This place isn't easy to get to. If you were to walk from the nearest light rail station, it takes…read moreabout 35 minutes - so the only other option is taking a bus from there. Despite the trek, I'm pretty happy to say that this was absolutely worth it as maybe the highest quality Mexican food in the Seattle area.
The dishes here are not what you find at your typical Mexican restaurant. There's no chips and salsa, and the menu is small - only around 4 entrees and 4 small plates, along with a few appetizers. It's best to come here with someone else and find things to share - which is what I did with the small plates, since some of them come with two per order.
We ended up ordering the maiz sourdough, the albacore tostadas, the brisket tacos, and tetela - finishing with the pan de elote for dessert.
I'll start with what is absolutely their signature dish - the albacore tuna tostadas. I'm willing to say that this is the best dish I've ever had at a Mexican restaurant. It comes in two tostadas - each with raw albacore tuna, mayo, avocado, and fried leeks - and oh my goodness is it spectacular. Everything starts from the base of it all - the tostada itself, which is so far and away the best tostada I've ever had it's not even a debate. Years of having tostadas shatter, or even crack on each bite left me fully unprepared for what was to come; a tostada that behaves like an architecturally sound disc. Seriously, you take a bite of this and the entire rest of it remains wholly intact. It's like a miracle. The texture reminds me of a Frito, it's got those slightly raised bumps and a similar thickness. And I haven't even gotten to the toppings yet.
The raw tuna on top is perfect sashimi - it's soft, just fatty enough, and absolutely slides through your mouth at the lightest chew. There's also a lot more of it on the tostada than I expected. The kewpie mayo has a surprising spice to it - like the best version of spicy mayo that you've had; except it has a bit of a smoky flavor to it as well. The avocado adds earthiness, chill-ness, and a good level of fat. Lastly, the fried leeks on top provide that extra crunchy layer just to cap it all off. It's simply one of the best constructed dishes I've seen. It took a lot of willpower not to order another set of these.
The other two small plates were good, but don't quite match up. The brisket tacos are small, but filled with toppings, including a ton of the dry-aged suadero. This beef was very good, containing a lot of fat and being quite juicy in each bite. I also loved the tortillas, which were some of the best corn tortillas I've had. It's clear they nixtamalize the corn used for these in-house. Still, this didn't feel that much more than a good taco. The tetela was also fine, but nothing too special as mostly just eggplant on the inside.
Something else that was amazing though, was the maiz sourdough we ordered. It's easily one of the best bread appetizers I've had. The outside is so crispy without being too chewy, while the inside is hot, fluffy, and so easy to tear apart. I simply can't get over how amazing the crust is on this bread - it wraps all the way around, and is baked to absolute perfection. The included honey butter is also really well salted and sweet, but I do wish there was more of it.
For dessert, we had the pan de elote - which is a sweet corn cake with blackberry jam and a whipped cream. I found the whipped cream fascinating; rather than being too sweat, it instead had a lighter flavor that focused more on the soft and creamy texture than traditional whipped cream. The combination of the super-fresh blackberry jam and texture of the whipped cream added a ton of moisture to the corn cake - which otherwise resembled kind of a sweet cornbread. Also, the portions on the cake were crazy good.
All that said, this is quite an expensive place. For what we had, per person it ended up being over $60 without any drinks. For the tostada and tacos especially, you're paying 10+ dollars/person for a single tostada or taco. I would say it's worth the price for the tostada, but not for the taco.
Overall, it is certainly high-end, but the quality of food here is so high it's an absolute recommend from me. 9.25/10