One restaurant in Mexico City I’ve always been yearning to visit was Pujol, one of the trailblazers of modern Mexican cuisine from the acclaimed chef Enrique Olvera. When living in New York City, I did have a few very good meals at chef Enrique’s Cosme, but just watching his episode on the Netflix Chef’s Table series immensely fascinated me. So when I was planning a long weekend trip to Mexico City with my wife Jun, Pujol was naturally the first restaurant that I booked. On our visit, I was still somewhat under the weather from a cold that I caught right before our flight to Mexico, but was in much better than the night before to fully appreciate the tasting menu at Pujol. I’m happy to report that Pujol was the best restaurant experience we’ve had during our stay in Mexico City, and there were some really outstanding dishes.

I don’t usually like to compare restaurants when reviewing them but I couldn’t help but compare Pujol and Quintonil due to their status in the culinary world and the fact that we had visited both in the span of a couple of days. While Quintonil seemed more inclined to pursue contemporary fine dining cuisine with Mexican ingredients, Pujol felt more rooted in its approach to the country’s rich and versatile culinary tradition, starting with snacks of gordita and baby corn followed by an escabeche of beetroot and bluefin tuna. The best dish at the restaurant was the abalone tostada with green mole, chile pasado and cured egg yolk. The crunchy tostada with quelites (a type of leafy vegetables) was an absolute delight with the way all these ingredients came together. Our hands got messy while holding on the tostadas, but Jun and I didn’t mind savoring these awesome bites. The grilled rock fish was also a standout dish, submerged in white beans broth and chile de agua that offered terrific flavor with spicy kick. By now, we’ve probably had at least a dozen fine dining restaurants where wagyu beef come out as a final savory course, but the one at Pujol was one of the better ones I’ve tried, with very nice medium rare texture of the beef to go along with huitlacoche and roasted eggplant. The famed mole madre, which literally put Pujol on the culinary map, indeed lived up to its expectations, as well. Ours was 3,630 days old with mole nuevo in the center; each scoop offered profoundly deep flavor that I was very happy to enjoy with tortillas on the side. We were pretty stuffed at this point, but judging by the way Jun savored banana flan for the dessert with much enthusiasm, I could tell it was indeed a very good one.

Pujol is still one of the most popular fine dining restaurants in Mexico City, so getting a reservation in advance is absolutely essential. I really liked the spacious, contemporary dining space with dim lights and full of handsomely dressed diners (in my approximation, a fairly even split between tourists and locals). Despite my conditions, I couldn’t resist trying the wine pairing option, and it was a pretty eclectic group of wines from Mexico and various parts of Europe that turned out to work pretty well with all the dishes. The service was overall seamless with few language barriers. Pujol was no doubt one of the highlights of our trip and I was very appreciative of the opportunity to dine at the restaurant and explore how chef Enrique wanted to showcase his native country’s cuisine with his unique philosophy and perspective. I can’t say how wonderful the restaurant was when it first opened in 2000, but the restaurant is still going strong in its 25th year. This is a can’t miss restaurant when you are in CDMX.

Address: Tennyson 133, Polanco, Polanco IV Secc, Miguel Hidalgo, 11570 Mexico City, Mexico

KenScale: 8.5/10 (Jun’s Score: 8.5/10)

Website: https://pujol.com.mx/eng/

Reservation via Website