# Em (restaurant)

Em is a fine dining restaurant in Colonia Roma, Cuauhtémoc, Mexico City, Mexico, that serves contemporary Mexican cuisine with Japanese influences. It has daily à la carte options and an eight-to nine-full-course tasting menu. It is owned by chef Luis "Lucho" Martínez, who opened it in 2018 as Emilia in Mexico City's Colonia Cuauhtémoc district. The business was later renamed and relocated to Colonia Roma due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the food industry. Critics have given Em favorable reviews, and in 2024, the restaurant received one Michelin star in the first Michelin Guide covering restaurants in Mexico.

## Description

Em is open in the evening; it has space for 52 seats and reservations are required. The eatery offers both à la carte and an eight-to nine-course omakase tasting menu selections; the customer allows the cooks to choose the plates to serve. The card menu is updated weekly, and daily options alongside it are replaced every three months. Customers who choose the tasting menu are seated in the main bar while those who order à la carte sit at surrounding tables.
Em serves Mexican food with Japanese influences. Martínez states the menu constantly changes because it "keeps the mystery alive" and allows the use of in-season ingredients.
According to Regina Barberena, the menu includes baby corns topped with caviar and queso bola [es] sourced from Ocosingo, Chiapas; a mushroom enoki dashi risotto, shimeji with caramelized onion and chili garlic; sea bass topped with parsley stem cream and white garlic sauce; lemon balm ice cream; and sea-salt-and-caramel-filled dark chocolate with konbu ice cream on top. On his trip, Guillaume Guevara noted dishes such as mole with beef tongue, spicy chicken, wagyu beef, and Petrossian caviar.

## History

Em is owned by chef Luis "Lucho" Martínez, who worked at the restaurants Quintonil, Máximo Bistrot, and Mia Domenicca. According to him, he did not want to create a Mexican food restaurant that could be associated with Pujol or Quintonil. Martínez opened Emilia 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. Above the restaurant, Martínez opened a bar named 686 Bar.

## Reception

On its selection of the top twenty-three restaurants in Mexico City, Time Out ranked Em at number fifteen. In her review for the same magazine, Barberena rated Em with five stars out of five, adding: "Emília [sic] is 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. Guevara described the plates as "high-end" and saw Em as a more-approachable restaurant than Pujol.
Marco Beteta recommended the omakase options. Juan Carlos Gamboa, writer of Caras, said the chef's dishes "surprise with their elegance and simplicity". A writer for El Universal found the experience enjoyable and the flavors intense. 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 à la carte and the tasting menus overlap well enough ... Refined, bold flavors come through clearly in both".
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.