Aguila y Sol.

This very chic, neo-modern Mexican restaurant puts the traditional, colonial era design just where it might belong ... in the past. Aguila y Sol ushers hungry patrons into the new age of local cuisine and architecture, while thoroughly conserving its "Mexicanness." This local feel is illustrated in many ways, ranging from the restaurant's name--taken from the two sides of the 10-peso coin--to tasty servings of nopales, a vegetable not found outside our borders and uncommon in posh Mexican settings.

To our good fortune, the usher led us to a table next to a wall-sized window overlooking a beautiful tree-lined street. The sunlight reflecting off the shiny dark wood floor and tables as well as the spotless white walls and ceiling gave the place an extremely bright and unusually pronounced clean feel. The sounds of fast-paced mariachi music that later changed to Cuban salsa livened the ambience and deepened the sense of Aguila y Sol's Latin pride despite the superficial pomp of this high-end restaurant. In addition, an eye-catching and well-stocked shiny dark wood bar separated the two sides of the large dining room.

Upon scanning our menus, we noticed a 20-peso per person silverware fee. I hope that cost included our unlimited serving and wide choice of bread because the forks and knives were certainly not better than anything I have at home. Aguila y Sol's fast and professional service was what one would expect from a restaurant of its caliber, and our waiter was impeccably dressed.

We were a hungry bunch, so we ordered lots of starters including the spinach salad, a salmon tostada, a red quesadilla and two cream of zucchini soups. The delicious salad was pleasantly topped with thin apple slices and a sauce that sweetly complemented the greenery. The sole salmon tostada had salmon strips mixed in with onions and nopales atop a crisp, tortilla shell.

The red quesadilla was actually more like a small empanada stuffed with roasted cheese and had a nice smoky taste, while the cream of zucchini soup was interestingly sprinkled with curry powder and peppered with roasted nuts, but it could have used a little more salt.

For our main dishes, we ordered a lomo de atun a las brasas, enchiladas rojas de cangrejo and pato al pastor con pina. The lomo was a sizable and juicy grilled tuna chunk, while the enchiladas were the typical Mexican fare but filled with delicious crab strips and covered with a special house dressing. The pato al pastor was made up of decent shredded roasted duck with slices of pineapple on top, a very Mexican tradition similar to the tacos al pastor found on many capital street corners.

An excellent dining suggestion by a close friend, Aguila y Sol is a great place to get a present-day glimpse of the future of Mexican cuisine, even if the treat is an expensive one--22 pesos for a very Mexican agua de jamaica.