6 dishes to try at Maya, Soho House’s new Mexican restaurant

West Hollywood’s beloved Mexican restaurant, Maya, will stay put for another quarter. And coming off the success of that pop-up, Maya has since opened its doors in Soho Houses all over the world, including Ludlow House, Shoreditch House and Soho House Berlin. Located on the first level of the West Hollywood penthouse in the former Nava space, Maya first opened its doors in January at the helm of Soho House West Hollywood executive chef Giacomo Pettinari. 

When Pettinari moved to Los Angeles from Bangkok over a decade ago, he knew very little about Mexican cooking. The line cooks he began working with at LA hot spots (including Valentino) were more often than not Mexican, and when it came time for family meal, they cooked the complex and soul-satisfying recipes they knew from home. Soon enough, Pettinari was going out to eat at Mexican restaurants and food trucks twice a week.

When asked to come up with the menu for Maya, Pettinari earnestly tapped into his love for and ever-expanding knowledge of regional Mexican cooking, along with the knowledge of his predominantly Oaxacan kitchen staff. “When they told me I had to conceive the menu, I took myself out to Mexican restaurants all around Los Angeles — from vegan concepts to street food concepts, I wanted to try everything I could,” says the chef. 

Several of the recipes — including those for the enchiladas — were created by Soho House West Hollywood cook and Oaxaca native Myra Garcia, who helped Pettinari refine the flavors of the dishes. For the menu, Pettinari featured his own riffs on regional Mexican dishes, including aguachile made with fresh coconut and a michelada spiked with carrot juice and mezcal along with crowd-pleasers like made-to-order guacamole prepared tableside. 

Maya, unsurprisingly, was an instant hit. “Maya is the most successful pop-up we’ve ever done. So now, we’re taking it on tour,” says Pettinari. Below, we break down six traditional Mexican dishes and drinks from aguachile to micheladas and how Pettinari and his staff reinterpret them for the menu at one of our new Maya locations.

1. Caesar Salad

Think the Caesar salad was invented in the US or Italy? Think again. Tijuana is the birthplace of the iconic salad, where it’s still made tableside using the original recipe at the legendary Caesar’s Restaurant. 

Grupo Plascencia, the restaurant group owned by the parents of Baja restaurateur Javier Plascencia, bought the iconic restaurant a decade ago. “I’m very proud to belong to a family that looks after traditions,” says chef Plascencia, “and what better tradition than Caesar salad and the restaurant that gave birth to it?” 

At Maya, Pettinari uses the original dressing formula for the Caesar (because if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it). The dressing features olive oil, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, mustard, lime, black pepper, anchovies, Parmesan and egg yolk, but he tops his version with crispy Tajín-coated chickpeas in place of croutons.

2. Tlayuda

Never heard of the classic Oaxacan street food tlayuda? You’re missing out. “Nearly all my cooks at Maya are from Oaxaca, so there’s definitely a Oaxacan influence on the food here,” says Pettinari. “Tlayudas are a Oaxacan specialty, so we had to serve them,” the chef proclaims.

If you were to think of the tlayuda as a Mexican pizza, you wouldn’t be the first. The dish starts with a large, thin, crunchy corn tortilla baked on a comal. The tortilla is covered with beans as well as other toppings like quesillo (Oaxacan string cheese), shredded lettuce or cabbage, avocado, strips of meat and salsa. Pettinari adds squash blossoms on the tlayuda at Maya, and you can order it with chorizo if you want some meat on your pie.

3. Michelada

If you haven’t enjoyed a michelada at brunch, you haven’t lived. This unmistakably Mexican beer-based cocktail is spicy, refreshing and the perfect hangover cure. The michelada can take on multiple forms depending on where you are in Mexico, but a classic version features lager or light beer with lime, hot sauce (like Tabasco or Cholula), Worcestershire sauce, Maggi liquid seasoning, salt and pepper. The flavorful concoction, served in a glass rimmed with salt, is almost too easy to drink.

Jenna Webster, bar manager at Soho House West Hollywood, created a fresh-squeezed carrot juice and mezcal-laced michelada for the cocktail menu at Maya. “I wanted to build on a cocktail that was already great but give it our own spin,” says Webster. “I love the combination of carrot and mezcal. The earthiness of the carrot juice brings out the smoky notes in mezcal.” The extra-boozy michelada at Maya has a cayenne salt rim and is made with Pacifico, a classic Mexican pilsner.

4. Aguachile

The origins of aguachile (roughly translated to “fire water”) are obscure, although some suggest the dish can be traced to a pre-Hispanic salsa made from salt and wild chiltepin chiles. Most recently, aguachile has become the Mexican state of Sinaloa’s signature seafood dish, a refreshing and fiery pairing of raw shrimp dressed with lime juice, cucumber, red onion and fresh chilis like serrano and habanero. 

For Maya’s take on aguachile, Pettinari swaps the seafood for fresh coconut meat and makes a dressing from fermented coconut water, lime juice, olive oil and green chilis. He tops his vegan aguachile with edible flowers, creamy avocado and crunchy and addictive Corn Nuts. ¡Que rica!

5. Chiles En Nogada

This stunning seasonal dish consists of meat-stuffed poblano chiles bathed in walnut sauce and adorned with pomegranate arils and parsley. According to official records, nuns at a convent in Puebla came up with the recipe for chiles en nogada to honor Agustín de Iturbide, who cowrote the 1821 treaties that proclaimed Mexico’s independence from Spain.

While the traditional chiles en nogada stuffing features ground meat laced with candied fruit, almonds, vegetables and spices, Pettinari decided to do a vegan take on the celebratory dish. He stuffs the roasted poblanos with a meatless mixture of rice, almonds, walnuts, pomegranate arils and chopped cilantro. He tops his chiles en nogada with a garlicky cashew cream sauce and extra jewel-like pomegranate arils.

6. Beef Albóndigas

Albóndigas (meatballs), which are often served in soup, are a classic comfort food dish in Mexico. The ingredients used, which range from turkey to beef, heavily depend on which region the recipe comes from.

Pettinari explains that he “tried to make the albóndigas at Maya as light as possible,” omitting rice from the meatball recipe. The chef makes the meatballs from ground skirt steak flavored with refreshing mint, lemon zest, parsley and garlic. For the soup, Pettinari makes an intensely flavorful stock from roasted chicken bones, which he spikes with smoky Chipotle chiles.

At Ludlow House, Maya will pop-up on the rooftop this spring and summer. To celebrate the opening, we’re tapping local artist João Salomão to create a Mexican-inspired mural in the former DuckedUp space. And until DuckedUp returns to the space in September, members can find DuckedUp menu items – including the dim sum brunch – in Lou’s.

At Shoreditch House, Maya is taking over the Secret Garden on the sixth floor from Monday, 1 April.

At Soho House Berlin, Maya has already proved to be a hit since opening in March. A Mexico-inspired makeover on the roof accompanies the new menu, which will be served through September.

And here, find a recipe for Maya’s perfect guacamole, prepared tableside at one of our Maya locations. 

Maya’s Perfect Guacamole Recipe

2 ripe avocados
1 1/2 teaspoons diced onion 
1 1/2 teaspoons diced tomatoes 
1 teaspoon chopped cilantro
Juice from 2 limes
Chopped jalapeno (added to taste)
Salt and pepper (to taste)

Optional: roasted corn, cotija cheese, pomegranate seeds

Mash all ingredients together in the molcajete and taste for seasoning. Serve with totopos (aka tortilla chips) or crudite for dipping.