We weren’t planning on doing any ‘tremendous eating’ throughout our trip in Mexico, as we had been anticipating that the ‘common’ restaurant meals could be particular sufficient. However once we realized we had been staying near quantity 29 on Latin America’s 50 greatest eating places and that we may nonetheless e book a desk for the subsequent day (albeit at 5:30pm), we determined to go for it. And so we ended up at Arca in Tulum. The Mexican-American chef Jose Luis Hinostroza has a powerful resume, which incorporates not solely Noma but additionally El Celler de Can Roca (my private greatest restaurant on the earth), and De Kromme Watergang.
We had been actually wanting ahead to the 12 course chef’s tasting menu that was listed on the web site. Nevertheless, though this was not talked about on the positioning, the tasting menu needed to be pre-ordered. So we had to decide on à la carte. There have been 14 dishes to select from, with costs round US$ 30. The recommendation was to share the dishes, and order 4 of them. The wines had been costly, with the least costly bottle beginning at US$ 90. We ordered a mix of Xarello, Chardonnay, and Muscat from Mexico that was fairly good (however not definitely worth the cash).
The primary dish was scallop ceviche with basil and coconut salsa verde, and scallop chicharrón. Chicarrón is the Mexican title for crackling, and this was a scallop cracker that was very tasty. The entire dish was very good.
Subsequent was delicate shell crab in amaranth tempura on a hoja santa leaf as a taco, with grilled hoja santa leaf and a pickled habanero salsa. Very tasty and properly crunchy.
Striped sea bass, seared on the pores and skin, with a charred poblano and tomatillo mole, and a recent coconut and daikon salad. The fish had very good texture with crispy pores and skin and unctuous flesh. The mole was very good, though a ‘brighter’ taste would have been good. The salad was principally in regards to the texture.
Octopus al pastor, guajillo adobo, lentil puree, and lentil granola. The crispy lentils had been nice and the guajillo very flavorful, however the octopus was a bit bland and appeared overcooked.
For dessert we had avocado icecream with sponge cake and one thing that seemed like avocado pores and skin. Good presentation, however missing in taste.
Within the introduction I discussed that we weren’t planning on doing any tremendous eating. The query is, was this in reality tremendous eating? Judging by the value tag, it definitely was. There was additionally one thing pretentious about every thing, like that the restaurant refers back to the menu as “micro seasonal”. Among the dishes had been actually nice and worthy of 1 Michelin star (there is no such thing as a Michelin information in Mexico). The ambiance was not tremendous eating. The surface seating amid palm bushes could be very good although. The service wants a whole lot of work to be worthy of a Michelin star or to be ranked on the 50 greatest eating places. In case you provide a chef’s tasting menu that must be pre-ordered, that needs to be clearly famous on the web site. The serving workers was continually cleansing the desk (wiping it down with a material) and even altering our plates or cutlery whereas we had been nonetheless consuming. However n the opposite hand not persistently altering the cutlery between programs. The white wine was served at room temperature and thus wanted a whole lot of time within the ice bucket to chill off. This was remedied by pouring some (very good) glowing Mexican grenache rosé on the home. In different phrases, the serving workers doesn’t have the same resume because the chef.
Altogether we had a pleasant dinner with some wonderful dishes that present a whole lot of potential.
