"At this Pearl District tasting menu restaurant, brass lamps illuminate sleek white tables, the restaurant’s kitchen a stage observed by a handful of seats stretching down the restaurant. Here, the team delivers the nuance of Mexican cuisine in an imaginative way, while acknowledging and interrogating the impact of colonialism. Menus change frequently, but in a past meal, chef Jose “Lalo” Camarena served steak aguachile with explanation of the Japanese influence; on the palate, it murmured of tartare and tataki, mustard notes blending with mirin, tobiko providing a pop of brine among the tomato water. Crack — diners smacked open a mushroom cloud of masa crisp to reveal “what the Spaniards brought and tried to destroy,” pork and amaranth, the latter referencing the religiously and culturally significant crops, burned by colonizers. In the resulting dish, pork is rich and loud in the face of a salsa mocajete sweet with heirloom tomatoes. And alongside the dishes, beverage director Miguel Marquez gives the wines selected the same level of context, provided with each tasting pour." - Eater Staff
