Nudo Negro — Restaurant in Mexico City

Here is my comprehensive review as to why I am giving this place one star.

Atmosphere:

The restaurant is beautifully decorated with dim lights, colorful murals, and clean eating areas. The music can be a little loud, but I could tolerate it.

Service:

The waiters are always so hospitable in Mexico. They did not disappoint here and we were met with their attentiveness, kindness, and patience. The service was slow, but I believe this was because it was busy. As my first time at the restaurant they invited me to the kitchen to sample their dumplings.

Food:

The food is hit or miss. The appetizers are delicious and creative where they fuse some Mexican key ingredients with other Asian varieties.

The main courses were tricky. Some noodles are fine but not very impressive. As someone who has gotten to try all types of cuisines, these dishes seemed to dull the taste of each fusion flavors. I ordered the surf and turf noodles, which had rice noodles, pork belly, shrimp, and squid. The base was an acidic lemony juice of the seafood and topped with an acidic glaze of red chilli sauce. In the noodles was another slice of lime to squeeze for taste. Altogether the dish was just not good. It tasted like an experiment that you could make at your kitchen if you have Asian ingredients and cannot make Asian food. On top of that, I could feel my stomach churning from the acidity after a few bites. I did not keep eating it. The difficult part was confessing to the kind waiter that the food was not good since their manager was pushy to make sales and collect tips.

Management :

After my unpleasant main course, the manager came and interrogated me why I returned the noodles. He did not apologize but asked questions as if there was something wrong with me. He offered other meal options but did not say whether they will be extra and I guessed that he was gonna still charge me for this plate and the next substitutes if I had taken them; I politely refused since the other main courses did not seem descriptively appetizing either after this sour dish. Sure enough, he did charge me for the plate I returned even after I asked if it could be waived since the bill was quite expensive.

I get it, this is a business, but we're not just wallets. At the request of your customers, you shouldn't push them or pressure them. I politely accepted to pay for the food and tip, but I am not gonna return and I wouldn't recommend this place for someone looking for a...

We have dined in many establishments on our 7 day visit to CDMX. Nudo Negro is by far the worst culinary experience of our time spent here. If I could give negative stars I would give Nudo Negro negative 5 stars for the food. It was essentially inedible, and I do not have over discerning taste. Everything was obscenely over salted to the point of ruining the experience.

Maybe the kitchen and wait staff just resents foreigners, or maybe the chef is sabotaging the restaurant. Hard to tell but the food was so very bad that I find it impossible to rationalize that it was not consciously prepared that way.

I have 0 idea how this establishment has attained a 4.6 rating at the time of writing this review. I find it very suspicious. ALL other restaurants that we have patronized deserve no less than 4 stars. I chose Nudo Negro based on the Google reviews and I question the authenticity of them.

Nudo Negro is possibly the worst food we have experienced on the planet, and we have traveled extensively for...

Acabo de salir de Nudo Negro. Estoy visitando y CDMX y estaba muy emocionada con esta reservación. El sitio no estaba muy lleno, y la atención del personal fue excelente de principio a fin. Ahora me enfocaré en lo malo de la experiencia: la comida.

Fui con una amiga que había ido antes y le había encantado. Me dijo que te invitan a pasar a la cocina y de cortesía te dan un dumpling de birria. El mesero dijo que habían movido la cocina del piso de arriba abajo porque se les había dañado algo, pero igual traerían el dumpling.

Se que la birria es de res, pero el sabía demasiado a vaca. También la textura de la carne estaba muy dura. Mi amiga dijo que no estaba tan bueno como antes.

Luego comimos las orejitas de cerdo. No estaban malas pero no fueron fritas de manera uniforme. Unas estaban muy ricas con una textura crunchy perfecta, mientras otras estaban pasadas de tiempo y tan duras que pensé que se me iba a romper un diente.

Después probamos las conchas- esté fue el mejor plato de la noche. Perfecta combinación dulce/salado. El relleno era como un guiso, muy rico la verdad.

Mi amiga quería biang biang de kimchi que estaba en el menú, pero al momento de ordenar nos informaron que el menú estaba mal y que no lo tenían.

Ahora el plato más NEFASTO de la noche: las “arepas.” La carta las describe como: Arepas Doradas, relleno de estofado de res al wok, aros de cebolla morada crujiente y lechuga. Tengo que aclarar que soy Venezolana. Nos dijeron que la arepa no era como la típica arepa colombiana (eye roll) o Venezolana, si no como algo de Puebla, no recuerdo el nombre. Los invito a ver la foto en mi reseña: ES UNA HAMBURGUESA CON PAN BRIOCHE! Y el estofado era carne molida, algo que cualquier persona puede hacer en casa. Este plato se me parece muy similar a un sándwich que se puede comprar new Costco o en Pret a Manger en USA. De verdad un insulto a la arepa, no hay necesidad de llamar a este sándwich una arepa.

El dumpling de pato, que es lo que más quería probar. Otra tremenda desilusión. No sabía a nada, la salsa blanca que tenia tampoco aportaba ningún sabor.

Mi amiga y mi esposo pidieron un ceviche pero tampoco lo terminaron, dijeron que no era ceviche, así como la arepa no era arepa.

Mi margarita estuvo muy buena, pero de verdad la peor cena que he tenido en CDMX. He comido más rico en la calle...