THE BEST: NYC Fancy Mexican Restaurant

[alacarte]

I'm surprised that nobody's mentioned Bolo. Maybe it's just lost mindshare to newer places, or no one considers it "Mexican" or it's not very good anymore.

[bpearis]

I'm surprised that nobody's mentioned Bolo. Maybe it's just lost mindshare to newer places, or no one considers it "Mexican" or it's not very good anymore.

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Bolo is not Mexican, it's Spanish.

[ewindels]

See my post on Ixta from earlier this summer (can't find it through the current search options, but I expect it's around somewhere). I understand from colleagues that the service has gone downhill even further. Food at Suenos rocked, but service was worse than Ixta -- our appetizers came after our entrees, with eons in between, but that was not long after it opened and maybe they've worked that out by now. The food's worth the trip even so.

[sabg]

Almost all the Mexican immigrants in NYC are from the Puebla region and you can find some killer Pueblan Mexican places in the city.

I gotta say, when I crave Mexican I dont' think about high end places, I want tacos de enchilada or tacos de suadero at Tehuitzingo in Hell's Kitchen; or I want the sopes de pollo at Matamoros Puebla in Williamsburg; or any of the killer moles at Tulcingo del Valle (right down the street from Tehuitzingo on 10th Ave); or the tamales at Rico's Tamales in Sunset Park.

Rosa Mexicano's tableside guacamole is great, but I can make it just good at home. They show you how!

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i am going to be in the city on sat afternoon with lots o time on my hands. i would like to check out a couple of places. 10 ave and what st ? any other recs would be appreciated. thanks

[bpearis]

i am going to be in the city on sat afternoon with lots o time on my hands. i would like to check out a couple of places.  10 ave and what st ?  any other recs would be appreciated.  thanks

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Tehuitzingo is on 10th Ave between 47th and 48th. It's a grocery store with a tacqueria in the back. There's a counter and about eight stools. Tacos, tortas, sopes, quesadillas, plus they have unlisted specials you have to ask about. I reccomend the suadero (pork belly), enchilada (spicy pork) and barbacoa (bbq'd goat meat) tacos especially but they're all good. The quesadillas are good too -- I like the squash blossom ones and the huitalacoche (corn mushroom). On the weekends they make pasole and tamales.

Tulcingo del Valle is 10th ave between 46th and 47th and is an actual restaurant. They have a lengthy board of specials and I'd reccomend going straight for any of those. They've usually got at least two types of mole. Their al pastor tacos are very good.

Sorry to go all low-rent on a fancy thread....

[Mrs. P]

I was thinking of Fonda San Miguel in Austin when I read your first post. I haven't come across another place quite like this, with such a selection of Mexican moles and the like. It menu is not Tex-Mex, with the exception of additions like mango margaritas. The Rosa Mexicano in DC, for example, would not at all compare to upscale setting and nuanced flavors highlighted at Fonda San Miguel, though I could not speak for the RM in NY.

It's interesting that we have so many respectable places in the upscale Mexican category, but not one that is really exciting to this group. I wonder how Maya would actually do in a side-by-side against Frontera, though. Or that fancy place in Austin, Fonda San Miguel or whatever it's called.

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[Nathan]

I haven't lived in Milwaukee for ten years, but even back then there was a massive and vibrant Mexican food community. I don't think Campezuchi was there, then, was it? I googled it and didn't find anything....

Also, if we are to take Tony Bourdain's word, we should remember that virtually every restaurant in NYC is a Mexican restaurant, at least in terms of staffing.

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Campezuchi has been on Brady Street for about 5 years (if you haven't been to Milwaukee in 10 years, that street has changed remarkably). It's a Bayless inspired restaurant -pan-regional, with about 6 moles on the menu at any given time (from a rotating selection).

The only completely inauthentic thing on the menu are the lake perch tacos.

Milwaukeans don't appreciate what they have -- it's better than anything in NY by a quite decent margin.

[Dryden]

Suenos absolutely gets my vote. The decor may not be world-beating (though it isn't bad at all), but the food is simply top-notch.

[Fat Guy]

Maya was packed tonight. Great scene and vibe if you like high-energy restaurants. Service was extremely friendly but terribly slow and somewhat inept. The kitchen couldn't get the food out on a reasonable schedule, and the servers couldn't keep straight which dishes went to which people at our table of four.

