Moxi

Moxi is the gastronomic restaurant of Hotel Matilda — a five-star contemporary boutique hotel in the Centro Histórico, opened in 2009 by the Mexican Saá family — and was launched by Enrique Olvera (the celebrated chef of Pujol Mexico City, named No. 1 in Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants and one of the world's most internationally recognised Mexican chefs). Olvera consults; the day-to-day kitchen runs a Pujol-cousin programme.

The cuisine is contemporary Mexican with deep Mexican-national regional sourcing. The Pujol Mexico City menu's most famous course — the 'mole madre' (the perpetual mole that has been added to and reduced continuously for years, from a single mother batch) — runs at Moxi as well. Other signatures include a hand-rolled Mexican-mole tortelli; a slow-cooked Bajío-pork belly with foie gras and seasonal fruits; a Bajío-mountain trout with butter and sage; a Mexican-Pacific shrimp aguachile.

The wine list runs to 500 references with deep Mexican Valle de Guadalupe coverage and a tightly chosen Italian and French section. The cocktail bar runs a serious mezcal programme.

The dining room is the most architecturally distinctive luxury-hotel dining room in the village — concrete-and-glass shell, hand-carved Mexican-stone walls, and a glass wall onto the Hotel Matilda courtyard. Service is hotel-grade.

Moxi is the birthday-grade dinner in San Miguel — the Olvera pedigree settles the credibility question, the Hotel Matilda setting is the village's most fashionable address, and the contemporary-Mexican cooking is genuinely distinctive. Book the corner four-top by the courtyard window.