When we visited Oaxaca in July 2017 we came away with the thought that it was one of the greatest food cities we had ever visited; particularly in Mexico. We considered the meal we had then at Casa Oaxaca to be one of the 5-favorite meals of our lives. We couldn’t wait to get back.
Maybe it was one of those cases where our romanticized memory of our meal at Casa Oaxaca was impossible to match or something else but to make a long story short; we were extremely disappointed with our meal there on this trip. Nothing was really “bad” but starting with the service and including several of the dishes we ordered; it just wasn’t nearly as good as we remembered it. All-in-all, I would rate this 2nd visit as no better than “average”, especially in view of the price of the meal. If this had been the first time we had ever been to Casa Oaxaca, I’m not sure we would be very eager to ever return. But the memory of that first meal is still so positive that we’ll probably give it another shot on our next visit to Oaxaca.
One of the well regarded restaurants that we did not visit on the first visit to Oxaca was Los Danzantes. It is in the same general area of the city as Casa Oaxaca. Entry is through a doorway and foyer shared with several shops at Calle Macedonio Alcala No. 403 in the block just before the Temple of Santo Domingo de Guzman.
The room was not as large as expected but it is a beautiful setting for a meal. We noticed lots of up front and wait staff. We were happy with our table placement and the service was excellent. I was pleased to be served a very decent cabernet sauvignon by the glass for a reasonable price.
We shared 2 entrees: Seared tuna was served with 2 sauces…both very good (but we would have enjoyed more of the sauces) and a sweet potato puree. It was a very light sear; just north of sushi. On the menu the other dish was listed as “candied pork chops”. To our surprise the sauce was not sweet. It wasn’t bad just not what we were expecting. It was actually more of a (very nice) black mole with potatoes. But the best thing we ate that night was a very light goat cheese cake for dessert. While expensive for Mexico, considering the meal, the price wasn’t bad at all.
As we had in 2017 we enjoyed several meals at Roy’s Tacos located right across the street from our hotel (Casona Oaxaca). We were as pleased as we had been on previous visits with the tacos al pastor, chuleta con queso and a vegetarian dish and we made good use of the nice assortment of salsas and pickled vegetables that were served gratis with the meal. And a meal at Roy’s wouldn’t be complete without Pan de Elote (Mexican corn bread) for dessert.
Our favorite new restaurant of this visit was Boulenc Café. This not a totally vegetarian restaurant but there are lots of vegetarian options. The breads produced in-house were all terrific especially the sour dough, which was on par with the best we can get back home.
This is a moderately priced really cute place with a cool vibe. We live in a university community and we felt right at home there.
We shared a lunch there of soup, salad and sandwich but they are also known for breakfast, dinner and late night. After lunch service they fire up their pizza oven, which also gets good marks.
Boulenc Café is located at Porfirio Diaz #207 between Morelos and Matamoros, which places it 3-4 blocks north of and 1 block over from the Zócalo.