A decent restaurant for a nice view of Templo Mayor and the Metropolitan Cathedral in the…read morebackground. A little torn on the review since the service was quite good here, food was probably a 3.5, though a little issue left a blemish on my impression.
The entrance is thru the elevator on the first floor inside the bookstore Librería Porrúa, you go up to the 3rd floor and arrive to a foyer area where to the right is the cafe portion of the restaurant and to the left is the sit-down section. Walking into the space the kitchen and bathrooms are to the left, a bar straight back against the far wall with maybe half a dozen tables in between. To the right about a 20 tables are placed on a split-level section under a covered rooftop open so all have views out over Templo Mayor. Retractable outdoor blinds line the edges of the rooftop to protect from inclement weather.
Arriving at around 2pm, the restaurant was about 50% full though almost all the tables closer to the view overlooking Templo Mayor were occupied. The staff were courteous and professional, quickly providing menus and coming back to check on us.
We ordered:
- Conga (pineapple, orange and coconut with granedine) $55*: refreshing citrusy juice in combination mentioned, not too sweet which I was glad for.
- Mexican craft beer Tempus doble malta $90: cool, dark and malty, though not too heavy for a warm afternoon.
- Tortilla soup with tomato, panela cheese, tortilla julienne chips, avocado, pasilla chili, and epazote leaf $155: tasty! Flavorful and brought a kick with the chili spice, pretty mild though. Nice crunch from the fried tortilla strips.
- Xochitl broth (chicken broth with "pico de gallo", rice, shredded chicken and chicharron (fried pork skin) $140: light broth with full chicken flavor, crunch from the chicharron. Would recommend.
- Steak tips (180 grs) tacos with nopales (cactus pads) (3 pieces) $195: decent, good with the salsa.
- Cochinita pibil burritos (4 pieces) $185: didn't expect these to be deep fried, flavor was ok though not sure I'd recommend these,
- Rice with mole sauce $85: really tasty, we didn't leave a grain of rice!
So the unfortunate that I had a couple issues bc service was overall good:
- found a hair on the lime slices that came served with the tacos, I'm not a big stickler bc I get it, sometimes a piece of hair just falls down, not the most unsanitary thing that could happen.
- what bothered me more was the placement of the bread rolls, the staff took each roll from a basket with tongs and placed it on what looked like woven straw coasters for drinks, they looked like they were just sitting out on the table for decoration, and not sure how those would be cleaned...
If the above two issues hadn't occurred I'd be rounding up to 4 stars, though because of them this spot is a 3 for me.
*all prices in pesos.
