Philly Dining: BESITO MEXICAN RESTAURANT

by Le Anne Lindsay, Editor

Tasting Tour of Mexican Restaurant – BESITO

This month Tinsel & Tine’s “Philly In the Spotlight” features new upscale Mexican restaurant BESITO, which opened at the end of October and is located in the Suburban Square Shopping Center in Ardmore PA (105 Coulter Ave, Ardmore, PA 19003). Translated as “little kiss,” Besito was conceived by restaurateur John Tunney III who founded the brand in 2006 after traveling extensively throughout Mexico to establish a connection with its people, cuisine and culture. Believing that each restaurant location is a unique extension of the original vision, Besito Mexican strives to delight its guests with the warmth of a private hacienda offering thoughtful details and authentic dishes.

I really wasn’t expecting the exterior or interior to be so glamorous. When you hear a restaurant is part of a shopping center, even one as upper class as Suburban Square, your expectations are lowered; but get that thinking out of your head because Besito looks and feels more like a resort restaurant in a luxury beach town.

The Ardmore location boasts more than 150 seats and a full bar, along with a private dining room. An outdoor patio complete with a fireplace which accommodates an additional 30 diners. Upon entering, guests will gravitate to the restaurant’s rustic, dramatic interior that incorporates tradition and street touches. From its mood-setting candle wall and hand-selected Mexican artifacts, to its colorfully striped serape-style fabrics and aged barnwood furniture accents, Besito’s décor recreates Tunney’s original store inspired by his travels.

Marvin Alvarez, Le Anne Lindsay, Jimmy O’Leary, David Rosenberger, Diane Roka

I invited friend and T&T contributor Diane Roka for our visit to Besito Mexican, where we were greeted by Besito Mexican Group Partners – David Rosenberger, Marvin Alvarez and Jimmy O’Leary. It seems Tunney began the restaurants, but these guys that make up Besito Mexican Group are taking the idea to more locations, although, nothing about our experience felt like a chain.

I created the below video to illustrate the complete experience of our Besito Mexican tasting tour.  Marvin has a beautiful Latin accent, so I recorded him describing each dish and often telling little stories about the menu item as it was brought to our table:

Diane and I had a very Tinsel & Tine film and food day, as after our tasting tour of Besito, we headed to King of Prussia for a preview screening of Bradley Cooper in BURNT (click for T&T post) in the movie, Cooper’s character Adam Jones says he’s not interested in perfecting a recipe so that it comes out the same exact way each time. In fact, he compares cooking to sex, you want to reach ultimate fulfillment, but you can take different paths to get there.  So what I’m saying is – that’s how Besito felt to me, that you could come back and order the exact same dish another time, but it may be a little different, still delicious, but real cooking, not a formula.

In case you don’t have time to watch the video. We tasted 12 dishes and 3 desserts. The highlights of our tasting tour for me were:

Filete de Res al Chipotle

Besito_Mexican_Costillas al Piquin

Personally, it’s hard for me to find a sweet plantains that I don’t like.  It’s really one of my very favorite side dishes, still, I’d say these definitely receive a 4 Tine rating!

Platanos con Crema

We were sent on our way, not only with left overs, but a little Mexican charm, you put in your pillowcase at night to remove worries. Which you see I’ve taken to heart, or to sleep 🙂