Lynis

I was temporarily staying in a hotel in Cuauhtémoc that had zero internet beginning on Saturday afternoon and on waking on Sunday morning, the problem hadn’t been remedied. I figured I’d go lounge around in the terrace restaurant at the St. Regis, one of the city’s nicest hotels just a couple of blocks from where I was staying.

But in route I walked by a restaurant, who at 8 a.m. on a Sunday morning, when almost every other business was boarded-up and shut-down, that appeared open. It was cleanly and stylishly decorated. I walked in and discovered an unheralded hero. Just a lovely little restaurant. With a nice staff. Ridiculously low prices. Would the food live up to the ambiance?

I ordered the Huevos Lynis, two poached eggs on corn tortillas, covered in caramelized onion and chile ancho, bathed in a luscious salsa verde, accompanied by a lightly seared and seasoned hash-brown patty.

Spot-on. Eggs perfectly cooked. Everything done just right. Those strips of smoky poblanos and sweet caramelized onions were great. One of the best salsa verdes I’ve tasted. I would have preferred a crispy sear on that hash-brown patty, but it was well seasoned and really quite good just the way it was served.

There’s one in Polanco and on Paseo de la Reforma, a two-minute walk from the St. Regis, the Marriott, and the boutique hotels in the area of Rio Lerma. One in Roma Norte on Insurgentes with an extremely dated interior. I suspect the food is good in all of the locations but the ambiance varies significantly from location to location.

This was a find. Talk about staying under the radar. This is a true unheralded hero.

An outstanding breakfast at an outstanding price in an outstanding atmosphere.