Pujol (restaurant)

Pujol is a Mexican cuisine restaurant in Polanco, Miguel Hidalgo, Mexico City. The restaurant is owned and headed by chef Enrique Olvera. Pujol's dishes are based on traditional Mexican cuisine, including maize-based food, seafood, and tacos, served in a sophisticated presentation through tasting menus or a taco omakase bar.

Founded in 2000, Pujol started as a restaurant focused on Asian and American cuisine with a few Mexican elements. After experiencing financial difficulties, the menu was revamped to include more Mexican fare. The British magazine Restaurant has continuously ranked Pujol on its list of the World's 50 Best Restaurants since the 2010s. Food experts have given the restaurant mostly favorable reviews; the most popular dish is mole madre, mole nuevo, a black mole sauce that by 2022 had been reheated more than 2,800 times and to which fresh moles with varying flavors are regularly added. On the negative side, the eatery has received complaints about workplace harassment.

Pujol was awarded two Michelin stars in 2024 in the first Michelin Guide covering restaurants in Mexico, becoming the highest rating in the country, tying with Quintonil, also in Polanco.

Description
Pujol offers two options of tasting menus that are updated constantly: maize-based meals or seafood. Also, there is a taco omakase bar alternative, where the diner lets the cooks select what to serve. The menu choice is a set of seven dishes that are served at tables, while the omakase option is a nine- to ten-course menu changed daily and served in the restaurant's bar. There are no à la carte alternatives; beverages are sold separately.

For groups of diners, table reservations will last from two and a half to three hours; if additional time is required, they may continue their meal on the terrace. There is no dress code and reservations are required; the restaurant recommends booking five to seven weeks in advance.

The oldest plate is the appetizer, baby corncobs dipped in chicatana sauce made of coffee mayonnaise, costeño chili and chicatana ants served inside a gourd. Mole Madre is the most famous dish; it is a mole sauce prepared with more than 100 ingredients—such as tomatoes, dried fruits, fruits, and cocoa—that as of 23 July 2022 was 2,852 days old. The sauce is served under a fresh mole sauce. Other dishes served at Pujol include tlayudas, lobsters, fish, aguachile, and puchero. Pujol's dishes adopt techniques from molecular gastronomy.

History
Twenty-four-year-old chef Enrique Olvera opened Pujol in 2000. He studied at the Culinary Institute of America. When it opened, the restaurant featured a contemporary cuisine menu composed predominantly of foreign dishes, encompassing Eastern Asian and American cuisine. Olvera described the food served as having more foie gras elements than Mexican ones; during this period, the restaurant suffered financial problems, with multiple associates leaving the project. In 2006, the restaurant was remodeled and the menu changed to that of Mexican cuisine. According to Olvera, they improved "the aesthetics on the plate" and focused on the ingredients to enhance the flavor.

In 2017, Pujol was relocated from Francisco Petrarca Street to a 1950s-built house on Tennyson Street, both in the Polanco neighborhood of Mexico City. The restaurant added a variety of tacos subsequently. Javier Sánchez was the architect and Micaela de Bernardi was the interior designer for the renovation. Eduardo Prieto designed the furniture inspired by the works of Clara Porset.

Following the relocation, the restaurant reduced cooking with meat and increased the use of Mexican vegetables and ingredients; by 2019, Pujol had stopped using meat due to environmental impact, except for special events. The restaurant collects rainwater for orchard irrigation, has reduced its use of single-use plastics and collects leftovers for composting. For its sustainability actions, the United Nations recognized the restaurant in the same year.

In 2018, Olvera opened a gourmet tortilleria in the Condesa neighborhood, named Molino Pujol. It sells hand-made tortillas produced with a variety of maize as well as maize-based dishes, including esquites, tacos, and quesadillas.

Reception and recognition
For Elle magazine, Kayla Webley Adler recommended visiting Pujol, suggesting that the restaurant helped the city become a "foodie mecca". A reviewer for Condé Nast Traveler said it is a landmark eatery in Mexico City. A writer from Fodor's said that the visit was an "educational and hedonistic" experience. A critic from Bon Appétit recommended visiting Pujol and its taco omakase. Leslie Yeh from Lifestyle Asia considered the restaurant a must when visiting Mexico City.

