u/rsvandy

Recently came back from a trip to Mexico City and thought I would post a review for Quintonil and other thoughts for places I tried. Overall, I really enjoyed Quintonil.

Description of the photos:

1. You’re sat in a small lobby area after checking in with the host. I had a seating at the kitchen counter for this dinner which had a great view of the kitchen. The head chef Jorge Vallejo was in the kitchen today mostly observing so maybe that helped with consistency of the meal.
2. Chile Relleno - The first two bites came together. The first was a chile de agua with tuna carnitas and wrapped with a scallion. Wonderful first bite.
3. Tomato Tostada - the second bite of the first pair. This is a tostada with lime pickled tomatoes, jicama kimchi, and fennel. It was OK but my least favorite bite of the meal, the tostada seemed a bit stale.
4. Mussel Tartlet - the next two dishes came as a pair. The mussel tartlet is placed on the lid of a bowl. The tartlet is mussels with a mole de mar or a seafood-based mole which added some brininess to the mole - delicious. This was also prepared with a charred onion reduction and chipotle. Tasty!
5. Fried Escamoles - The first course featuring insects, this is served in the previously mentioned bowl. This is fried escamoles, or ant larvae, in the fried ball. You dip the fried escamole ball in the tomato caldillo and guajillo chili sauce which also includes grasshoppers. The escamoles are visible in the fried ball once you take a bite. A great dish.
6. Vuelve a la Vida - Featuring ingredients from Baja - kanpachi, Pionero oyster, blue shrimp from Mar de Cortes. This is Quintonil’s take on a classic coastal Mexican seafood cocktail that’s said to be a hangover remedy. It was alright.
7.  Salad - lettuce from Tepotzotlan, sikil pak, Cuadro cheese, and celeriac bushi. Local vegetables served with a sikil pak dressing which is a Yucatan dish made from roasted pumpkin seeds, chili, and charred tomatoes. Looked great, tasted great.
8. Steelhead Trout - Baja steelhead trout with adobo de chicatana and seasonal mushrooms pickled in fig leaf. The trout was perfectly cooked and delicious. It was topped with an adobo de chicatana made from flying ants from Oaxaca. Great dish.
9. Cactus Sorbet - a nopales sorbet with some black salt, this was a very nice refreshing palette cleanser.
10. Tamale - ayocote beans from Oaxaca with a bit of wagyu chicharron, this was topped with a pair of foams - a young corn and plantain foam and a bean foam. I really liked the corn foam with this dish, would have preferred to just have that instead of the added bean foam but it was interesting to try both. Another good dish.
11. Rib Eye - rib eye with a chichilo negro mole served with charred pico de gallo and huitlacoche (corn fungus). The final main, it was a great dish. This was also served with a small sausage prepared with stinkbugs. This was the final insect ingredient of the meal.
12. Insects - Once the mains are finished, they show you the different insects that were prepared in the dishes - the ant larvae, grasshoppers, flying ants, and stinkbugs. No insects for dessert.
13. Coconut Sorbet - prepared with coconut, plankton, physalis (gooseberries), and topped with caviar. Delicious. The caviar worked well with the coconut sorbet.
14. Mexican Cornbread - cornbread with vanilla from Chichicaxtle and passion fruit. Basically, corn on corn. This was a wonderful last full dessert course.
15. Dulces - final bites of a strawberry tart, a gummy, and some chocolates. These were good but not mind blowing.

I think this was a great meal and the service team was wonderful. I also tried to the non-alcoholic pairing which was OK but not top tier. Overall, I would rank Quintonil as one of the best 2* restaurants that I’ve been fortunate enough to experience.

I think there are three Mexican restaurants in the world that have 2* or more (Californios, Quintonil, and Pujol) and I’ve visited each of them in the last couple of months. I would place Quintonil in the same tier as Califiornios in San Francisco. Quintonil is a lighter meal and less quantity of food while Califiornios focuses more on tacos for mains and is heavier and is a lot more food imo. I preferred my meal at Quintonil, but I think it’s just a matter of personal preference and these are both great restaurants. IMO, Pujol isn’t close to Quintonil and Californios.

