Sud 777 — Restaurant in Mexico City

This is not a Michelin quality restaurant nor should it be on LATAMs Top 50 list (I’ve eaten at many of both).

Started with the Kampachi Tostada; there were 1.5 fermented cherry tomatoes which were delicious, fish was tender but cut poorly, and a tiny amount of watermelon. Almost entirely fish, which lacked salt and acid and was completely flat, and not nearly enough tostada. The paste on top was flavorless and I couldn’t identify any flavor to identify it. Overall this was a bowl of cold raw fish. I didn’t finish.

Second course we tried 2 salads. The first was described as a tomato salad with pineapple reduction. Tomatoes were pink/white with no flavor at all because they were so unripe. The pineapple reduction was nothing but sweet coconut. Again, no salt and no acid. This could have been a dessert. I took one bite of each tomato and didn’t finish the rest. Poorly balanced and not worthy of being served.

Second salad was described as a beet and Brussels sprouts salad with coffee reduction. The Chioggia beets were delicious, but the red beet was undercooked and astringent, sucking the moisture out of your mouth. The beet flowers were uncooked and flavorless. The coffee reduction was good, but only present in one or two bites. The lettuce was undressed. There were toasted raw quinoa pieces present, which I suppose were intended to provide crunch, but they couldn’t be chewed, creating an inedible seed. The entire dish had no salt or acid.

For the main we had the beef short rib (no pic). It was swimming in sauce which had the flavor of nothing. The meat was tender, but the fat had not been rendered out and had to be cut away. Again, not a grain of salt, but the dish was “beefy”. The baby vegetables included (1 baby corn halved, half of a baby zucchini quartered) were delicious but gone in 1 bite. The course was mainly 4 bites of rib and 2 bites of a vegetable, despite being sold as a main course.

The yogurt with strawberry, cream, and an herbal baton was delicious. One of the top 5 desserts I’ve had in the past few years. The chocolate cake was dry and not good.

The complimentary Dia de Muertos bread (orange and chrysanthemum flavored) was delicious and served with a chocolate water for dipping.

Service was top notch. Atmosphere was beautiful. I would not recommend this restaurant in any capacity. The street food of CDMX is...

We were initially told that this was a restaurant worth visiting in Mexico City. We travelled about 45 minutes from Condessa to visit Sud 777 to do the tasting menu. Here are my thoughts.

The restaurant is beautiful. The interior decorations are done amazingly with an overarching theme of Japanese influence. The service was also very nice, all the waiters and staff were approachable and kind. Here is were things went wrong. The food.

We partook in the 12 course tasting menu. The appetizers started strong with 3 bites of a chocolate and truffle bread, corn smut, and a chia/blue cheese dish. Unfortunately after this, the rest of the meal was straight downhill.

We were given a fresh tomato covered in a labneh/green pepper sauce. This dish had strong acid flavor with nothing to balance it. There was a roasted cucumber dish in a stewed mole where really the roasted cucumber added nothing. This was followed by a Leek and Wakame dish where while the flavors were nice, there was no way to physically cut it without the whole course falling apart. Eventually this led to the 3 main courses that we were in theory very excited about: A bone marrow dish, a sea urchin on fried dough with ants, and a short rib dish.

Unfortunately, all these dishes were almost terrible. The bone marrow dish was all fat. (I understand this is normal). However, there was nothing to balance or cut the fat such as a bread, jam or anything to make the dish more appetitzing and well rounded. The next dish which was the Uni on fried cheese dough with ants and mole was a mess of flavor combinations. Uni is an amazing fish that was completely overpowered. The ants were large and added no flavor or sweetness but just a crunch that felt unappetizing when mixed with the creaminess of the uni. And lastly, the short rib. It was a ground short rib, barely cooked, under spiced and wrapped with a leaf.

Mexico city is a city filled with an innumerable amount of great food and beverage experiences. This was the most expensive of all our meals costing around $200 USD/person. In my opinion this place is not worth that price point. While it is great to try to be unique and elevate the food experience, the flavors need to be there before this is possible. The head chef definitely needs to work on the menu as it...

I had the opportunity to sample a special “day of the dead” tasting menu. So please keep in mind that my food review will be from that perspective.

The Good: The restaurant dining room is beautiful. It’s well laid out, and beautifully designed.

The location is in a very nice area of the city with easy parking.

Presentation of the food is beautiful, colorful and has nice contrast.

The Bad: The service. At times, the service was abrupt and without elegance. Dishes were pushed forcefully in front of us and servers spoke with little passion of the food. The ambient noise. Expect the restaurant to be loud and hard to hear. Maybe it was our evening, but a large table was sat in the middle of the restaurant and were very loud for most of the evening. We could barely hear our servers speak to us. The flavor. While each dish was beautiful, the actual flavor fell flat on many. At times it felt as though the dishes lacked seasoning.

The Unforgivable: Allergies. My dining companion explained their allergy in detail to the server. They were served a dish and told it did not contain the allergen, and the menu did not list it, but when questioned further, the restaurant admitted it did contain the allergen. There was no apology, and the situation was poorly handled.

The wine pairings. The sommelier so much as admitted that there is no inspiration behind the pairings, and that the chef dictated what to pair, as did guests. The pairings made zero sense, and were repetitive at best. Feedback was met with a simple shrug and repeated dirty looks for the rest of the evening.

The experience. While some tables received what appeared to be higher levels of service (including the chef coming to serve dishes and speak to the table), many in the dining room did not receive this. Other tables were heard audibly complaining about this. It felt as though only certain customers mattered.

Overall, I cannot say I will try the restaurant again. Too many red flags and inconsistencies. But I’d encourage others to try for yourselves and form your own opinions, your experiences may be...