let these guides be just a starting point…follow your senses and try a little bit of everything…be kind, remembering you are but a visitor here

If Mexico City is the bustling, at times overwhelming, modernized and cutting edge destination in the country, Oaxaca is its slower, methodical counterpart, one of those cities like Cusco or Cuenca or Kyoto that are sought out because they offer a glimpse into traditions and customs centuries old. The danger, from a tourist’s perspective, in cities like these is you can find a city determined to distill this traditional experience into a neat and simple package, in part keeping you from experiencing much beyond this, and more importantly preventing your money from going where it should: to the artisans, the family-run establishments, the restaurants preserving age old techniques and using local ingredients. Wandering around Oaxaca Centro will mean countless larger restaurants begging for your patronage, presenting menus to you while you walk by or advertising tours you might take. It’s not that all of these are bad—there’s a few of these spots listed in this guide—it’s just that it can be hard to know where to turn to find places operating with heart and soul. Hopefully, this list can offer some ideas.

Better yet, look into these tour guides listed below who live in Oaxaca and know the area far better than I do. They offer tours that connect you with artisans both inside and outside of the city—food, mezcal, art, flowers, and more.

One final note: I’d highly encourage you to go to towns outside of the city limits, where the real heartbeat of the region’s arts and crafts resides. Just a few ideas for you–Tlacolula for the big Sunday market, where you can find the most amazing barbacoa; nearby Teotitlan for textiles (look up Niviet Ru Zaa on Instagram, and get in touch with them about a visit. They are a Zapotec family making the most remarkable textiles from all natural dyes, and plan to open a restaurant this year); Santa Catarina Minas for mezcal, mezcal, mezcal (set up a tour at Lalo Cura, maybe Rolando & Angeles as well, stagger over to La Descendencia). Everything is accessible through colectivos, if you want an adventure, but taxis or renting a car will get you there too.

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Local Guides & Tours:

Indigenous woman led sustainable travel company. I highly, highly recommend her expertise: https://www.facebook.com/Lilythezapotectraveler/

Food and mezcal specific tours led by a Oaxacan man who lived in L.A. before returning home to Mexico: https://www.oaxacking.com/

A mezcal primer, in podcast form. Setting up a mezcal tasting at Neta is a good idea anyway if you really want to learn your stuff, and Niki and her business partner Max can put you in touch with some folks who can take you on palenque visits: https://open.spotify.com/show/2e3s2A5hJhASAMwwyvRfpT

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Memelas de Doña Gloria: Everyone in Oaxaca has a famous spot for memelas (tortillas cooked in a lil lard or oil on a comal, slathered with a black bean paste, and topped with cheese or egg), and here’s mine: this tiny little restaurant that you’ll likely walk right by without noticing the first time, tucked away under a staircase on Panoramica del Fortin. Look for the smoke billowing up from a hole in the ceiling, descend the stairs, and enter. Doña Gloria is a remarkable older woman who has been making tortillas daily for the community for most of her life, and will make a memela for anyone who stops by. Try one or two with an egg on top for a full breakfast, be wary of the spicy salsa (very spicy, remarkably similar to sambal oelek), and wash it all down with an atole de panela. 

Labo Fermento: A project that feels like it should be a big deal, only it’s in Oaxaca instead of Mexico City, and only opened in the last couple of years. As the name implies, the bulk of the space is devoted to a fermentation lab, specializing in misos, soy sauces, and garums made from a wide variety of mexican ingredients (think masa miso and soy sauce from black beans). You can purchase these at the store, but you’d be missing out if you didn’t sit down for lunch or dinner too. It’s a complex and deeply satisfying meal, hitting a wide variety of flavors and textures, and can be a refreshing break from your usual meals in Mexico. Don’t miss out on the drinks, which are curated by my friends Diego and Jorge with the same amount of intention and care that goes into the food. I happened to intern at this place for a month. Please say hi to them all for me!

