In the grand style of her namesake,
actress Maria Felix, La DONA has arrived and she promises to be one of the most
talked about new restaurants in SMA this year.
Located at San Francisco #32 in San
Miguel de Allende, she’s got all the markings of a great restaurant:
exceptional food, superb quality, excellent service and an affordable price point.
It’s not often we do a feature on a new
restaurant until they’ve had some time to work out the
kinks but in the case of La Dona, there just
weren't any.
About the time one of the owners was
explaining the significance of “La Dona” - a lesson of passion they leave out of
college Spanish – we were sizing up the menu that offers a fresh twist on many
of the Mexican classics. While most fine dining menus have far more dishes than
people want to choose from, La Dona’s menu, including the wine list, is short
and sweet. The dessert menu has only four dishes, all of them memorable, most notably
the ever-so-light flourless corn cake and the Bunuelos, unlike the ones we’ve
had in the past but now the best we’ve ever tasted - stuffed with guava “ate”,
fresh cheese, piloncillo honey and orange with café de olla ice cream.
Whenever I’m asked what gives a new restaurant
staying power it’s always about the food and in this case, Chef Juan Arroyo
Pineda delivers a high-quality collection of dishes that are both imaginative and
exciting. You'll also love the prices and most of the portions are so generous,
you can split a dish with two or three people.
Chef Juan Arroyo Pineda currently
has five other restaurants in addition to La Dona: Piquina San Pedro, a casual
Mexican restaurant and Bistro Monsieur, a French restaurant, both in Monterrey
and Bravo Butchers, a Mexican restaurant, Mylita Cocina, a rustic Italian restaurant
and Central Namu, an Asian fusion restaurant, all in Villahermosa, Tabasco. His
years of experience include stints at Restaurante Vegetarían, 1989- 2000;
Restaurante Pangea, 2000- 2002;Restaurante Genoma and Restaurante Bardot (Grupo
Pangea), 2002-2006; Horno 3 (El Lingote), 2009- 2011; Restaurante Pan Tomate,
2011- 2012; Restaurante Bardot (Grupo Pangea), 2012- 2013 and Restaurante
Vasto, 2013 – 2014.
He’s managed to attract an
experienced staff, all eager to learn the secrets of the master, including
neXtia alumni, Chef Juan Manuel Galvan Lopez and Pastry Chef, Vichenza Salinas.
Chef Juan Manuel Galvan Lopez is no stranger to the limelight himself. Last
June, he was named the Chef of the Year of the Cultural Destination of Mexico at a
national competition.
Miguel Sagal tops the list as the
restaurant’s managing partner with far too much experience to put on paper,
along with Hotel Nena owners, Paco Rosendo and Billy Mervin, who told me last
year that he was going to open not the best but “THE BEST” restaurant in SMA.
We let the chef choose our menu the
first two days and we selected the dishes for our third and final lunch. They
included the following dishes; all of them five star:
Roasted cauliflower in a wood fire
oven marinated in dehydrated tomato chimichurri with seasoned Gorgonzola cheese
dressing. $185 pesos
Roasted bone marrow crusted with
dried chilies and tostadas on the side. $165 pesos
Seared tuna Peruvian ceviche with
Jamaican crust, avocado spheres, soy vinaigrette and Serrano pepper. $190 pesos
Laminated roasted Portobello
mushrooms with citrus vinaigrette, argula salad, parmesan slices and truffle
oil. $175 pesos
Pistachio crusted salmon with rustic
mashed potatoes and sautéed baby tomatoes with pumpkin flower and huitlacoche.
$320 pesos
Pork Chamorro cooked for four
hours over low heat, barbecue style accompanied with rustic mashed potatoes and
fresh purslane. $290 pesos
Chicken breast in black mole with
fried plantain and homemade red rice. $230 pesos
Corn bread with Glorias de Linares
sauce and ice cream of burnt milk and marzipan. $115 pesos
Homemade rice baked in different
textures with a mix of three types of milk, vanilla, raisins and blueberries
and caramelized pistachios. $115 pesos
Bunuelos with guava “ate”, fresh
cheese, piloncillo honey and orange with café de olla ice cream. $115 pesos
So what should we expect from a chef
who spent the first twelve years of his career cooking vegetarian food? The wood
fired cauliflower; one of the signature dishes at La Dona and the best new dish in SMA
this year.
La Dona is cooking many of its dishes with firewood. You’ll find wood fired steaks on the menu: Arrachera,
Cowboy and Rib Eye and other items, including the delicious Peruivan Tuna Ceviche.
So many distinctive flavors can be
extracted from different types of wood so we like the fact that we can expect
the unexpected at La Dona.
Chef Juan Arroyo Pineda also has a most
important, behind-the-scenes role on Master
Chef Mexico - interviewing and casting the chef contestants and overseeing
the preparation of their dishes during the season.
We love a restaurant that continues
to surprise us and La Dona is it. Stay tuned for updates when breakfast and
brunch are added in June.
Buen Provecho.
La Dona
San Francisco #32, San Miguel de
AllendeHours:
Monday - Wednesday 12:00 Noon - 10:00 PM
Thursday - Sunday 12:00 Noon - 11:30 PM
Sunday 11:00 AM - 9:00 PM