We first ate at Petite Leon in late 2021, after the end of the Delta wave and right at the start of the Omicron wave. The pandemic isn’t over yet, of course, but those days do seem behind us (I hope not to jinx anything). Anyway, Petite Leon then was our first indoor meal in months and we really liked it. I said then that the menu as we experienced it then was not so much Mexican as a hybridizing of Mexican ingredients and approaches with ingredients and flavours from other parts of the world: the kind of cooking, in short, that once might have been thought of as fusion but which in this incarnation I prefer to describe as Global Cosmopolitan. Anyway, though not everything at that meal was great, the average was pretty high. And so we’d expected we’d be back in 2022. Well, it took a little longer but we finally got back there with a couple of friends this past weekend. And though there were a couple of dishes that didn’t land for us, this meal may have been even better than the first. Herewith the details.

Our reservation may have been for the same time as our previous meal. But that was in early winter and this was in late spring and so it was much brighter outside and in when we arrived. The restaurant was also bustling when we arrived. It began to empty out not too long after, however—our reservation was for 8 pm—and when we got done a little before 10, we had been the last people at a table for a while. There were still people at the bar but I was a bit surprised to see how empty the restaurant had become not-so-very late on a Friday night. I can only hope this is par for the course/neighbourhood and that it’s not a sign of fading fortunes because the food was very good indeed.

The menu we were presented was quite different from what was then on their website (and still is) but the website menu does offer a good sense of the kind of thing you can expect. This menu seemed to read a little more obviously Mexican than the one we’d had in 2021 but the approach remains similar. The structure also remains the same as in 2021: a lot of small plates, a few larger plates, and a few desserts. Portions for small and large plates alike are on the large side and everything is designed for sharing. And share we did.

We began with a dozen oysters. The oyster on the night was a variety none of us had previously heard of: Pink Moon, from Massachusetts. The price was $36 for a dozen or $3 each (you can order by the half-dozen). The oysters were briny and excellent, both by themselves and with a few drops of the accompanying sauces. We then shared five of the small plates and two of the large. In practice, everything came out when ready, which meant one of the larger plates came out before a couple of the smaller. I’ll describe them, however, as they were positioned on the menu:

• Toast mushroom conserva, requeson, herbs, eggplant ash, hot honey.
• Tuna Tostada avocado, purple potato, bird’s beak pepper
• Mussels smoked nduja broth, charred carrots, dill, grilled country bread
• Tamale masa panisse, macha ma pla, lime mayo, green onion
• Beets, whipped feta, red wine vinaigrette, serrano peppers, rose petal za’atar

The beets and the tamale were the stars of this round. The mix of textures and flavours on the beets was excellent. The tamales were served as deep-fried rectangles rather than in a husk. As per our server, they had not been steamed at all. This is a variety of tamales that we had not encountered before but it was rather excellent as well, especially paired with the other components that mixed Mexican and Southeast Asian flavours. The mussels were by comparison only very good. The mussels themselves were plump and cooked just right, but it was the broth that was the star. Alas, we ran out of the crusty bread to mop it all up with. (On the check, by the way, the mussels were listed as “green chile mussels”—perhaps a leftover from a previous version of the menu.)

Speaking of bread, the toast was fine but didn’t really do it for any of us. There was a lot happening on the bread but it mostly got swallowed up by it and nothing really stood out. (I’ll note here, by the way, that it would be nice if when served to a table of four, the toast were to be cut into four pieces rather than three by the kitchen.) The tuna tostada, however, was a bit of a dud. I’m sure the tostada itself was made from very bespoke masa but the toppings, from the tuna on down, were completely blah.

On to the large plates!

• Pollo al Carbon yucatecan spiced chicken, piri-piri sauce
• Lamb, tamarind sauce, peas, cucumbers, herbs, spiced peanuts, chile-date bbq

The execution on both the chicken and the lamb was dynamite and both the sauces were excellent as well; the sauce/dressing with the lamb was again driven by Thai/Southeast Asian flavours. Once again, we rued the absence of bread to mop those sauces up with.

There were only two desserts (plus sorbet) on the night and we got one of each.

• Arroz con Leche seasonal fruit, cardamom, pistachio, toasted coconut
• Tarta de Queso basque-style cheesecake, vanilla-wafer crumble

The arroz con leche was a just touch too bland for most of our liking. I liked it the most of the group; the consensus view was that it needed either a little more sweetness or a little more acid or both. The Basque-style cheesecake, however, was as good as it had been in 2021.

Oh yes, we opened with a cocktail each: a blood orange Mai Tai that was a special on the night; the Brawndo; the Verde; and the Oaxacan Old-Fashioned. The last of these was mine and I rather liked it. And everybody else enjoyed their drinks as well. We did not, however, re-up.

For a look at the space, the menu and what we ate and drank, click on an image below to launch a larger slideshow. Scroll down for thoughts on service and to see how much it all cost.

So, there were really only two dishes that we could have taken or left (the toast and the arroz con leche) and only one that was actively disappointing (the tuna tostada). The rest ranged from very good to excellent. Which is a very good hit rate indeed.

Service was a bit of a mixed bag. Our server was pleasant but seemed in a greater hurry to take our order than we were to place it. She also did not tell us about the specials—which resulted in the change of a drink order once we’d noticed the specials board. The food arrived at a steady clip thereafter but could probably have been spaced out a little better so as to not overwhelm the table. The next time I might prefer to order in waves rather than all at once.

Cost? With a cocktail each, tax and included 20% service charge the total came to $309 or just about $77/head. Swap out the oysters for another small plate, or just omit them completely (it would still have been enough food) and it would cheaper still. As it is, it seemed like a very good value for what we ate. We’ve certainly paid as much or more in the Twin Cities for food we didn’t like as much. My guess is our third meal will be eaten closer to the second than the second was to the first.

Alright, what’s next on the restaurant report front? Either another New Jersey report or another Seoul report. I really need to crank those out before we head off on our summer travels in the middle of June. Next from the Twin Cities? Probably a report on an Indian meal.