Quince — Restaurant in San Miguel de Allende

Quince boasts of itself as the number one rooftop bar in the world and uses it heavily in its advertising. The designation comes from a website called “The Rooftop Guide.” It does seem to be an independent guide that is not affiliated with any one restaurant, at least as far as I can tell. The Guide lists nearly 1600 restaurants in about 150 cities worldwide. The location had also been designated by a second rating organization called Robb Report Magazine as the "No. 1 Rooftop Restaurant in the World" for multiple years. But let me tell you what we think too.

The menu is sophisticated, with lots of seafood including sushi and ceviches, but also steaks, salads, and bowls. We started with their plate of artisanal cheeses. It came with a selection of local cheeses, fresh fruit, honey, and nuts. It was plated beautifully and was the food highlight of the meal for us.

For the main course we had the Yakimeshi bowl. It is a choice of steamed or fried rice accompanied by seafood or meat in a bowl of finely chopped fried egg and vegetables seasoned with soy sauce and spices. Honestly, it didn’t wow us and we would choose something else next time.

In addition to the food, you come here for the overall experience as well. It is this where the restaurant truly excels. The atmosphere of this place is relaxed and joyful. The decor is beautiful and while the staff weren’t particularly friendly (probably just the language barrier since our Spanish isn’t great) they were very attentive and professional. Note that there is a time limit for how long you can sit at the table. This is unusual for Mexico but necessary here given the popularity of the restaurant and limited seating to keep the intimate feeling of the place.

The best part of the experience by far is the privilege to dine in a place with this incredible view. You dine in an elevated location right next to the main historic church of San Miguel with its pink limestone in neo-gothic style. The weather of San Miguel is always near perfect and we were under moonlight that night and could see several planets in the sky.

Overall a “must have” experience if you come to San Miguel. Treat yourself to at least...

The good: the drinks and the view. The bad: food and the service.

We started with some lovely drinks and attentive staff. Great! Then the food came. The blackened tuna was a terrible cut, sinewy and too thick. It wasn’t blackened, it was very slightly crusted in some herbs and thrown on a griddle. I expect a good solid sear and bit of crisp to the outside. This was so poorly cooked. It came with a salad that was supposed to be fennel, onion, and avocado. What I got was a gigantic pile of onions with three slices of avocado on the side. I dug through and four of the most tired looking tiny slices of fennel I’ve ever seen. While digging, I found an inexplicable wad of cream cheese. Not crème fraiche. Not plated. Just kinda sadly hiding under the onion pile. The two sauces were boring and had the same flavor profile. Their only use was to completely mask the flavor of the tuna. Okay, feature or bug? Either way they belonged on beans or goat.

Speaking of goat, the other dish was fusilli with lamb. Oh my. Why. Rather than a glorious reduction with the lamb, I am 80% certain that it was a jar of Ragu. Not ragout. The only compliment I can dredge up is that the pasta wasn’t soggy. Yay? The weird thing is that all of the food was the exact same spice level. It’s like my guy, we do not need to throw a darn Calabrian chili in every single dish.

I didn’t want to leave a well-recommended place on such a sour note with such tragic food, so I finally, finally managed to flag down a waiter so we could get a dessert and coffee.

Dear reader, he handed me the menu and never returned. Fifteen minutes. Twenty. Longer. And I stalked to the front of the house and said, do we pay up front? Yes, I know it’s an insult. It was deliberate.

This is the sort of place that tries to be fancy for people who know nothing about food. It’s so very sub par, from the menu itself to the execution to the service, it was sadder than the limp fennel hiding in...

I had been at this rooftop twice before. By the end October I was traveling back to Mexico with some friends, I made a reservation ahead of time at Quince. The day of the reservation I wanted to contact the place because traffic was crazy and I noticed that my ETA was going to be EXACTLY 5 minutes after my reservation. It turned out that their phone service was down, their Whats App sent a message saying "we will communicate through this app because our phone service is down. I sent messages and even a voice message to notify that I was going to be delayed 5 minutes and I never got a message back. When we arrived to their front desk (which by the way was packed) and in fact I arrived 5 minutes after my original reservation time, the staff was beyond unfriendly and disrespectful, they were explaining to me that I was late and I should've called them to inform WHICH I DID AND THEY NEVER COMMUNICATED WITH ME!!!! I respect and accept that I was late, if that is the rule I totally respect that, however I don't think they way staff treated me and other people around me was the most adequate in a place that have almost 5-stars. I honestly think that QUINCE has to improve A LOT!!! about consumer service and have a better training about how to be a better restaurant. SMA offers a lot of options to enjoy, Quince has just a nice view but the food isn't that wow! It is just an average sushi. There are other places with better sushi. You pay the experience to be in the trendiest rooftop in SMA but not quality and NOT A GREAT COSTUMER SERVICE. So, if you visit this place just be aware that they seem to care about being snobby to their costumers from the very first moment they walk in. The fact that they are popular do not make them excellent and SMA has way too many friendlier places to enjoy. QUINCE I would suggest that improve and train your staff better to keep that tittle of "the best...