The restaurant is attached to Rick Bayless' other restaurant Frontera Grill, which is a bit confusing. They are literally in the same space but just divided up into separate rooms. As soon as we walked into the restaurant, I immediately wished that I had reserved Frontera Grill instead. Of the two, it was the more lively, fun, and youthful part of the restaurant. I didn't get to see the menu but from what I was seeing coming out of the kitchen, it looked to be more casual dinning. Not that I didn't like my meal at Topolobampo, but it was definitely much more mature and stuffy environment. There was no music and it was just much more formal (we had white table cloths and fine silverware for Christ sakes) and quiet. Plus every one in there was over the age of 50.
The menu is fine Mexican dining and the prices definitely reflect that. They mainly focus on the tasting menu ($90 per person), but you can also order a la carte too which is what we did. We ordered the quisdo fundido ($13.50), the Ensalada Topolobampo ($9) and the Chayote ($13) to split for the table. I then ordered the pork 3 ways ($38) as my main entree while Soph got the hen ($38) and Deanna and Aarti got the only vegetarian entree on the menu of eggplant ($25). The waiter was definitely overly chatty and kept calling us senioritas and describing all the dishes in extremely detail. Deanna and Soph thought that he was mocking us because he might have thought we were too young looking for the restaurant. I can see what they were saying but I think his personality might just be that way. But he definitely was much more friendly and ass-kissy to the other two tables next to us.
The appetizers came out and they were all pretty small but packed great flavors. Usually when I get queso fundido, it comes out in this flaming hot bowl and the cheesy is super gooey. Here the cheese was almost smoked/roasted and there wasn't a whole lot of it, but what was there was definitely flavorful. The salad was fine, nothing really to write home about but it did have a fabulous creamy-lime dressing. I didn't quite get what the chayote was all about. It looked like a small pear with some sauce on top of it. It definitely was an interesting taste but I couldn't quite figure it out. What I did figure out and love were the handmade tortillas. They were soft and warm and delicious. I actually ate 3 of them just during the appetizer section. Next our entrees came out and I was exited for my dish since the gentleman next to me told me it was amazing and to ask for extra tortillas. The pork came as a roasted loin,braised shoulder and belly and crispy chicharron with black rice and beans. After they serve you the dish, they then poured a dark brown sauce all over it that was similar to a smoky chipotle like sauce. I will agree and say that the pork was all excellent. Strangely enough, even though the apps were small I was kind of full when my entree arrived (damn you mango mojito and all your sugar!). I did manage to wrap most of the pork in several tortillas and I could see why the man told me to ask for more tortillas because I could have used them to sop up the rest of the sauce. But I just couldn't do it, I was so full. I almost wanted to cry when they took my plate away when it still had food on there. I didn't try anyone else's dishes but everyone seemed really pleased with their food.
For dessert, we go the torta de Chocolate y fresas ($10) and the mil hojas de fresa con jasmin ($10). The table next to us was raving about the dessert, but honestly I wasn't all that blown away by it. I thought the chocolate tort was way to rich and the mil hojas (a strawberry short-cake/napoleon type dessert) was definitely good but not really worth $10.
Don't get me wrong, I had a great meal and I'm glad to have gone there. But the entire meal took way too long (we were there for almost 3 hours) and the atmosphere was much more stuffy than I thought. It kind of sucked to hear the loud music and fun atmosphere just inches away from us. Meanwhile, we were partaking in very fine dining that cost us way too much money. On the plus side, Rick Bayless did come out and he started talking to the table next to us, but he didn't stop to say hello to us. Oh well.
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