The guacamole was excellent, served in an attractive two-tiered contraption with a stone bowl and the guacamole suspended above the chips, with huge chunks of avocado throughout. (That wasn't a very good sentence; sorry.) The margaritas didn't have enough triple sec, and that's a complaint from someone who prefers margaritas on the dry side. I find it extremely annoying when restaurants put lime in the beer glass. On the side, fine, I can just ignore it. But once it's touching the glass it's no longer a choice.

On the one hand, the dishes I tried demonstrated that the "fancy Mexican" category can be the real deal: the flavors at Maya can be, at their best, sophisticated and subtle, especially in the seafood dishes. Unfortunately, on too many of the dishes we had, the ingredients and execution weren't up to snuff. The tuna in my appetizer was sub-par, as was the lobster in my shrimp-and-lobster entree (the shrimp were fine). The amounts of seafood included in the dishes were a joke. I'm not one to complain about portion size, but this was a pretty extreme example of loading plates up with starches and using protein almost as a garnish. The meat dishes were far more generous, especially the lamb which was probably the best thing on the table. The mole poblano was also quite good.

Desserts arrived cold and soggy after a long wait, and most wouldn't have been all that good anyway. One of us got served the wrong dessert (ordered cheesecake, got chocolate cake) but we didn't have another 45 minutes to waste. The corn flan was a winner, though.

[mikeyrad]

If the term "Fancy Mexican" refers to food only, then Itzocan Bistro (1575 Lexington Ave @ 101st St) deserves to be in the mix. However, this is not an upscale dining experience.

Edited September 17, 2004 by mikeyrad (log)

[danger_doug]

I'm partial to Maz Mescal on 86th street. Good food, nice atmosphere. Yum.

[Fat Guy]

I went to Dos Caminos on Park Avenue South last night, and I have a new favorite Mexican.

I've got to hand it to the B.R. Guest restaurant group: they may not operate any restaurants that deserve four or even three stars (Fiamma was pushing that boundary, but they seem to have pulled back), but they are exceptionally talented at running zero, one-, and two-star level places with a high degree of professionalism, consistency, energy and panache. Dos Caminos is a great looking and stylish place, packed full of people, with efficient service and terrific food. It's not fancy as such -- it's about as fancy as some of B.R. Guest's other holdings like Blue Water Grill, and less fancy than Fiamma -- nor are the prices -- less than $10 for most starters and $20-$25 for most of the mains.

I warn you, be very cautious about consumption of the prickly pear cactus frozen margaritas. These have several times more alcohol in them than you'd think. I was thrown for a loop by just one of them, and I'm a big guy. My plan was to have one of those (because it is somewhat talked about in the dining network) and then try a real margarita made with one of the approximately 150 tequilas listed on the annotated tequila list, but in order to preserve my equilibrium I reverted to water after that cactus thing.

It's probably not possible for guacamole to be any better than what I had last night: it's made tableside in a stone bowl, with very ripe avocados and lots of fresh herbs, and hand-chopped and mixed to a barely chunky consistency. Tortilla chips are served warm. Twelve dollars for a portion meant to be shared by two but more than enough for four people as a palate awakener.

I could certainly see all the places where the authenticity police would squeal about such-and-such not being the way it's done in Veracruz or whatever, so if you're part of that faction I'd suggest not bothering with Dos Caminos, but from a more generalized level of what tastes good I thought the food was excellent. I had red snapper ceviche with tomatoes, Spanish olives, Serrano chiles (quite a heavy dose, actually) and a lime-tomato marinade. I might have gone a little lighter on the marinade/sauce but the dish was vibrant overall. Also tried the calamari, sauteed with chorizo and piquillo peppers. Nice, and I can see where owning multiple restaurants and purchasing in bulk can give you the leverage to charge less for larger portions of better seafood and still make more money than the average single-operator establishment can. Really superb carnitas tacos with tender roast pork, green chile salsa and cotija cheese, served on very good handmade corn tortillas and with three sauces on the side. The one starter that kind of sucked was the one that sounded like it was going to be the best: "Oaxacan Chipotle Meatballs, served steaming in a cast iron pot with queso fresco, tomato salsita and warm handmade tortillas." Just not a good dish -- very tightly textured and rubbery meatballs with not a whole lot of interest added by the other ingredients. Nice presentation in a mini-chafing-dish, but ultimately a failure.

