New Restaurant Blending Mexican and Turkish Cuisine Opens in SF
A new restaurant named Maria Isabel has opened in San Francisco, featuring a menu that combines Mexican and Turkish culinary traditions. The concept was created by married chefs Laura and Sayat Ozyilmaz. The restaurant's innovative fusion approach is reportedly drawing local attention.
- The chefs, Laura and Sayat Ozyilmaz, previously opened the acclaimed Eastern Mediterranean restaurant Dalida in the Presidio, which was named one of Esquire's Best New Restaurants in America. - Before their brick-and-mortar restaurants, the duo developed a following with their long-running pop-up, Istanbul Modern SF, which focused on Turkish cuisine. - The new restaurant, Maria Isabel, is a deeply personal project for Chef Laura Ozyilmaz, celebrating the coastal culinary traditions of her native Guerrero and her father's Sinaloan roots in Mexico. - The menu will feature both a la carte options and a $90 tasting menu, with dishes like duck confit enmoladas and lobster tortas ahogadas. - While Sayat's heritage is Turkish, the fusion concept has historical precedent; the iconic Mexican dish tacos al pastor originated from Lebanese and Turkish immigrants who adapted their shawarma vertical rotisserie for pork in the 1920s. - Both chefs have fine-dining backgrounds, having worked in renowned kitchens such as New York's Eleven Madison Park and Le Bernardin, and San Francisco's Saison. - Maria Isabel is located in Presidio Heights, taking over the space of the former brunch spot Ella's American Kitchen. - The bar program will go beyond typical tequila and mezcal offerings, featuring other agave spirits like raicilla from Jalisco and the Sonoran spirit bacanora.
