One&Only Mandarina hotel review | CN Traveller

Later I am picked up and zipped over to Carao by Enrique Olvera, a restaurant that emulates the cooking one would find at a traditional Mexican palapa on the Pacific Coast. It’s set on the hotel’s highest peak. Supper – prepared by Pujol alum Jesús Dorón – is as expected: exceptional and classically Mexican. It begins with fresh ceviche starters and ends with homemade cinnamon buñuelos.

Equally good is Alma, an open-air, garden-to-plate restaurant helmed by French-Mexican executive chef Oli Deboise. The setting is gorgeous, with a citrus-tree-lined terrace set above a series of sun terraces and two swimming pools, both extending over a cliff: one shaded under lush greenery, the other facing the ocean. The restaurant has two wood-fired ovens, which Deboise uses to turn out inventive dishes that riff on traditional recipes and ingredients, including epazote ravioles with huitlacoche and almond cheese and matcha crème brûlée.