Corazón de Maguey — Restaurant in Mexico City

While recently in Coyoacan, our family had the opportunity to dine here. First, I cannot say enough about the attentive service the wait staff delivers. They genuinely seem to care about the client and the service shows. I noticed a glass sweat and some condensation on the table, and a waitress stopped by without being asked, wiped the table dry, and replaced the sweating glass. I have never seen this in any of the finest restaurants I have dined in. Just exceptional.

We had several dishes to try and share, and they were almost all good. My mother-in-law is very .... particular... about her restaurants, freely offering her unrequested opinion about every dish and it nearly always is accompanied by how she would do it. Despite this, she had zero complaints or suggestions the whole evening. We unanimously did not care for the chorizo de pulpo (ground sausage with octopus)- kind of a pork-seafood umami combination that just didn't work together. We also had salbutes de carnitas which were absolutely incredible. The habanero cream sauce was to die for. We also tried several soups. The chicken soup was excellent, but served a little bit warm, and not hot - despite this, it was delicious otherwise. The other soups (tortilla and something else) were served hot. The pipian mole over cauliflower (there are proteins available, but I chose the cauliflower as we were eating other things) was exceptional.

Unfortunately, no one else at my table would drink mezcal with me, and I didn't even know about their mezcal offerings until I asked for an apertif. I didn't find what I was looking for, but did see an incredible selection of mezcal. I was pleased to see they had Woodford Reserve for a bourbon, which was a great offering.

If you have the opportunity to visit Coyoacan, this is a worthy dinner...

From the patio to the baño, the ambience was elegant, the host was prompt and welcoming, our food was quickly well prepared, and when a large party took our servers attention the management team immediately stepped in to finish coursing us out. This was my first time trying tlayuda and gourmet Mexican cuisine. My server inquired about food allergies, drink preferences, and if I found crickets palatable. I was disappointed to find they didn't have much to offer when it came to alcohol free cocktail options so I had to settle for water. Prior to our foods arrival, someone else's food arrived to our table. Shortly after the mix up was resolved our chicken broth and tortilla soup arrived. Both were deliciously well prepared, seasoned and we were given generous portions. Coursing was timed well so just as we finished our soups, tlayuda and tacos arrived. The tacos were okay, too much cheese for my liking, but the steak inside the tlayuda wasn't thinly sliced as indicated on the menu. Although I wasn't converted from my preference for Mexican street food, I highly recommend it for the Michelin level ambience and plating. However, I could have done without the Pomeranian in a bag barking at the table behind me on the patio. In Mexico it's very common to find dogs out on their own and with their people at coffee shops and restaurants, but this was the only place I experienced it as disruptive. From the city to the countryside every other dog I encountered was so quiet and well mannered I forgot they were there. If you excuse yourself to use the restroom, don't forget your phone like I did. You'll regret not capturing the rest of the restaurant as well as the captivating open air...

We had an unfortunate experience at this restaurant and can't figure out what caused it. We were sat quickly and ordered drinks and an appetizer to split for a start. Menus are on your phone and we were still looking at them to decide on our main course. When we finished our app (which was very good), our plate was cleared without our server asking if we wanted anything else. Our drinks were then empty (not super tasty but could be a matter of preference), it took over 30 minutes for our server to make eye contact with us again, let alone ask if we wanted something else. Our server had 3 tables and was very busy conversing with the other staff... It was unfortunate because the ambience is lovely and romantic. We thought maybe because we are tourists that we were neglected/unappreciated but the other tables in the section were not getting attention either. We asked for our check instead of eating our intended dinner - at which the server tossed down with a very passive "por favor" instead of asking how anything was or if we needed anything else, forget about thanking us for coming in. I believe she could read that we were irritated. My spouse manages a restaurant and it takes him a lot to get upset about as he sympathizes with restaurant workers, this interaction really rubbed him the wrong way and that says something to the service we...