Marvelously complex moles; revived pre-Hispanic recipes; and heirloom corn, beans, and chiles await.
Gastro Obscura’s 10 Essential Places to Eat and Drink in Oaxaca

Located in the village of San Andrés Huayapam about 20 minutes east of the city, this charming indoor-outdoor restaurant serves personal renditions of traditional Oaxacan dishes by chef Micaela Ruiz Martinez, while her son mixes fabulous cocktails with mezcal produced by his family. Try one of the dishes featuring Oaxaca’s edible insects, such as a taco of avocado and deep-fried caterpillars called pochocuiles, or a pork shank braised in a rich spicy sauce that gets its funky umami from winged ants called hormigas.

Mixteca, the rugged northwestern region shared by Oaxaca and the states of Puebla and Guerrero, has a spicy cuisine very different from the city’s sweetened colonial flavors. It’s showcased at this panoramic rooftop spot where chef-owner Olga Cabrera serves such rare Mixtecan dishes as the umami-rich mole del campo involving chapulines (grasshoppers) and chiles costeños, as well as a mole de laurel that she prepares with aromatic Mixtecan bay leaves, fermented fruit, and pasilla chiles. Next to the restaurant she also runs a fabulous bakery and a spot specializing in a pre-Hispanic drink called atole.

In a patio worthy of a magical realist novel, chef-owner Deyanira Aquino serves dishes from her native Istmo de Tehuantepec, the slender finger of land between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean where the cooking is opulent with tropical produce and foreign influences from the region’s past as an important pre-Panama Canal trade route. Don’t miss her majestic estofado de boda, a baroque-tasting “wedding” mole of pulled beef in a mind-bogglingly rich sauce of chiles, apples, plantains, and pineapples that requires hours of continued stirring.  

A meal at chef Celia Florian’s iconic restaurant near the Baroque church of Santo Domingo de Guzman is both a sensual pleasure and an essential primer in Oaxacan flavors. A driving force behind Cocineras Tradicionales de Oaxaca, an association of women who gather to exchange recipes from far-flung communities, Florian is an inspired cook with a preservationist bent renowned for her moles. Her epic mole negro is composed of more than 30 ingredients, including burnt tortillas and chile seeds, plantains and raisins, toasted cacao and cinnamon, and the prized chiles chilhuacles.  

A native of Oaxaca’s remote Sierra Sur region, chef Thalia Barrios is renowned for her food that combines inventive flourishes with deep ethnographic research in traditional villages. From the anthropological part of the menu one can order a complex mole de fiesta thickened with masa and served with crunchy pozole kernels. Dishes like the super-tender requesón (fresh cheese) tamal served with two moles star in the “creativo” side of the menu.  

Opened two years ago by the local chef Rafael Villalobos, who spent three years studying baking in Copenhagen, this is the city’s first bakery to work exclusively with wheat and rye grown in the state of Oaxaca. There’s much creativity in how Villalobos fuses traditions, marrying a Scandinavian cardamom bun, for example, with the orange blossom water-scented Mexican pan de muerto. 

Stewed with avocado leaves or epazote and served over rice, filling tamales or tortas or topping tlayudas, beans are indispensable in Oaxacan cuisine. They shine in this new legume-centric spot near Museo Rufino Tamayo where giant earthenware ollas (pots) hold different bean stews slow-cooked over a wood fire by Sagraria Carvajal, the restaurant’s Zapotec chef. For a dish called “colágeno” she simmers black beans with gelatinous pigs feet until unctuous and collagen-rich—a popular Oaxacan hangover cure. 

The pair of earthenware comal griddles fueled by smoldering oak coals at this cult spot are weathered by use and impart a unique earthy smokiness to its quesadillas, empanadas, and tacos. That primaeval flavor of clay might be one reason why even in this city of endless street stands this one is always surrounded by crowds—including some of Oaxaca’s top chefs waiting their turn. Don’t miss the tacos with crumbly chorizo that’s warmed over coals under the comal.

Located in a residential area east of the historic center, Mercado de la Merced is your perfect market for shopping, gawking, and snacking. It’s both less daunting than the sprawling Central de Abastos and less touristy than the Mercado 20 de Noviembre. Oaxaqueños especially love this market in the morning, often stopping at various fondas (small restaurants) and stalls to seek out particular specialties. 

This remarkable restaurant located inside the family home of chef Jorge León and his mom Doña Elvia on the outskirts of town has all the ingredients of an underground indie hit. A veteran of such haute spots as Pujol in Mexico City, León explores Oaxaca’s complex terroir in his ultra-locavore tasting menus. His fish- and vegetable-forward dishes are inspired by daily jaunts to the massive Abastos market and by his relationships with local sustainable farmers and fishermen. In the mornings his mom prepares epic traditional breakfasts.