Mexico Finally Has a Michelin Guide—Here Are the First 18 Restaurants to Earn Stars

Tori Latham
·3 min read
4

Mexico just got a little bit starrier.

On Tuesday, the Michelin Guide announced its first-ever rankings for the country, with two two-star restaurants and 16 one-star spots. The establishments span Mexico City, Baja California, Baja California Sur, Nuevo Leon, Oaxaca, and Quintana Roo. Notably, all restaurants were shut out of the three-star category, Michelin’s highest honor.

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Unsurprisingly, Enrique Olvera’s Pujol received two stars. The restaurant is one of the most famous in the country, attracting hordes of tourists and locals alike. There, Olvera serves up both a taco omakase and a seasonal tasting menu, with Michelin calling out dishes such as scallop ceviche with egg salad and grilled Baja coast rockfish with butternut-squash puree and sherry foam. The other two-star is Jorge Vallejo and Alejandra Flores’s Quintonil, where the tasting menu features plates like crab and blue corn tostada with pipian verde and crème fraîche sorbet with caviar and Melipona honey.

The one-star restaurants largely focus on Mexican eateries, with the outliers being described by Michelin as contemporary cuisine, seafood, and creative cuisine. In the latter category sits Elena Reygadas’s Rosetta—she was named the best female chef in the world by the World’s 50 Best Restaurants organization last year, so it should come as no surprise that Reygadas has made the grade here. And while most every restaurant is what we would consider fine dining, one taqueria does appear on the list: Taquería El Califa de León in Mexico City. Opened more than 50 years ago, the restaurant serves a Gaonera taco with thinly sliced beef filet cooked to order and just salt and lime to finish. The Michelin Guide calls the taco, with a handmade corn tortilla, “elemental and pure.”

pujol mole
Pujol’s famed mole

Michelin has been on something of a tear recently when it comes to expansion. In North America alone, the guide has added five other locales in the past couple of years: Florida, Toronto, and Vancouver received lists in 2022, while Colorado and Atlanta joined the rankings last year. Some of that growth has been criticized, as Michelin partners with local tourism boards and governments to bring its guide to certain areas. But Gwendal Poullennec, the international director of the guide, has defended the company’s decision to work with what it calls “destination marketing organizations,” and he recently told Bon Appetit that even more growth is on the way.

For now, though, Mexico can celebrate being the latest country to join the fold.

The full list of Mexico’s Michelin-starred restaurants is below.

Two Stars:

  • Quintonil

  • Pujol

One Star:

  • Em

  • Esquina Común

  • Rosetta

  • Sud 777

  • Taquería El Califa de León

  • Animalón

  • Conchas de Piedra

  • Damiana

  • Cocina de Autor Los Cabos

  • KOLI Cocina de Origen

  • Pangea

  • Los Danzantes Oaxaca

  • Levadura de Olla Restaurante

  • Cocina de Autor Riviera Maya

  • Le Chique

  • HA’

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