweet, maiz flavor, the slightly fruity, rich, costeno chile aioli, with nutty crunch provided by Chicatanas (flying ants). A wonderful, complex combination of flavors. Definitely delici-yoso!
The Missus's first item; a Tlayuda, topped with black beans, tomato, wonderfully mildly peppery-citrusy-bitter baby papalo leaf, and crunchy chapulines (grasshopper).
A wonderfully bold, but balanced dish….maiz-good acidity-slightly sweet, nutty……amazing.
Which over shadowed my well made Chayote and Scallop Pico, making it seem ordinary.
There was a bit too much acidity for me from the pico de piñata. The pickled chayote was amazing, but the scallops were sorely overshadowed by all the assertive flavors.
The Missus's favorite dish of the night included two of Her favorite items; Huitlacoche with Black Truffle.
Served with blue corn tortillas; this was fungi heaven; the earthy, but almost sweet flavor of huitlacoche, combined with fragrant black truffle….not much I can say about this other than….wow….
Our sake, nicely placed on ice arrived at this time. A really nice gentleman, I believe one of the dining room managers arrived and asked us about our serving preference and we explained that for us, this type of sake is best served between 6 to 8 degrees Celsius to really bring out the flavors and clean finish….really nice guy…he even took out a book and wrote down some notes.
My dish was the Kanpachi Ceviche.
The texture of the Kanpachi was perfect, just a slight toothsomeness. The cacahuazintle (nixtamalized corn) juice, celery, and yuzu made up the ceviche sauce. The hoja santa leaves added a bit of a herbaceous; slight anise-minty-peppery touch to the dish. The only downside was that this was a bit too salty.
The Missus Earthy-Smokey Eggplant "Tamal" with Swiss Chard was a simple, yet perfect combination of flavors. It was quite wonderful.
I loved the texture of the pulpo in the Octopus Chintextle with Pickled Carrot.
The pulpo was beyond fork tender…..just perfect. The various Oaxacan Herbs added a different touch to each bite. The Chintextle; a Oaxacan chili paste was kind of strange to my palate as it had an almost bitter, turmeric flavor….the paste almost came across as a pseudo-curry. The Missus loved the octopus, but hated the sauce.
The Missus loved Her Wild Herb Open Papadzul.
So many amazing flavors; the chiltomate salsa had a wonderful tangy-mild sweetness, with a hint of heat from habaneros. The quail eggs were amazing; the texture, they must be sous vide…it was like eating butter. This was simply amazing.
The skin on my Striped Bass was so wonderfully crisp. It was a tad overcooked and a tad too salty though.
The fried fava beans were absolutely delicious, as was the mole verde.
The last main was the signature "Mole Madre" and "Mole Nuevo", an amazing dish with regards to contrasts in textures and flavor.
Chef Enrique Olvera's Mole Madre is aged like a mother sauce and fed when the quantity falls below 10 liters. At the time of our meal it had been aged 2,779 days….yes, that's over 7 1/2 years! Needless to say, there's a lot going on here; it's not spicy, but quite thick, slightly sweet, with a pleasant bitterness…..I've mentioned the Chinese suan-tian-ku-la-xian (sour-sweet-bitter-spicy-salty) metaphor for a flavorful, yet balanced dish the Chinese use. This was it. The Mole Nuevo, was more in your face, in terms of sweetness, spice, like a typical mole. what a wonderful, interesting dish.
Then we were provided with something to refresh our palates.
Before dessert……
Which is usually the Missus's department. Though I have to say; I loved the churros, light crunch, then melting away in your mouth. Not overly sweet, slight salt tones…..
In the end, this was an absolutely fabulous meal, perhaps one of our all time favorites. We loved the flavors, how the dishes were composed; it just suited us. In our Uber on the way back to our room, the Missus and I discussed our dinner. I think we've dined at some fairly notable places over the years. And in looking at one of those rankings things; I quickly noticed that we indeed preferred Pujol over that dinner at a place that has been ostensibly the best restaurant in the world and the place named the best restaurant in Latin America. Pujol, like our favorite restaurant just suits us.
And I'm sure we'll be returning……
Pujol
Calle Tennyson 133 Polanco
Mexico City 11560 Mexico
Thanks for dropping by and putting up with my lousy photos!
The bread was light and crusty and this wasn't drenched in tartar sauce like I've had it several times before. These days they put a purple cabbage coleslaw mix in the sandwich….way too much of it; all that cabbage just overwhelms the well sautéed, moist and plump, though quite under represented shrimp. This was quite mild in flavor, so I'll definitely have to try something else next time.
Perhaps I should have ordered my old fave, the Crawfish Etouffe, but my last experience with that wasn't particularly stellar. Oh well…….it's kinda sad because the Missus and I used to really enjoy Bud's way back in the early 'oughts, when they were on Kettner. Perhaps I'll have better luck next time.
