Where is the smallest restaurant to ever get a Michelin star?

taco - Ảnh 1. — Chef Arturo Rivera Martinez prepares tacos at the restaurant - Photo: AFP

Under the sweltering heat of a 360°C steel grill, chef Arturo Rivera Martínez, the restaurant’s founder, does what he has been doing for more than two decades: grilling meat. The heat is intense. Temperature is part of the secret to making the perfect taco.

Smallest restaurant ever to get a Michelin star?

Since its founding in 1968, El Califa de León restaurant has remained virtually unchanged, without expanding its menu or improving its space, just sitting quietly in the rather dated San Rafael neighborhood.

Mario Hernández Alonso, the son of the restaurant's founder, hasn't even decided whether to promote the restaurant on social media.

According to NBC News , El Califa de León is the only taco bar among 16 Mexican restaurants to be rated one star. The newspaper said that El Califa de León is probably the smallest restaurant to ever receive a Michelin star.

Half the space is devoted to the grill, the other half is filled with customers standing, holding plastic plates, scooping up sauces, while a kitchen assistant continuously rolls and shapes tortillas (a flatbread made from cornstarch or fresh flour, used as taco shells).

El Califa de León is a symbol of perseverance in the face of change. Since its founding in 1968, the restaurant has made exactly four beef tacos, with a largely unchanged process and style.

Inside Tacos El Califa de León, the sound of grilling meat is always sizzling - Video : NBC NEWS

Quality of taco shell and meat

All of the restaurant's tacos are made with beef from the flank, sirloin, or front leg. "The secret is simplicity. Just a fresh taco shell, a red or green sauce, and good quality meat," Rivera Martínez says.

Every day, thousands of thinly sliced beef are grilled by Mr. Rivera in less than a minute, the exact time is still a "trade secret". Sprinkling a little salt, squeezing a little lemon, flipping the meat, placing it in a bun, then wrapping it up and serving it to customers are the basic steps that Mr. Rivera revealed when making tacos.

taco - Ảnh 2. — A diner enjoys tacos at a restaurant - Photo: AFP

Even though each taco here costs around $5, which is quite high in Mexico, diners still rave about it. "I've never been disappointed," says Alberto Muñoz, a regular at the restaurant for eight years. "And now I have another reason to recommend it, it has a Michelin star!"

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mexican authorities allowed restaurants to expand outdoor seating. But El Califa de León has no sidewalk space, which has long been the domain of street vendors.

Asked if he wanted to “take back the sidewalk” to serve sit-down customers, Mr. Hernández Alonso simply said: “If something is working, don’t fix it. That’s the way things are, just live like that.”