SF gem becomes world’s first three-Michelin-starred Mexican restaurant

When San Francisco chef Val M. Cantu and his team from Californios didn’t hear their restaurant’s name called in the two-star category at Wednesday night’s Michelin Guide ceremony in San Diego, they started to get nervous.

“We didn’t know if it was maybe a technical error,” Cantu told SFGATE in an interview. “They invite you to the ceremony but they don’t tell you why, so you don’t want to believe it until it’s real.”

But it was real. When Michelin finally announced Californios, it was to declare the 36-seat eatery on 11th Street the first Mexican restaurant in the world to receive three stars — the awards’ highest designation. Californios currently offers a 13- to 16-course menu for $390 that might include a blue masa tostada with Dungeness crab and smoked trout roe or dry-aged quail with mole negro. 

“I was really in a state of shock,” Cantu said. “Glad to be there with my wife. Surprised. Excited. We’ve been working on this for a while. And because there had never been a Mexican restaurant that has gotten three stars, we weren’t sure it was possible or what it would take.”

Turns out it would take a kid from Brownwood, Texas, who grew up in his parents’ Mexican restaurant, then went on to take community college culinary classes with his high school sweetheart and eschew law school for the scholarly pursuit of Mexican cuisine.

After years in fine dining restaurants, including Pujol in Mexico City, Cantu opened Californios with that sweetheart, Carolyn, in January 2015 in the Mission District. Carolyn, a Ken Fulk alum, designed it. In October of that year, Californios earned its first Michelin star. 

In 2017, former SF Chronicle food critic Michael Bauer gave the restaurant four stars, declaring Cantu “a voice that is like no other in the Bay Area.” The following year, Michelin inspectors awarded the restaurant its second star. After closing for one year during the pandemic, Californios reopened in 2021 in SoMa, where it still resides today.

Not surprisingly, Thursday’s service was a whirlwind. Reservation requests poured in from all over the world, and Californios is booked out for weeks. Cantu hung the white chef’s jacket that’s bestowed upon new winners on the white board in the center of the kitchen, for all his team members to see. 

“Everybody’s just on cloud nine right now,” he said. 

The news has made national headlines and even prompted Michelin inspectors to reveal their thinking behind the momentous decision. 

“What really stood out to me was the global inspiration and seeing those international techniques and flavors executed with such precision, refinement and clarity without losing the Mexican identity,” noted one of the five inspectors.

Another said that “one of the fundamentals that makes Californios the greatest Mexican restaurant in the world is the sheer quality of ingredients … when it comes to fresh produce and proteins, California is hard to beat.”

Cantu called it “a huge compliment” and used the word “amazing” twice to refer to his team and the farmers they get to work with. He showed vulnerability, too, saying it’s sometimes hard to know whether you’re going in the right direction. Each little “bump” helps, though.

“You get one star, and you know you’re doing something right,” he said. “Then two stars is a very hard category to get so you think, ‘OK, yes, we have created something special.’” 

From here, the restaurant’s focus will be on continuing to evolve with the seasons and offering guests a singular experience. “I don’t like to be static,” Cantu said. “We’re not finished by any means.”