Mia Stainsby wrote for the Vancouver Sun that she is not normally impressed by recognized restaurants, but she felt contentment during her visit. She labeled the food as high-class and the ambiance as relaxed; she only felt apathetic with the lamb with mint mole and baby potatoes due to the lack of tenderness but suggested going to Pujol if it fits in the budget. Mariana R. Fomperosa of Milenio recommended leaving aside expectations and hype when visiting Pujol; she found the food good but overrated.

Felipe Soto Viterbo rated Pujol five out of five stars for Time Out. He commented that it was unnecessary to recommend specific dishes, as they vary constantly and might not be tasted by the reader, and that—despite its seasonal menu—Pujol "doesn't go out of style". Separately, Time Out placed Pujol at number one in its ranking of the top 23 restaurants in Mexico City. Arden Shore from The Infatuation considered Pujol's service to be "warm and smooth" and thought that diners would be "blissful and stuffed" at the end of their meal. Adriana Zehbrauskas wrote for The New York Times that the "light-filled dining rooms and open spaces [in the building seek] to balance a casual, neighborhood spirit with the former's intimacy".

Mole Madre
Mole Madre is commonly discussed in Pujol's reviews. Olvera said it was created for Quintonil's first anniversary. It is a black mole version made with chilhuacle chili. Leftovers would be served in Pujol but Olvera experimented with reheating it indefinitely. He noticed that it was possible and that its flavor changed over time. From then on, when there are 10 l left (every two days, approximately), they add more recent mole with seasonal ingredients. When serving, the cooks add fresher mole, or Mole Nuevo, to the Mole Madre bed; it is accompanied with an hoja santa tortilla.

While Daniela Brugger called it a "culinary treasure" because she considered it "a commitment to quality and tradition [with an] artisanal approach" to the restaurant's cuisine, Shore described it as "hypnotic". Stainsby opined it was "deep and complex and beautifully balanced". Fomperosa said she preferred her grandmother's, perhaps because she preferred love over technique.

Criticism
In 2021, Ximena Abrín applied for a job at the restaurant and was put on a five-day trial period. On the fourth day, she resigned and posted her experience on Facebook about working at the restaurant. She said that the working hours were doubled from those offered at 16 hours, with the minimum pay being 14,000 pesos monthly (approximately 700 US dollars) for a six-day workweek, and she did not consider the restaurant's reputation sufficient to tolerate such labor practices. Her publication went viral, and multiple former employees began to publish their experiences at Pujol, including cases of workplace harassment, racism, classism, and sexism.

In this regard, Olvera said: "If at some point we have failed, we are more than willing to review it and it is part of a process. [...] I believe we can do better as an industry and we have been trying to do so for several years. [...] We have always wanted the people who work with us to not only do their job well, but to be happy. [...] We are saddened that at some point there have been people working for Pujol restaurant who have not had an extraordinary work experience" and added that the restaurant complies with the standards established by local laws.

Awards
Restaurant has ranked Pujol on its World's 50 Best Restaurants lists multiple times: at number 5 (2022), 9 (2021), 12 (2019), 13 (2018 and 2023), 17 (2013), 20 (2014 and 2017),  25 (2016), 33 (2024), 36 (2012), and 49 (2011). There was no list in 2020 due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the food industry. For the 2022 edition, Pujol's highest year, Restaurant added, "[t]he Best Restaurant in North America 2022 boasts the best of Mexican gastronomy, with diners flocking to try the signature Mole Madre, Mole Nuevo – plated as concentric rings and aged for a staggering 2,500 days".

When the Michelin Guide debuted in 2024 in Mexico, it awarded 18 restaurants with Michelin stars. Pujol and Quintonil obtained two stars each—meaning "excellent cooking, worth a detour"—and tied for the highest number of stars received in the country. The guide added that "the culinary heart of [Pujol] lies in the seasonal tasting menu. [...] The savory progression culminates with mole madre, an effort like no other that celebrates Mexican history and cuisine in the most profound way". Additionally, Molino Pujol received a Bib Gourmand rating, indicating "exceptionally good food at moderate prices".