Topolobampo in Chicago is a Michelin starred restaurant by Rick Bayless. There is actually a ton of Mexican fine dining in Chicago, and tons of excellent standa

Topolobampo in Chicago is a Michelin starred restaurant by Rick Bayless. There is actually a ton of Mexican fine dining in Chicago, and tons of excellent standard-fare Mexican in Chicago. I've had fine-dining Mexican in other cities, and I'm not surprised that it's hard to find Michelin-starred Mexican establishments. I'd describe the fine dining Mexican I've had elsewhere as overpriced garbage, and I personally think that is being generous. One of my friends brought me to a fine-dining Mexican place in NYC that was so obviously massacred for American tastes that I literally could burst out laughing merely by thinking about it for a month afterwards. I think you are on to something though -- the 'bad' Mexican I've had is always fussed with too much, whereas Mexican I'd generally describe Mexican food as pretty straightforward. I wouldn't be surprised if that were the case across the board. I think the places that fuss with food too much stay in business because there is a certain segment of the population that judges value based on complexity and 'moreness'. That measure is kind of backwards in the same way that measuring productivity of a developer solely by lines of code written is backwards. The best code is often succinct.