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Thursday, May 25, 2023

La Dona

 













Chef Juan Manuel Galvan Lopez

Five years ago, San Miguel de Allende was a tough place to find a good, vegetarian dish, other than beans and tortillas, but now, things have  changed as the city’s best chefs are putting new and exciting dishes on their menus; many of which are vegetables.  

Chef Juan Manuel Galvan Lopez has a new menu at La Dona and many of the dishes we tried were vegetarian… and really delicious. Remember, this chef was the first one to put roasted cauliflower on a menu - in a wood fire oven marinated in dehydrated tomato chimichurri with seasoned Gorgonzola cheese dressing. It’s still the best cauliflower in SMA.

Our favorite new dishes were many - the Portobello mushroom tartare, mushrooms and roasted shitake lined with vegetables from the garden with Pineapple, avocado and citrus sauce; the picture-perfect calamari with a shrimp stuffed pasta – an unexpected flavor that surprised and delighted our palate; the Buffalo Burrata on tomato jam with roasted cherries, balsamic honey, praline seeds and baby arugula and the San Mike salad: a mix of organic lettuce lined with Jamaican reduction, strawberry sorbet, blackberries, roasted peaches, sliced ​​almonds and slices of provolone cheese.

La Dona’s partner, Miguel Sacal Micha, says if you plan to serve great pastries, you need a pastry chef and we totally agree. La Dona’s new pastry chef is Liliana Ofelia. Some of her new dishes included a plantain semifreddo covered with campechanas, dulce de leche, banana sauce and caramelized cashews and an Oreo cookie brownie filled with rich, dark chocolate ganache, raspberries, grain salt with gelato and oreo cookies.

We’re also a meat lover too and can’t get enough of La Dona’s Pork Chamorro cooked for four hours over low heat, barbecue style accompanied with rustic mashed potatoes. And of course, we also like the lamb chops; a specialty dish of La Dona.

Several of chef Juan Manuel Galvan Lopez’s dishes will be on our new restaurant list at the end of May - a special section at the end called What’s New on the Menu, which features new dishes that chefs will be adding to their menus this summer. Stay tuned.

La Dona

San Francisco 32, Centro

San Miguel de Allende 37700

Sunday 1:00 PM – 9:00 PM

Monday – Wednesday 1:00 PM – 10:00 PM

Thursday – Saturday 1:00 PM – 11:00 PM

Phone: 415 688 3131

Chef: Juan Manuel Galvan Lopez

Pastry Chef: Liliana Ofelia