Huniik

Roberto Solís runs twelve courses of Yucatecan cooking off an open pass, aguachile through pibil lamb to a habanero xe'ec. He took a star in the guide's first Yucatán year, on Calle 60 at Parque Santa Ana.

Why go

Huniik means unique spirit in Mayan, and Roberto Solís opened it in 2019 with sixteen seats.1 3 He cooked at Noma, at Per Se, at The Fat Duck and at Les Créations in Tokyo before he came home, and Yucatán Magazine calls him the most prominent figure in the nueva cocina yucateca, Maya tradition and a local larder put through contemporary technique.1 3 His older room, Néctar, opened in 2003.1

Solís is the dean of fine dining in Mérida, and this room was not always full. Rodrigo Caltenco Núñez arrived in 2022 to help with a New Year's service at Nectar, Solís's casual place, when Huniik was struggling to draw an audience.5 Caltenco: We made a very clear decision: our goal wasn't to work for money, but to take the restaurant as far as possible.5 The Cuban artist Jorge Pardo designed the space, stone walls around a broad wooden counter at the back where you watch the plating.5 Five people run the floor for twelve courses.5 Caltenco treats it as staging: There's a script ready, the ingredients are prepared and everyone knows when to enter.5 The cooking runs on the state's own larder, much of it from organic farms nearby.4

Order this / avoid

Order: the tasting menu, because it is the only thing on.5
Order this within it: the crisped pork belly with ta'uch, the local black sapote, and the xe'ec, a holiday citrus salad the kitchen sharpens with habanero.4
Avoid: booking it as a quick dinner. The service starts at the door with rose-infused water for your hands, which is also how they tell you that you will be eating with them.5

What locals & experts say

The MICHELIN Guide Inspectors, One Star, 2026: Skillful technique and a clear sense of identity make for a meal that is both compelling and memorable. Their dish notes name an aguachile of lightly cured shrimp and lamb chops cooked pibil-style.4
Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants placed it 32nd in 2025, and its guide describes a plate to expect: a dollop of mushroom ice cream atop a bed of spicy foam, then finished with a mushroom crisp.1
Jessica Ruiz Rubio, Diario de Yucatán (21 May 2026), on the night the state got its first stars: "No hubo grandes sorpresas y las predicciones se cumplieron" (There were no great surprises and the predictions came true. Our translation.) Solís was the night's biggest winner.2
Rodrigo Caltenco Núñez, front of house chief, on what the open kitchen gives away: Fine dining is often perceived as perfection, order and precision, but when you see the open kitchen, something more natural also emerges: the smoke, the movement, the chef's passion for cooking, the team's concentration and the energy of the service.5

Good to know

The star is new and so is the state. The 2026 selection was the first to cover Yucatán, and Huniik is marked NEW on its roster.6
The Service Award is Caltenco's, not the restaurant's. He took the 2026 MICHELIN Guide Mexico Service Award, sponsored by Mestres.5
Solís runs four doors in this city, all of them around Parque Santa Ana or near it. Huniik and La Barra de Huniik both hold 2026 stars, Néctar is the casual one and is listed Recommended, and Taquerías Kisín is his taco project, built on a pastor negro spiced with recado negro.6 2
La Barra de Huniik is at the same address and is not the same meal. It runs as an omakase counter built on native corn varieties.3
The tasting menu starts at $150, which is what 50 Best Discovery publishes.1
Book direct. The restaurant manages its own reservations.4

Verdict

must-visit — Yucatán entered the MICHELIN Guide in 2026 and this kitchen took a star in the same breath, which is a harder thing to do than retaining one. The 2026 Service Award beside the star is Rodrigo Caltenco Núñez's rather than the restaurant's, for how he explains the region at the table. I have not found a Mexican critic who has written this room up. Five people serve twelve courses in a room Solís was struggling to fill in 2022.

Huniik.