More stories with dinner at Sublime in Guatemala City

When researching places to eat in Guatemala City, I was pleasantly surprised at how many restaurants were in the World’s 50 Best Discovery Lists. This indicated to me that the country continued the trend I had experienced throughout most of South and Central America of amazing food. Two in particular which stand out are Panama and Peru. I was hoping, given the number of restaurants receiving accolades, that the food in Guatemala, both high end and local, would be on this level. Unfortunately, while the food was good, I did not find it at that same level. Today’s post is about another restaurant I found using the World’s 50 Best Discovery List. Its called Sublime. In 2024, it ranked as the best resturant in Guatemala, and the 22nd best in Latin America. A couple days ago, I wrote about Flor De Lis, and the storytelling of the proud Mayan history which accompanied each dish. Sublime was very similar, and apparently, the head chef used to be the sous chef at Flor de Lis.

Venue wise, both are modern, but Sublime is larger and more vibey. In fact, connected to it is a bar on the World’s 50 Best list called Cocktail Lobby which we checked out after dinner.

Anyway, the meal started with a presentation of the menu, including a map of Guatemala. Apparently, the meal would serve dishes starting from Archaic times to the present, in 12 courses.

To start, a smoked corn soup which signaled the importance of the crop to the region, going back more than 8,000 years. Corn is one of my favorite things to eat in all forms and this did not disapppoint.

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Next, some of the raw ingredients to be used in the night’s meal was presented tableside:

The first dish after that was a crisp meant to symbolize the bridge which connects the city of Flores to the rest of the country. This immediately resonated with me as our first entry into Guatemala had been to Flores. I will post more about that on a later date. The fish on the crisp was fresh and well prepared.

Next was a dish with a vegetable sauce which was SO savory:

This was followed by an oyster mushroom stuffed with turkey which I thought was a nice touch. The char on the mushroom was a really nice touch to the dish.

This was followed by four dishes that I did not really take much notes on.

Before dessert, a palate cleanser was served which I did not find well balanced in flavor:

Then a donut:

…then a very unique presentation of the main dessert:

While it was creative and and fun, the taste itself was just OK. There were various ice creams but vegetable flavors and more like icy sorbets. A cocktail was served at the end which I found to be not well balanced also, but very unique in presentation.

Overall service was good and the pace of the meal was well executed. While I enjoyed the storytelling, I found that sometimes, they tried a bit too hard to relate each dish to the story. I wouldn’t go back for the same reason as I would not go back to Flor de Lis; they are, to me, an “experience once” type of venue. I would recommend someone to experience at least one though, and if I had to pick, I’d probably pick Flor de Lis. If someone couldn’t get an RSVP there, then I would say you can’t go wrong with Sublime either. Plus, you have the cocktail bar next door to continue the evening.