Anyways, my other thoughts for fine-dining and related places that I tried but be sure to try normal non-fine dining food too because there's a lot of great stuff in Mexico City:

1. Pujol - like I mentioned above, I wasn’t the biggest fan. I did the taco omakase and the initial few bites were alright, but the taco part wasn’t very good. The first two were OK, but the last one was kind of bad. The dessert was bad, too. The mole dish is good and interesting. The service team was nice and I didn’t see anyone set on fire so that’s good. The space is beautiful and huge, I think this seats the largest number of people I’ve ever seen at a 2* or above level. Maybe there’s just an inevitable consistency issue because of that. The quality of the food here kind of reminds me of my experience with Alinea - the only other fine dining meal that I thought was actually bad.
2. Xuna - Thought it was very good at a great price. Creative and tasty. I think they should have a star. Will probably make a post about this meal. 
3. Pargot - solid, did the a la carte, good deal, and huge cocktails.
4. La Once Mil - very good fancy tacos
5. Expendio de Maiz - fun experience, everyone but the group next to me was a foreign tourist. Food is good.
6. Handshake Speakeasy - good cocktails
7. Form + Matter - really good cocktails, would consider it at the same tier as Handshake, and preferred the drinks I had here a bit more than Handshake. Easy reservation for now.

Locust is one of three starred restaurants in Nashville.  I recently visited for lunch and enjoyed it a lot. The food is minimalist, quirky, and fun with a Japanese influence. The restaurant itself is very laidback and is also fun. The kind of place with great food but it’s not a serious or formal experience at all.

1. Lunch Menu - I believe the lunch menu is similar to the dinner menu but skips a couple of dishes. I was in a group of four and for four people they recommend ordering 1 of every dish and they would course it all out. We ordered everything except for the too much caviar and the Irish cheese dish which they recommended ordering later in the meal depending on how full people were getting.
2. Chutoro Sandwich - Lunch started with a medium fatty bluefin tuna sandwich which was my favorite overall dish. Light, a little creamy, fresh tasting sandwich. I wouldn’t mind eating 10 of these in one meal!
3. Sweet Razor Clams - next was sweet razor clams, they mentioned that this comes from New England. I believe they also had a bit of yuzu lemon here. The instructions were to eat them like a noodle!
4. Scallop, Yellowtail, and Preserved Fruit - I think the next dish was actually the beef tartare hand roll but I messed up the order of the photos. Anyways, the scallop, yellowtail, and preserved fruit was alternating pieces of scallop from Maine, yellowtail, and green apple which they pour a cream sauce with parsley oil and other things over. It was good, but I think it was a bit too small to share between four people. In hindsight I think we should have ordered two of these dishes. 
5. Glazed Yellowtail Collar - served with the prior scallop, yellowtail, and preserved fruit dish. This is a soy glazed collar with the bones removed and comes with a horseradish on the side that complements the dish well. We ordered two of these. A great dish.
6. Beef Tartare - this was a half order of the beef tartare handroll since some people at my table didn’t want to try it. The rice has a wasabi cream under it. The nori and capers come with it. I believe that the too much caviar add on is usually used with this dish. This dish also comes with a fun set of instructions. I believe this is one of the items that is always on their menu. Overall a solid dish for me.
7. Steamed Periwinkles - snails from Maine, with brown butter and a white peppercorn on the side that’s used to dip the snails in. Probably my least favorite overall dish. 
8. Potato Bread - this and the prior snail dish actually came out with the two yellowtail dishes. The potato bread was very light and airy and buttery. Butter was very good, too.
9. Spring Lamb Dumplings - I think Locust always has some sort of dumpling on the menu. This time it was spring lamb with spring vegetables, and a bit of bonus foie gras, carrot puree, and some other stuff under the foam. Very very good fancy dumplings.
10. The Rice of the Day - rice with Dungeness crab, curry, and Hokkaido uni add-on. Uni tasted great on its own, and the overall dish when mixed was very very good.
11. Ice Box - A Kakigori style shaved ice dish is also usually on the menu. Super powdery ice shaped into a block with an earl grey tea mousse with raspberry powder on top and a bit of salt. Underneath were various pieces of honeycomb and mochi. Delicious and fun.

Eat at Locust if you're visiting Nashville and want amazing food in a fun restaurant!