The Restaurant at Sollano 16

by Jean Stoltzfus
(San Miguel de Allende)

Entry to The Resataurant, Sollano 16, San Miguel de Allende

San Miguel's newest restaurant is called, plainly enough,The Restaurant. My husband and I went twice recently and were very impressed. Wonderful, inventive food beautifully presented; nice portions; professional service.

Seating is in a beautiful courtyard surrounded by Moorish arches and covered by a retractable glass roof. There's also an indoor area that will be open later. The walls are a sumptuous red and the ceiling is triple vaulted. There's a beautiful bar in the back.

The chef, Donnie Masterton, is the real deal. He trained in one of NY's most famous restaurants, Montrachet, and has gone on to work in different restaurants in NY and California as executive chef.

The restaurant has sourced all kinds of meat, cheese, produce —organic and otherwise—from local growers in the campo. And Masterton makes the best of them.

My favorite dishes were: a stunning chilled curried cauliflower soup, a salad made of beets, goat cheese and pistachios, also a roast pork loin with a jalapeño honey glaze. Wonderful deserts too, like a lovely panna cotta and caramel chocolate tart.

This place is, I believe, at the level you would find in NYC or San Francisco, and to me, it's so refreshing to have a place like this in town where you can bring foodies or city folk with very high expectations.

OK, as far as price. For 4 of us on a Saturday, with 4 appetizers, 4 entrees, 4 desserts and 2 bottles of wine, the price with tip was US$235. So obviously it's not cheap, but that was a lot of food and drink for about US$55 a person.