Quintonil | |
---|---|
Restaurant information | |
Established | 9 March 2012 |
Owner(s) |
|
Manager(s) | Alejandra Flores[1]: 19:10–19:25 |
Head chef | Jorge Vallejo[1]: 19:10–19:25 |
Food type | Mexican |
Dress code | None (business casual preferred)[2] |
Rating | (Michelin Guide, 2024) |
Street address | Newton 55, Polanco, Miguel Hidalgo |
City | Mexico City |
Postal/ZIP Code | 11550 |
Country | Mexico |
Coordinates | 19°25′51.2″N 99°11′30.4″W / 19.430889°N 99.191778°W |
Seating capacity | 42[3] |
Reservations | Yes[4] |
Website | https://quintonil.com/en |
Quintonil is a contemporary Mexican cuisine restaurant in Polanco, Miguel Hidalgo, Mexico City. It is owned by the couple Jorge Vallejo and Alejandra Flores. Quintonil started as a daily menu restaurant and progressed to fine dining. The restaurant focuses on herbs and vegetables that are uncommon to taste in dishes. It has à la carte options and a nine-course tasting menu.
The British magazine Restaurant has continuously ranked Quintonil on its list of the World's 50 Best Restaurants since 2016. Quintonil was awarded two Michelin stars in 2024 in the first Michelin Guide covering restaurants in Mexico, becoming the highest rating in the country, tying with Pujol, also in Polanco.[5]
Quintonil offers both à la carte and a nine-course tasting menu selections that change seasonally;[6][7] diners can pay an additional fee for wine pairing.[8][2] Fruits and vegetables are brought from Milpa Alta and Xochimilco, in Mexico City, and the neighboring states of Hidalgo and the State of Mexico. Pork meat is imported from Michoacán and Yucatán;[3] beef from Durango, and fish from Baja California.[9]
Dishes include common ingredients like beans, squash, various chiles, and mushrooms, as well as unconventional components like quintonil or "heirloom vegetable and herbal varieties", as described by Afar;[7] there are a few dishes with beef.[10] Plates like huauzontles and chilacayote mole have been served since its inauguration.[4] A variation of the Mole Madre sold at Pujol is also found in the menu.[8] The wine menu is mainly European, with Mexican variants, as well as Mexican beverages such as mezcal.[10] The restaurant also had an Entomophagy Festival, where insects were the main dish.[11]
The restaurant has space for 42 people;[3] there is no mandatory dress code but business casual is commonly seen, and reservations are required.[2][4]
Jorge Vallejo dropped out of high school and studied gastronomy at the Centro Culinario Ambrosía.[3] He trained in the restaurant Noma, in Copenhagen, Denmark.[1]: 2:00–2:15 He met manager Alejandra Flores while both worked at Pujol in 2009, a restaurant in Polanco, Miguel Hidalgo, Mexico City, and became a couple.[3] They left Pujol in 2011 and they chose to open a restaurant with a "family concept" in which, according to them, diners are welcomed into their homes like friends—they even lived on the second floor of that restaurant for five years.[3][12]
They named it Quintonil, a type of amaranth,[13] and it opened in Polanco on 9 March 2012 with a limited budget after obtaining a loan.[3][14][15] It has volcanic stone floors and wood and mirrored walls.[9] Initially, it was a restaurant with cheaper menú del día options but gradually transformed into a fine dining business.[1]: 19:30–22:00
For Quintonil's tenth anniversary in 2022, Vallejo and Flores invited international chefs, like Dominique Crenn and Julien Royer, to contribute to the menus with their reimaginings of Quintonil's recipes.[14][16]
Tiffany Yannetta recommended the tasting menu for The Infatuation, labeling it as entertaining and highlighting the Entomophagy Festival, and suggested trying the restaurant's experiments like the bluefin tuna with frozen wasabi powder.[8] Adrián Duchateau wrote for Afar that Quintonil takes infrequent vegetables and herbs "as part of the progressive and sustainable eating program it so elegantly advocates".[7] Scarlett Lindeman said it represented a new wave Mexican cuisine movement and it is a "place to impress that's not Pujol".[10]
A writer for Bon Appétit suggested sampling as many dishes as possible because Quintonil presents them uniquely even if the diner is already familiar with them.[17] Leslie Yeh from Lifestyle Asia praised the cooking style, ingredients and the restaurant's ambient.[18] On their selection of the top twenty-three restaurants in Mexico City, Time Out placed Quintonil at number nine.[19]
Restaurant has ranked Quintonil on its World's 50 Best Restaurants lists multiple times: at number 7 (2024),[20] 9 (2022 and 2023),[21][22] 11 (2018),[23] 12 (2016),[24] 22 (2017),[25] 24 (2019),[26] and 27 (2021).[27] There was no list in 2020 due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the food industry.[28] For the 2023 edition, Restaurant added, "Quintonil is the setting for chef Jorge Vallejo's boundary-pushing Mexican cuisine and his wife Alejandra Flores' remarkable hospitality. Focused on fresh, local produce and traditional Mexican [flavors] and techniques weaved into modern preparations, it is fast becoming a classic".[29]
Michelin Guide debuted in 2024 in Mexico. It rewarded 18 restaurants with Michelin stars. Quintonil and Pujol received two stars each—meaning "excellent cooking, worth a detour"—and tied for the highest number of stars received in the country. The guide added that "[t]he elegant cuisine is an enticing melding of excellent local product, impressive execution, and great creativity to produce refined compositions".[30]