Restaurant review: Quixote, North Park

Hotel dining, often a staid and safe affair, is being redefined at The Lafayette Hotel, where Quixote presents itself as a compelling addition to San Diego’s dining landscape.

Anchoring the nearly 80-year-old property, renovated in 2023 into a maximalist fever dream made real, the Oaxacan restaurant cocoons patrons in a dark and moody space accented by dripping candles and stained-glass windows. Some dining room elements were salvaged from a decommissioned church.

The food is equally dramatic. Executive Chef José Cepeda knows Oaxacan ingredients and flavors from cooking at his grandmother’s side while growing up in the neighboring state of Puebla. Cepeda uses heirloom family recipes, including some of the region’s seven traditional moles, to create dishes that feel modern yet rooted in true Mexican cuisine.

The most complex of the foundational sauces, mole negro adds depth to fall-apart duck carnitas set atop a crisp-chewy masa cake called a memelita, grounded by earthy black beans and tempered by pickled onions. Masa harina, a keystone of Mexican cookery, forms the base for a tender tamal: On one visit, it was paired with mussels, plantain, and mole amarillo. A few months later, it served as a decadent platform for meaty ayocote beans, spicy cashew cream, and hoja santa.

Of the three larger dishes offered—sized to be shareable—the best are whole grilled fish delivered butterflied on the bone to be spooned in juicy morsels into fresh tortillas, and lamb belly braised until succulent then seared and accompanied by grilled cactus and yet another mole, the masa-thickened mole chichilo.