The story
Quintonil, at Newton 55 in Polanco, Mexico City, is a contemporary Mexican restaurant that earned two Michelin stars in 2026 and placed third on The World's 50 Best Restaurants list in 2025. Chef Jorge Vallejo and Alejandra Flores opened it in 2012, and the kitchen still works from one idea: Mexican ingredients, shown at their clearest.
Vallejo draws on the flavours and techniques of Mexico's regions and its biodiversity. Many ingredients travel about 30 metres from the urban garden to the plate, so the herbs and vegetables reach the kitchen at their peak. Flores, who trained in hospitality management at Les Roches in Switzerland, runs the front of house with the same attention to detail.
The February 2026 tasting menu costs 5,900 MXN and opens with a tuna pescadilla and lacto-fermented mushrooms. Later courses include smoked trout from Baja California with chicatana ant adobo, and a pibil pork tamal with young corn cream. The menu can be adapted for vegan, ovolactovegetarian and pescatarian diets if guests mention their preferences when booking.
The counter faces the open kitchen and serves a shorter menu, including tacos with grasshoppers and chicatana ants. The main room has two sections: a cosy entrance area and a bright room lined with Mexican art.
Recognition
Ambience
Details
History
Excellent cooking
Avant-garde Mexican: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. Herbaceous medleys:Named after a green herb that features in some of the dishes and drinks, Quintonil brings a unique brand of creativity to the plate. The tasting menu might contain seasonal dishes such as tamales of duck pibil with elote cream, braised oxtail in traditional black recado sauce, crème fraîche with melipona honey or prickly pear sorbet. Many of the ingredients travel just 30 metres from urban garden to plate. Take a seat:Grab a pew at the counter seating area that serves a shorter menu including insect-based tacos with grasshoppers and chicatana ants, and a view into the open kitchen. The main dining space is split into two sections, a cosy entrance area and a light and bright room filled with Mexican art. Winning team:Vallejo studied management and culinary arts in Mexico before working on cruise ships and then in top restaurants including Noma and Pujol. He opened Quintonil in 2012 with Flores, who has a master’s 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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