Mexico City - Dinner at Temporal

After a fun, but quite busy day enjoying Mexico City; I thought we'd have a nice dinner fairly close to where we were staying. I'd heard good things about Temporal and the modern, seasonal cuisine that was being served and thought it would be a nice dinner for our last night in CDMX. I made dinner reservations for the fairly early (in Mexico City) time of 7pm. The bar was doing some good business but we were seated in the restaurant upstairs which was quiet.

As we found the norm in CDMX; service was excellent, gracious, efficient, warm......

And of course we started with a Cocktail. I had what is named Suerte de Dragon....the "Lucky Dragon"!

Man, this combo of Mezcal, Celery Salt, Lime, Beer, and some really sneaky chili was so good! Not overly sweet, refreshing, smoky-savory, all the things I like in a cocktail. I had two! The Missus really enjoyed Her Old Fashion with Cardamom.

The bread served was wonderful; especially with the salsa verde which had perfect acidity.

The Marinated Octopus Tacos (160 $MX about $8.50/US) were solid.

We didn't care much for the tortillas which were strangely brittle; the rub used on the adequately tender octopus was excellent, nice smoky-lightly spiced-good acidity. What's up with the avocados in Mexico? They always seem to be perfectly creamy, mildly sweet..... The scallion-onion relish really went well adding a bit of mildly sweet pungency and along with the avocado added some really great textural contrast.

The Gulf Crab Sopes (140 $MX - about $7.50/US) were the highlight of the meal.

The crab cakes were moist, tender, full of sweet-savory-briney crab. The sopes added a nice nutty-maiz to the dish. The "raw green salsa" was a perfect foil as was the creamy-milky goat cheese. Just a wonderful dish from start to finish.

The Roasted Cauliflower (130 $ MX - about $7/US) was interesting.

It had a definite salty-savoriness to it. I later found out it was from the Anchovy Cream.

The Cilantro Soup (140 $MX - about $7.50/US) was very smooth and creamy.

Mildly pungent, sweet garlic tones, and perhaps a bit too much citrus in this for our taste.

The Missus and I shared one main; the Braised Shoulder of Lamb (290 $MX - approx. $15.50/US).

Super tender, deliciously gamey; that "flavor of the pasture" coming thru; nicely seasoned, the jus had a bit of a "kick" to it. The cauliflower puree was nice and creamy.

We had fun watching the street below us during our meal. The weather here in CDMX during our stay (early July) was sunny and warm during the day; with folks going about their business.

Then just like on our first night, the skies would open up, we'd be treated with thunder, lightning, with rain coming down in buckets.

Which lasted about 20 minutes....then all was clear.

We really enjoyed our meal at Temporal; like I mentioned earlier, the service was excellent, the prices reasonable, and the food quite good.

Restaurante Temporal
Saltillo 1, Hipódromo, Cuauhtémoc
06140 CDMX, Mexico

Comments

[Soo]

That's cool you got a chance to relax and enjoy the rain!

[Junichi]

Great prices!

[Kirk]

It was much for fun than being caught in it Soo!

Really great prices Junichi! For a place of this caliber.

[kat]

nice meal! and lucky you were not caught in the rain.

[RedDevil]

Another great post! Hoping to make it back to CDMX soon.

[Kirk]

CDMX was a great time for us RD. Hope you're able to return soon.

[Derek R]

My wife and I love to do tequila & mezcal based cocktails with celery Salt bitters. We've tried a few different types and these are easily my favorite. https://www.amazon.com/Scrappys-Bitters-Celery/dp/B006OCA526

[Derek R]

Also - Polite Provisions on Adam's Avenue has some stellar celery Salt cocktails. I recommend starting with the Johnny Utah.

[Derek R]

The Oceanside is good too!

[Kirk]

Thanks for the Recommendation(s) Derek. We drop by Polite once in a while.