Maria Isabel is a dream

By THOMAS REYNOLDS

The first hint that something special was about to happen came during the Fillmore Jazz Festival in 2018. Sayat and Laura Ozyilmaz catered a private party in a nearby home after the first day of the festival that introduced them and their special brand of hospitality to their new neighbors. Already they had us in their grip after a couple of glasses of their sour cherry rum punch, even before a spread of delicacies was laid out in the claret colored dining room.

Soon they would make their debut as the husband-and-wife team behind a hot new restaurant called Noosh at the corner of Fillmore and Pine, where the Pacific Heights Bar & Grill had once served as the neighborhood’s gathering place. After a few months they were liberated from that bad business partnership and went on to launch Dalida in the Presidio, named for Sayat’s mother, which gave full flower to their culinary sensibilities and their Eastern Mediterranean repertoire.

Now, with Dalida flying high in the Presidio, they’ve come even closer to the neighborhood and opened Maria Isabel, named for Laura’s sister and mother, and offering a refined menu of tastes from their home state along the coast of Mexico. Maria Isabel Casa Mexicana is Laura’s dream come true at California and Presidio, another key corner fondly remembered as Ella’s.

We were itching to try it. A walk west on Sacramento Street into the setting sun whetted expectations. Inside the wooden door carved with the restaurant’s initials, guests are greeted by an exuberant mural suggesting what is to come. To the left, Ella’s original bright dining room and glassed-walled kitchen has been polished to celebrate Laura’s sister, Maria. To the right is the darker and more elegant dining room, honoring her mother, Isabel. There, beyond the tables, the bar is the center of focus, offering an extensive and intriguing listing of wines and spirits from the Americas to complement the equally intriguing food menu.

The menus themselves are works of art. Lacking the capacity for the tasting menu ($90 per person, offered with a pairing of wine or espiritus de Mexico) or for narrowing down the two pages of offerings à la carte, we threw ourselves on the tender mercies of the chef, and were not disappointed. Everything the two of us tried was excellent.

To start: the Aguachile Negro, with yellowtail, squid and pork chicharrones. Then maybe the single best dish of the night, the Ceviche Acapulqueño, with shrimp and scallops, which was both delicious and beautiful. The Sea Urchin Tamalito de Maíz, with an ethereal corn crema, was a must. The Heirloom Tomato Memelita came right at the peak of tomato season, but it was the white corn memelita underneath, a tortilla filled with goat cheese and hoja santa crema, that astonished. The many flavors in all of the dishes, bright and layered with complexity and finesse, were like firecrackers for the taste buds.

We shared a main course. My dining companion was ahead of me, as usual, and already had finagled her first reservation a few weeks ago. She insisted we have the Lamb Ribs Barbacoa she had loved. Too much is not enough! The rich, fatty lamb meat fell off the bones into our tortillas, which were then dipped into the lamb consommé. I hope to go back for all of the other platos principales: Pollito and Mole Verde, with confit Cornish hen, Black Cod Zarandeado, Dry Aged Rib Eye Carne Asada or, for the vegetarians but for the bone marrow, Chochoyotes & Mushrooms. With advance notice, they do offer vegetarian and pescatarian tasting menus ($100 per person).

Alas, there was no room for dessert. Nonetheless the chef sent out the Choco Ta-Corn, a multi-layered extravaganza of slightly sweetened corn in many guises, topped with corn-studded chocolate — reminiscent of, but in no other way like — the choco tacos found on food trucks everywhere. Plus cups of Tascalate. The chocolate program on the beverage menu offers four choices.

What Laura and Sayat Ozyilmaz have done at Maria Isabel with the food of her childhood on the Mexican coast, they’ve already done at Dalida for the food of Sayat’s childhood in Istanbul. We are incredibly lucky their dreams brought them to our neighborhood.

Maria Isabel is located at 500 Presidio Avenue, at the corner of California Street. For more information, visit the website.