Probably the best main -- it was a close call -- was the big pile of Niman Ranch slow-roasted pork ribs with chipotle sauce, black bean-chorizo chile, and cumin-braised cabbage. Very tender but not disintegrated meat, with nice enhancement provided by the sauce. A rather large portion to boot. Remembering that the tuna at all the B.R. Guest restaurants tends to be very good, I went with big eye tuna with a crust made of avocado leaves. This came with papaya salsa and coconut-ginger jasmine rice. The tuna was a beautiful specimen, cooked rare as requested, and the crust definitely worked. The papaya salsa was too sweet and the rice was boring. The mains are divided into "PLATILLOS TRADICIONALES" and "ESPECIALIDADES DE LA CASA." The one thing I tasted from the traditional plates was a chicken enchilada, which I thought was quite good.

Desserts were competent but with some defects. There was a clever white-and-dark chocolate fondue with various interesting things to dip in it (mini churros, teardrop-shaped marshmallows, baby brownies, et al.) but the fondue itself was weak and not hot enough even with a dedicated burner under it. The crepes were better, though also out of whack due to insufficient filling. The dessert menu reads well, but there seem to be some execution issues. In any event, the star of the dessert show is the dessert amuse, a little glass of Mexican hot chocolate topped with Mezcal-infused whipped cream.

One amusing note on B.R. Guest corporate-speak: apparently nothing in the whole restaurant is deep fried. Instead, deep fried dishes are described by waitstaff as "cooked crispy." If you ask whether that means "deep fat fried" they answer yes, uncomfortably, as though they've been caught.

[georgesimian]

We ate at Lucy's the other night. The food was really excellent, but the service fell apart halfway through dinner. It's too bad. The food was excellent. I like Suenos, but I don't think the food is as good or as interesting as Lucy's.

[madziast]

Pampano & also Zocalo on 82nd - the look is not fancy/elegant like Pampano's but i found some of the food quite amazing and elegant. new chef made some menu changes and kept some old favorites so the menu has a bit of a split personality but i think you can easily spot the new dishes. ah, beware: the zocalo in grand central (sadly) has a different menu. forget fancy, pretty greasy and basic instead

suenos is very nice although i don't know if exactly fancy. ixta - a total scene. with very good drinks and pretty fancy take on food. didn't strike me as particularly mexican food/flavor-wise, although that's the official line (but the owners are indian, go figure). that bruni's article on diversity/familiarity of "ethinic" restaurants was spot on, by the way.

rosa mexicana - sadly no longer great. and the lincoln center location is mediocre at best.

maya still pretty good.

haven't been to zarela

has anyone been to Mercadito in east village? (ave B or thereabouts) definitely fancy for east village! sandoval's brother in charge. first visit during the first week they were open - shaky at best. expensive for the area, including amount of food. cash only. kumamoto oyster confusion (has anyone seen kumamotos the size of malpeques???!!!) waiting to hear more before heading back

[Felix Salmon]

I go to Pampano every chance I get. Might be going there tomorrow night, actually, in which case I'll report back. But despite being to few of the restaurants mentioned in this thread, I can't imagine there's much better than Pamano for high-end Mexican dining in NYC.

[Dominicana]

Anyone able to refresh this a little?

Pampano still the best? Zarela?

[Felonius]

Anyone here tried La Esquina yet? I've heard good thing about it from a few friends.

[Sneakeater]

I'm not gonna say anything's "the best", but I had a really good meal at Centrico recently.

[raji]

Hell's Kitchen has been very very solid for me for years now - maybe it's because their menu hasn't changed much... it's damn good tho

[Bux]

Anyone here tried La Esquina yet?  I've heard good thing about it from a few friends.

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We ate in the Cafe once and haven't really been tempted to try the restaurant, mostly because of the scene like descriptions I've read or heard about. We are irregular patrons of the tacos in that wedge of room with a counter overlooking the triangular park. They're pretty good, albeit perhaps less authentic than the ones I've found over in the places in the garment district. Authenticity is much over rated however. The tacqueria counter is open for lunch and dinner, as well as odd hours and late into the night.