It was November and, in November, Don Day’s Canadian friend Peter goes deer hunting. And in November, Don Day’s Wife always has the same message for Peter, “Don’t let the butcher trash those shanks; bring ’em on home to me.”

This November, Peter was in Canada, we were in San Miguel de Allende, so I was thinking there’d be no venison. I thought wrong. San Miguel restaurant Casa Nostra had it on their seasonal menu.

The restaurant had already been on my must go again soon list. Casa Nostra recently received a number of accolades including the Best Of The Best award from Trip Advisor and I wanted to congratulate chef/owner Marco Massarotti on his achievements. 

I emailed our friends Mark Tamiso and Monique Ethier-Yates to ask if they’d join us and we were on.

Dinner starts at Casa Nostra with an amuse-bouche, that whet-the-appetite, palate-teaser that’s a fixture in high-end French restaurants.

At Casa Nostra, there are actually two amuse-bouche, a little cup of potato and corn soup that’s oh so rich and oh so good and a fruit water that is perfect for washing it down.

Casa Nostra has added a new wine list since I was there, featuring the Mexican wines that appear in this year’s Guia Peñin. It’s impressive. And testimony to the rapid advancements that have been made in the Mexican viniculture industry. But I couldn’t help it. I gave my usual comment to Chef Marco about Mexican wines being pricey and told him the almost true tale about us being aged retirees living on government pensions.

Marco found us a local Sauvignon Blanc/Semillon that still had only three figures on its price tag.

Casa-Anza reminded me of the whites from the western end of France’s Loire Valley. It was a fond memory.

Presentation is becoming almost as important as taste in restaurants these days and Casa Nostra has followed the trend to dark surfaces. White used to be the unanimous choice as the background color for the fine art that is placed on plates. These days the color del dia is black. I think it was the only subject we disagreed about during the whole dinner. Mark thought that the dark plates did not do the food presentation justice. Monique agreed. I didn’t.

It was black on black with the roast garlic. I used to think that colored garlic was strictly a gimmick but topped on the aioli and toast, I found it so much sweeter than the traditional white.

The dish will stay on the menu, Marco told me “as long as I can get more black garlic”.

It was time for the venison. Deer is reasonably common in the state of Jalisco but rarely, if ever, seen in central Mexico. Shanks would have been Don Day’s Wife’s favorite cut but we’ve never ever seen shanks on a menu, in Mexico or anywhere else in the world. We decided what better way to show off the flavor of the deer than by choosing the carpaccio. You get a little chew when you eat your meat raw but the flavor of the venison comes leaping through. Plaudits to the kitchen for positioning the deer around a full of flavor melange of mushrooms.

Casa Nostra is situated on three floors of an elegant 19th Century home that Marco Massarotti has taken one level higher with his careful and considerate renovation. The top two floors have some of the town’s most magnificent views to the west and their evening sunsets can become an event.

Sunset also signaled the move to a vino tinto and the restaurant recommended another Mexican, a Zinfadel/Petit Verdot blend that barely bruised our $1000 limit. Our friend Mark used to bottle his own Petit Verdot in his days as a chef in the Napa Valley so his nod of approval was especially meaningful.

Chef Marco was talking about… no making a big fuss about…a new pasta dish with the rare pairing of a French cheese with pasta. The cheese was brie and, in our opinion, in two words or less: It worked as, not unexpectedly, did the crowning glory of black truffles.

Plaudits here to Casa Nostra’s presentation and doming (think that’s a word) their dishes wherever possible. It not only keeps the food warm but adds a wonderful element of drama as the lid is lifted.

Almost every restaurant has its signature dish and, more and more, at Casa Nostra, the Cinghiale de Jalisco is becoming the bold and underlined signature dish among the mains.

Cinghiale is the Italian word for wild boar and Marco (who Mark called knowledgeable, enthusiastic and unpretentious… ¨a gentleman chef¨), told us the pigs are organically raised and free-pastured in a forested area then slaughtered young, at about 12-18 months.

The meat is especially tender and rich in taste. It spends ten hours in a marinade and then it’s stewed for four hours and topped with mushrooms, bacon, croutons and pearl onions. The side of spaetzle was a welcome change from the more common rice or potatoes.

Dessert was another off-menu item that definitely belongs on the permanent one. I’m especially fond of poached pears but had never had one quite like Casa Nostra’s. The melted gorgonzola and mascarpone, slivered almonds and sprigs of thyme melded beautifully with the fruit.

It was a fitting finale to another fine feast at the restaurant. There’s good reason why, when I looked today, I found Casa Nostra at number one on Trip Advisor and number one on Restaurant Guru. They deserve it.

They say God is in the details. Mark, being a professional chef, agrees and notices things we mere mortals would not, from the professional old-school service, to the European flair and the cornucopia of flavours in each of the courses. Not to mention the individual hand towels in the bathroom.

It was Mark’s partner Monique’s initial visit to Casa Nostra. I’ll let her have the final words.

“For me, Casa Nostra ticked all the boxes. First, the genuinely warm welcome. The setting was lovely and soothing, like walking into a hug. The service was perfectly attentive and friendly, without being obsequious.”

“The food made my taste buds sing; everything was fresh, the flavour profiles hit the mark and the pacing of the meal was perfect. And the finale! I must find a way to wheedle the secret of that poached pear dessert from chef Marco.”

“As we left, Marco told us that for him, this was like having people for dinner in his house. Casa Nostra indeed.”

Casa Nostra is located at Terraplén #8 in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. The restaurant is open Wednesday and Thursday from 6:00 to 10:00 pm, Friday and Saturday from 2:00 to 11:00 pm, Sunday from 1:30 to 8:00 pm.