Chichén Itzá Restaurant Makes L.A. Times Top “101 Best Restaurants” List
The restaurant’s delicious and award-winning Yucatecan cuisine continues to capture
food critic’s—and diners’—taste buds.
http://ballots.latimes.com/lists/101-best-restaurants-jonathan-gold/
Vesper Public Relations: May 21, 2014. Los Angeles, California – There may be thousands of restaurants in the greater Los Angeles area, but there’s only one Pulitzer Prize–winning food writer who selects the area’s top 101 restaurants every year for the Los Angeles Times. And there is only one restaurant specializing in Yucatecan cuisine that makes that list every year—Chichen Itzá Restaurant.
Located in downtown Los Angeles, Chichén Itzá Restaurant has been dishing up award-winning food since 2001, and it has been lauded by food critic Jonathon Gold since it opened it doors. Chef/owner Gilberto Cetina treats customers to the foods of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, a cuisine that reflects that area’s diverse history, culture and geography.
“It is such an honor to be selected by Jonathon Gold to be on his top 101 list,” says Cetina. “We have been on the list before, but there are no guarantees that we will make the list every year. We work hard to make sure that the food Jonathon liked the first time he tasted it is the same he—and all our customers—taste today.”
Diners can savor the Mayan inspired brazo de reina tamal, the Lebanese influenced kibis, the Spanish influenced mondongo a la andaluza, and other signature dishes of the region, such as cochinita pibil, panuchos and sopa de lima.
The restaurant also proudly offers two cookbooks: Sabores Yucatecos: A Culinary Tour of the Yucatán and it’s new Spanish-language companion Sabores yucatecos: Un recorrido culinario a Yucatán (WPR Books: Comida) for sale at the restaurant and on-line on Amazon and WPR Books. #SaboresYucatecosBook
This Father’s Day, June 15, the restaurant is set to hold its fourth annual Chile Habanero Eating Contest. A lively event, contestants have 20 minutes to eat as many chiles as possible for first- second- and third-place awards. This is no easy feat when you consider that this very hot chile, rates 150,000–325,000 on the Scoville scale. Compare this with the jalapeño pepper that rates a mere 2,500–8,000 on the same scale. This is the only eating contest of its kind held in Los Angeles. (#HabaneroEatingContest2014)
And during the month of August, Chichén Itzá Restaurant, along with Mercado La Paloma, will host the second annual “The Magic of Yucatán”/“La magia de Yucatán.” This is a month-long celebration of the state of Yucatán. The month will be filled with art exhibits, musical performances, ballet folklóricos, culinary demonstrations and workshops all focused on the wonders of Yucatán.
Chichén Itzá Restaurant is located at 3655 S. Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, inside Mercado La Paloma, near the USC campus. For more information, call 213-741-1075 or visit www.chichenitzarestaurant.com.