Donaji — Restaurant in San Francisco

First I learned the pronunciation of Donaji, a Oaxacan Princess, is (doh na hee).

A friend and I had margueritas: he had the Coco, and I had the Cadillac. Both drinks were delicious. There was no G4 Reposado, so they graciously swapped in another delicious, smokey Reposado.

We split a Mercado Ensalade, and there was plenty to split. The greens and oranges were fresh, and the pickled onions and hibiscus vinaigrette were just the right combination of sweet and sour.

He had the mole chicken enchiladas with a side serving of rice to ensure all the delicious mole was eaten. The combination of 26 ingredients blended to mole perfection was made for a flavor packed entree. I don't like mole, so I ordered the Mole Rojo Spare Ribs, without the mole sauce with a side of refried beans. What came to the table was the delicious Mole Rojo 1/4 chicken, without the mole sauce. I let them know I had ordered the Spare Ribs, and they apologized for the error, and said it would take a few minutes. I hated the thought that the chicken would go to waste and I decided to keep the different protein. I enjoyed a perfectly cooked piece of chicken, with a wonderfully spiced crispy skin with a small portion of pickled vegetables.

When our waiter returned with the dessert menus, he also brought two complimentary shots of Mezcal, orange slices an Tajin spice. The waiter again apologized for the order mix up. The smokey Mezcal was very smooth, and the orange slice and Tajin spice really elevated the taste.

We split the Churro Donut with warm chocolate sauce. Again, like all the other food, the churro was perfectly crisp and without any deep fried oily-ness. We struggled to use all the silky smooth, pourable chocolate sauce!

We both felt

This place had been on my radar as an up-and-coming Mexican restaurant and I'm glad we finally found the chance to check it out. My fiance and I came here for SF Restaurant Week to try the $25 Lunch Tasting Menu.

For the first course we chose the pozole over the market salad. I feel like pozole is the unsung hero of many kitchens in Mexican households. It's never the flashiest item on a menu, but it's by far one of the biggest staples and the pozole here definitely didn't disappoint.

The second course were sopes with refried beans, braised beef, pickled cabbage, and guacamole. These were by far my favorite of everything we tried. The beef was so incredibly tender and the flavors all paired together so nicely. I will definitely be ordering these again if they are a stand alone menu item.

The last course was an enchilada served Oaxacan style; that is to say covered in black mole. At this point we were getting pretty full from the first two courses so we were worried about not having enough room for the enchilada but thankfully the portion was on the smaller side. All in all, the tasting menu provided just the right amount of food.

We also ordered a bottle of Mexican sparkling wine to pair with our meal. All the wines are sourced by Latino-owned businesses both in California and Mexico which is fantastic. I love this business's commitment to supporting other minority owned businesses. Plus, the wine is from the Mexican state of Queretaro. I consider myself a pretty big wino and have even travelled to the wine country in Mexico's Baja Peninsula. Never before have I been able to find a bottle of wine in SF sourced from Central Mexico. If you are a wine lover, this alone is worth the visit in my opinion. They also have a Malbec from the same winery as well as a white wine. I will have to try those in future visits.

In summary, this is one of my new favorites in the city. If you can only go to one Mexican restaurant while you're in town, let it be this one. You won't be...

Weekday night visit. Spent $40 + in total for a single dish.

Extra note: automatic 0 score due to poor hygiene. Each group of customers has their own water jug and the jug stays with each group of customers. In other words, customers pour water for themselves. I found a bit weird that the waiter handed me the less than half-full water jug from a leaving customer and asked me to drink the water inside.

Service: 0.5/5 The service is subpar. My friend and I did not make a reservation and in the end, we had to sit at the bar section despite there were lots of empty tables. The empty tables remained empty the whole time and after we left around 30 minutes before the restaurant closed.

Ambience: 2.5/5 Normal ambience but the bar sitting was very cramped.

Food: 0.5/5 Ordered Carne Asada Con Camarones. Poor selection of market vegetables. Steak was overcooked even though I asked for medium well. The garlic shrimps didn't have garlic taste and there was only once piece of tortilla despite the menu indicates more than 1 tortilla. OK...