Critics’ choice: Inventive twists on Mexican

Playa Los Angeles

Chef John Rivera Sedlar is “the Jenny Holzer of the culinary world,” said S. Irene Virbila in the Los Angeles Times. Never content to create dishes that are merely exciting to the taste buds, he makes them visually provocative as well. At Playa, his latest outpost, he serves a sculpturally aggressive squash-blossom tempura atop plates emblazoned with film stills from A Clockwork Orange. In fact, every dish has “such a visual snap-crackle” that you may be tempted to bring a camera. Clearly, this “isn’t your typical Mexican or even Latin restaurant.” The space is casual but sophisticated, and a meal will take you “on a trip through Sedlar’s taste memory” of what he calls the “urban Latin” landscape. Fresh tortillas or maize cakes provide foundations for many of Sedlar’s inventive small plates, such as the popular tortillas florales—tortillas embedded with rose petals and served with avocado butter. A personal favorite is that cinematic tempura, which is stuffed with chunks of Spanish salt cod and served with capers, olives, and a chorizo jus. “Is it Spanish, Mexican, Mediterranean? Who cares?” It’s gutsy, creative, and plain good. 7360 Beverly Blvd., (323) 933-5300

Sabor Saveur Chicago

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Wicker Park’s Sabor Saveur isn’t Chicago’s first restaurant to explore Mexican-French fusion, said Phil Vettel in the Chicago Tribune. “But credit chef/owner Yanitzin Sanchez with a very personal and frequently delicious approach.” Born in Mexico and trained in Paris, Sanchez will use cilantro where you’d expect basil and slip a saffron beurre blanc beneath a corn cake topped with chorizo or lobster. Her most inventive fusion may be her “tamal”: Forgoing masa or corn husk, she stuffs a beef or pork mix into a square of phyllo dough and hides that beneath an arugula salad that includes almonds, avocado, watermelon, and verdolaga (a parsley-like Mexican herb). Desserts at this dark, theatrical space are especially good. The chocolate mousse—dabbed with whipped ricotta goat cheese and accented with thin drizzles of orange-rum reduction—makes an especially appropriate end to what’s certain to be a meal “full of surprises.” 2013 W. Division St., (773) 235-7310

Empellon New York City

When pastry chef Alex Stupak announced he was opening a Mexican restaurant, New York foodies scratched their heads, said Robert Sietsema in The Village Voice. Why, after all, would “one of the city’s most respected dessert makers” leave WD-50, the city’s “temple of molecular gastronomy,” just to open a glorified taqueria? The answer is now quite obvious: The tacos in question may be expensive ($11 to $17 for two), but they’re also magnificent: “Using his gastronomic prowess, Stupak has sent the flavors soaring.” The braised beef tongue, for instance, is soaked in beer and an arbol chile sauce that renders the organ “almost creamy.” The chicken is “improved with little nuggets of something called ‘green chorizo,’ adding herby notes.” On a menu that’s several sections long, the taco segment is a clear highlight. Elsewhere, Stupak exercises his curiosity and “science-chef” bona fides with mixed success, though Empellon’s sweets are all triumphs. “There’s a twist on the classic pastel de tres leches,” for instance, “that turns the sodden Caribbean cake into intergalactic architecture.” 230 W. 4th St., (212) 367-0999