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Quintonil

Mexico City

Consistently brilliant Mexican cuisine from an energetic husband-and-wife team

On the Pass

Jorge Vallejo

Constant creativity: Quintonil is the setting for chef Jorge Vallejo’s boundary-pushing Mexican cuisine and his wife Alejandra Flores’ exceptional hospitality. Focused on fresh, local ingredients and traditional Mexican flavours and techniques weaved into modern preparations, it is fast becoming a classic.

Taste the rainbow: Named after a green herb that features in some of the dishes and drinks, Quintonil brings to the plate a unique type of creativity. The tasting menu might contain seasonal dishes such as spider crab in green mole with lime kaffir and blue corn tostadas, a cactus sorbet, braised oxtail in traditional black recado sauce, or charred avocado with escamoles (ant larvae) and Mexican herb chips. Many of the ingredients travel just 30 metres from urban garden to plate.

About the space: In 2020, Quintonil underwent a redesign, with a new counter seating area that now serves an exciting menu including insect-based tacos with grasshoppers and chicatana ants, and a view into the open kitchen. The main dining room is split into two sections, a cosy entrance area and a light and bright section with Mexican art and a skylight.

About the team: A Chefs’ Choice Award winner, Vallejo studied management and culinary arts in Mexico before working on cruise ships and then in top restaurants including Noma, Pujol and Diana at the St. Regis Hotel in Mexico City. He opened Quintonil in 2012 with Flores, who has a master’s degree in hospitality management from Switzerland’s prestigious Les Roches School and previously worked as operations and commercial director for the Enrique Olvera Group. The charismatic duo brings a winning combination of warmth, energy and exceptional food that has diners returning again and again.

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