Alfonsina: Look this up on the map and you’ll be confused: it’s about 20 minutes outside of the city, closer to the airport. Alfonsina is in fact located at the chef’s home, where he, a former chef at Puyol, and his mother craft remarkable tasting menus from scratch daily. Here, traditional Oaxacan preparations like sumptuous moles and squash soups meet creative interpretations and tight, composed plating. I’ve been for dinner, and hear the breakfasts–a bit more traditional–can be even better.

Cocina de Humo: If you’re going to eat one fancier meal in Oaxaca, make it this one. I found the experience revelatory, radical, life-giving; a reminder of why we cook and why we eat. It’s a largely women-run kitchen led by Thalia Garcia, cooking food from her own line of matriarchal ancestry in rural Oaxaca. You sit at what you might call the chef’s counter, which is to say you sit at once side, and one or two of the chefs are cooking everything on the comal in front of you, like fresh tortillas, ridiculously good tamales, and bubbling stews in cazuelas. The front two rooms of the restaurant are a pottery store that sells simple, gorgeous work from nearby towns. At least, that’s how it all was at their old space. They are moving locations as I write this–please go and report back!

Levadura de Olla: the less upscale, but still quite polished, sister restaurant of Cocina de Huma. Food here is a la carte, and you can find a wide variety of moles, tamales, soups, and more, prepared in both traditional and modern ways. Everything is fantastic. Try the squash tamale with chintextle, like eating savory pumpkin pie filling in a banana leaf. 

Las Quince Letras: You’re going to find a lot of restaurants like this in Oaxaca, promising a taste of the authentic, traditional Oaxaca, distilled for you in an upscale setting. While it can be a bit of a contrived experience, it also can be a fantastic way to try a wide variety of moles and more. Best amongst these places, in my experience, is Las Quince Letras, where the moles, atoles, tlayudas, and more are always top-notch. 

Empanadas del Carmen: My favorite street food option in Centro. These women open their stall in the morning and cook a wide variety of delicious Oaxacan specialties until they sell out, usually around 2 or 3pm. Try the Empanada de Amarillo, but take it slow: the molten mole in the middle of the giant tortilla comes off the comal as something of a molten lava. The quesadillas de flor, or the chicken tinga, or the champinones (mushrooms) are also all phenomenal. Everything here is. 

Selva: a sleek, cozy bar crafting up wildly good cocktails from a variety of local ingredients. Masterful.

El Destilado: Another magnificent bar in Centro, this one sporting one of the best mezcal selections you’ll find anywhere, and some creative food to match. Try a few different mezcals from 5 Sentidos, a collective of palenques across Oaxaca and Puebla that make the distilled beverage with, as their names implies, their 5 senses and little more. One of the Ensembles (many plants in one distillation) are a complex but easy drinking mezcal to start with; if you want to try something really wild, opt for the Sierra Negro de Cuero, cuero meaning it sits in cowskin, or the Pechuga de Mole Negro, which incorporates the flavors of the famous mole into the distillation.

Almu: This indigenous-run breakfast and lunch spot used to only have a location a ways outside of the city, and I plotted a wide variety of ways to get there. Thankfully for me, and for you, they’ve opened up a second location within the city walls, that serves up all the same moles, quesadillas, pan dulces, and more. It’s always a good sign to see bubbling pots of moles, stews, and more as you enter somewhere, and here they have many; bring some friends, as you’re going to want to try them all. 

Lechoncito de Oro: Oaxaca is not a taco destination in the way other parts of Mexico are, but this late night taco truck stands out as a stunner. Your options are pig, pig, and more pig: try the pierna in taco form or in a torta, or try it mixed with some silly good chicharron, in, again, taco or torta form. That’s it; those are your options. You can’t go wrong.

Boulenc & Pan con Madre: 2 great bakery options, Boulenc being the full service restaurant with a wide variety of options, as well as just a bakery counter next to it, and Pan con Madre being a smaller operation that makes terrific french pastry and bread. 

Terno: I’m no coffee head, but the coffee heads of Oaxaca have gathered together in their coffee-loving ways and conferred and declared this spot to be the place to go. A young man, a prodigious kid, they call him, trying all sorts of wild fermentation on Oaxacan beans, crafting up the cups you dream about. Is that what coffee heads say?