Em (restaurant)

Em serves Mexican food with Japanese influences. ==History==

According to Martínez, who previously worked at the restaurants Quintonil, Máximo Bistrot, and Mia Domenicca, he opened his restaurant with the vision of creating a menu based on his own interpretation of Mexico. He also did not want to create a Mexican establishment that could be associated with other fine dining places such as Pujol or Quintonil. He opened Emília in 2018 on Río Pánuco Street, Colonia Cuauhtémoc, and named the restaurant after his daughter. Martínez and his associate Ebo Kobayashi planned the restaurant's interior design with Japanese designer Kanako Ishida, using materials including copper, quarry, and marble. Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the food industry, the restaurant was renamed Em and relocated to Tonalá Street, Colonia Roma, in a space that previously housed Máximo Bistrot. He has said that he would like to relocate Em, as it is easier to work in a single-floor kitchen than in a building with multiple stories. ==Reception==

In her visit to Emília in 2019, Holland of Robb Report recommended choosing dishes over the tasting menu, as the latter would not provide the full range of flavors. The next year, in a review for Condé Nast Traveler, she advised sitting at the bar to watch the chefs cook the food. In her review for Time Out, Barberena rated Em with five stars out of five saying that Emília was "profiled in world cuisine with surprising techniques, tasteful finishing touches that are not necessarily bound to delight every palate", showing her appreciation for experiencing a variety of flavors on a plate. On its selection of the top twenty-three restaurants in Mexico City, the same magazine ranked Em at number fifteen in 2024. Guevara wrote for The Infatuation that the plates are "high-end" and saw Em as a more-approachable restaurant than Pujol. The food review magazine Marco Beteta recommended the omakase options. Juan Carlos Gamboa of Caras said the chef's dishes "surprise with their elegance and simplicity". A reviewer for El Universal found the experience enjoyable and the flavors intense. Zachary Rabinor of Travel + Leisure described the service as meticulous, an opinion shared by Natalia de la Rosa for Chilango. When the Michelin Guide debuted in 2024 in Mexico, it awarded 18 restaurants with Michelin stars. Em received one star, meaning "high-quality cooking, worth a stop". The guide added: "[b]oth the and the tasting menus overlap well enough ... Refined, bold flavors come through clearly in both". Martínez appeared in the Apple TV docuseries Knife Edge: Chasing Michelin Stars (2025), where he reflects that the star is a reward rather than a goal. Em, along with six other Michelin-starred restaurants in Mexico City, was honored by Martí Batres, the head of the Mexico City government. He presented the chefs with an onyx statuette as a token of appreciation for their role in promoting tourism in the city. The statuette's design is inspired by the pre-Hispanic sculpture The Young Woman of Amajac, in recognition of the significant contributions of indigenous women to national and international gastronomy. ==See also==