SMA Clothing Designer, Laura Reyes, EATS THE SAME THING AT THE SAME PLACE for breakfast every morning; an Empanada from the Blue Door Bakery and has for 35 years.
Do you eat at the same place all the time? Here
are SIX restaurants where the prices are as good as the food and you can easily
become a creature of habit at in under a month. Prices are all under $200
pesos.
BANH MI
After a ten year absence, the official sandwich of Vietnam, the Banh Mi, is here to stay - brought to SMA by Jorge Villarreal of Frioella Art Cuisine.
Jorge is a gift to SMA. Jorge recently moved here from Mexico City
where he owned a bakery for 44 years and has a new one in the works. All of his
cakes and pastries are remarkable. He also owns a Vietnamese street food
restaurant located in Mexico City. His friend, the former chef of El Verge and
owner of Kuni, A Culinary Experience, Magda Pablos, is helping Jorge get the
new restaurant off the ground. Magda and Jorge grew up together in Reynosa, a
border city in northern Mexico.
The Banh Mi sandwich is built on a crusty baguette made by Melissa
Sumner’s La Buena Vida Bakery and is first smeared with one of four homemade
mayos. Piled on top are thin slices of Ho Chi Minh pork, Hanoi lemon grass
chicken or five-spice beef along with pickled vegetables: crispy cucumbers, crunchy
carrots, delicious daikon radishes, spicy jalapenos and a bit of fresh
cilantro. There’s a Vegan Banh Mi with grilled vegetables, a delightful Asian
salad, spring rolls and desserts
Everything is under $160 pesos. The devil is in the details: both a
delivery service and the table and chairs are coming soon.
Stirling Dickinson #8/San Miguel de Allende
Monday – Saturday 11 AM – 6:00 PM
GIGI’S CAFÉ
Coffee, Breakfast and Brunch come in a lot of different packages these days, especially when it comes to price. Gigi’s Café has found its niche with great food at an even better value. The quality is nearly perfect.
Located in the residential neighborhood of Independencia, come prepared to love everything: the owners, the prices and the ingenious food and presentations prepared by Chef Jarome Smith - a Kiwi chef from New Zealand who got a culinary degree at AUT in 2000 and has over 20 years of restaurant experience, notably cooking at SPQR, an iconic Italian restaurant in Aucklands vibrant Ponsonby. Jarome opened a seafood restaurant on Aucklands viaduct harbor in collaboration with Ngaitahu fisheries where he served daily fresh caught seafood. In 2014, he moved to the Gold Coast, Australia to open Burgster, a casual restaurant with a focus on high quality burgers and specialty cocktails. In 2022, he opened FLOR, a wine shop and delicatessen specializing in natural and minimal wines. He recently moved his family to Mexico to open Gigi’s Café.
My
breakfast was an easy choice after looking at all the online pictures: the French
toast with seasonal fruit, including cherries from Chinaberry Farms, maple,
brown butter, a berry compote and clotted cream with fried chicken. Even a breakfast
of scrambled eggs and bacon looks awfully tasty.
I’m coming back for breakfast and staying for lunch just to savor the Eggs Benedict and the Chicken and Brekky Burgers. All of their prices run under $200 pesos.
Francisco Marques 23//Independencia, San Miguel de Allende
Monday
– Friday: 8:30 AM – 1:30 PM
Chef: Jarome
Smith
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SEPTIMO
At this cozy
restaurant inside Hotel Petra, the food is so good and one of the best deals in
town. Most dishes run 120 pesos; a bargain considering the presentations are
all remarkable and the chef, Alvaro Alvarez, won first and second place in Taco
challenges sponsored by the state of Guanajuato.
Chef Irving Cano of
Tene take note; another chef for your Taco Challende.
Chef Alvaro
Alvarez’s specialty is both Rabbit Tacos and Camarones Zarandeados, a wonderful
shrimp dish from the beaches of Nayarit. It’s one of our favorite, new restaurants
with outdoor garden seating. And now for the big surprise! The Mimosas are just
70 pesos.
Hernandez Macias 47
Centro, San Miguel
de Allende
Chef: Alvaro Alvarez
Monday – Saturday
8:00 AM – 8:00 PM
Sunday 8:00 AM –
4:00 PM
Chef: Alvaro Alvarez
ANIMAS QUINCE
This welcome-home drink for Chef Michael Coon was the best way to start out a morning in SMA but don’t even think about skipping the whipped cream. A gallon of it was perfect and only $75 pesos.
It took just one sip to become a creature of habit so next time, you’d better make it a double! The best Mango creation we’ve tasted all year.
Nemesio
Diez 2
Monday,
Wednesday – Saturday 9:00 AM – 9:00 PM
Tuesday
1:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Sunday 10:00 AM – 7:00 PM
MERKEN SMA
Chef Pablo Nicacio’s resume is short and sweet. A former sous-chef for Chef Marco Cruz at La Estacion in Mexico City, B'ui cocina de campo in Otomi and Nómada Cocina de Interpretación, Pablo left to open his own restaurants - Nicasio comedor mexicano and now Merken SMA at 20 de Enero Sur #4 in San Antonio. This past Saturday morning, he opened a stand for breakfast at the Organic Market at Mercado Sano with a simple menu: Chilaquiles. My bowl included chicken and black mole.
It’s been five years since the pleasure of black mole (at the Catedral Restaurant in Oaxaca) hit my lips. I was seduced back then and I’m seduced again right now. This is another dish by Chef Pablo Nicacio that you simply don’t want to miss. $100 pesos.
Ancha de San Antonio 123/Centro, San Miguel de Allende
Opens Saturday 9:00 AM
Chef Pablo Nicacio
POLLOS LA OLLA SMA
Eugenio Alvarez worked at Casa Dragones and Tequila Sauza, spending time in Dubai with different brands before coming back to SMA. The former General Manager of Hotel Amparo decided to take a break from both tequila and hotels to do something he knows really well: slow cooking chickens. His family has been cooking them in Celaya and Irapuato this way since 1960.
The Chicken serves three people; eight pieces or order it uncut. You can also order a salad, a seasonal mix that was another delicious surprise of green and purple lettuce, with mango and strawberries, cranberries, pecans and nuts with homemade honey and mustard dressing. $80 pesos.
The secret: these chickens are slow cooked over wood and fire, making the intoxicating flavors just what the food doctor ordered. $180 pesos.
Salida a Celaya 47/Centro, San Miguel de Allende
12:00 Noon – 6:00 PM Daily except closed Tuesday