7 Outstanding Oaxacan Restaurants in NYC (2024)

The long-running Mott Haven cafe has many Oaxacan dishes in its repertoire, including an impressive collection of hard-to-prepare moles. Pick from mole verde, mole negro (like mole poblano but darker), mole pipian (made with pumpkin seeds), spicy mole Oaxaqueño, and mole blanco — a nut-driven sauce that achieves an ivory hue. Apart from those, find such distinctive dishes as tlayudas, hand-patted sopes, and stew served in a basalt mortar.

• Open in Google Maps
• Foursquare

This informal, colorfully decorated restaurant, open since 2013 in Corona, specializes in its namesake tlayudas. Sometimes known as Oaxacan pizzas, these giant rounds of masa dough are rolled thin, cooked to near crispness, and topped with ingredients that often include quesillo, black beans, cactus strips, jalapeños, tomato, and avocado — plus meat or poultry. Other good choices include monster tacos placeros, chilaquiles, and enmoladas (mole enchiladas).

• Open in Google Maps
• Foursquare

Like Claro, this restaurant is driven by a wood-fired grill, including many things that are distinctly southern Mexican, if not specifically Oaxacan. The tacos of lamb barbacoa are superb, and the single tlayuda features quesillo, beans, and a salsa with the favorite Oaxacan herb pipicha. It also glistens with lard, another popular component of tlayudas back home.

• Open in Google Maps
• Foursquare

Dark and mysterious, this co*cktail lounge and Mexican restaurant is a Lower East Side staple, with bar food more adventurous than many of its patrons probably want. There are drinks with rims of pulverized grasshoppers, and grasshopper taquitos, too, plus a nice tlayuda. A classic chileajo is made with vegetables instead of pork. Though the mole list is meager, there are plenty of mezcals to make up for it.

• Open in Google Maps
• Foursquare

Claro was one of 2017’s most exciting restaurants, a partly outdoor Mexican bistro near the Gowanus Canal with a wood-fired hearth in which many of the main courses and meats incorporated into the antojitos were roasted, with real Oaxacan flair. The handmade masa cakes called memelas are a specialty, as are a rotating spectrum of moles, including a duck leg in a mole negro and chicken in a mole amarillo. Mezcal and tequila flow freely in the tree-shaded backyard.

• Open in Google Maps
• Foursquare

This Kensington pair of rooms, culminating in a kitchen you can eat in and a backyard, is decorated in a way that makes you feel like you’re in Mexico. But its emphasis on mezcals, presented in all sorts of interesting ways, means that food takes a back seat. Still, there are some great drinking snacks including the bean-stuffed triangles called tetelas, some tlayudas, and wonderful Oaxacan tamales. Try the green pozole, which is technically more Guerreran than Oaxacan.

• Open in Google Maps
• Foursquare

This glossy Mexican restaurant in a former diner is decorated with vividly painted tables and chairs, and presents a southern menu with plenty of Oaxacan choices. The tlayuda is prodigal, as heaped with toppings as it should be, including plenty of avocado and cheese. A fine black mole Oaxaqueño is presented with the usual poached chicken, as well as cecina enchiladas, showing the state’s penchant for dried meats. Another formidable Oaxacan spot, La Placita Mexicana, is located right across the street.

• Open in Google Maps
• Foursquare

The long-running Mott Haven cafe has many Oaxacan dishes in its repertoire, including an impressive collection of hard-to-prepare moles. Pick from mole verde, mole negro (like mole poblano but darker), mole pipian (made with pumpkin seeds), spicy mole Oaxaqueño, and mole blanco — a nut-driven sauce that achieves an ivory hue. Apart from those, find such distinctive dishes as tlayudas, hand-patted sopes, and stew served in a basalt mortar.

• Open in Google Maps
• Foursquare

This informal, colorfully decorated restaurant, open since 2013 in Corona, specializes in its namesake tlayudas. Sometimes known as Oaxacan pizzas, these giant rounds of masa dough are rolled thin, cooked to near crispness, and topped with ingredients that often include quesillo, black beans, cactus strips, jalapeños, tomato, and avocado — plus meat or poultry. Other good choices include monster tacos placeros, chilaquiles, and enmoladas (mole enchiladas).

• Open in Google Maps
• Foursquare

Like Claro, this restaurant is driven by a wood-fired grill, including many things that are distinctly southern Mexican, if not specifically Oaxacan. The tacos of lamb barbacoa are superb, and the single tlayuda features quesillo, beans, and a salsa with the favorite Oaxacan herb pipicha. It also glistens with lard, another popular component of tlayudas back home.

• Open in Google Maps
• Foursquare

Dark and mysterious, this co*cktail lounge and Mexican restaurant is a Lower East Side staple, with bar food more adventurous than many of its patrons probably want. There are drinks with rims of pulverized grasshoppers, and grasshopper taquitos, too, plus a nice tlayuda. A classic chileajo is made with vegetables instead of pork. Though the mole list is meager, there are plenty of mezcals to make up for it.

• Open in Google Maps
• Foursquare

Claro was one of 2017’s most exciting restaurants, a partly outdoor Mexican bistro near the Gowanus Canal with a wood-fired hearth in which many of the main courses and meats incorporated into the antojitos were roasted, with real Oaxacan flair. The handmade masa cakes called memelas are a specialty, as are a rotating spectrum of moles, including a duck leg in a mole negro and chicken in a mole amarillo. Mezcal and tequila flow freely in the tree-shaded backyard.

• Open in Google Maps
• Foursquare

This Kensington pair of rooms, culminating in a kitchen you can eat in and a backyard, is decorated in a way that makes you feel like you’re in Mexico. But its emphasis on mezcals, presented in all sorts of interesting ways, means that food takes a back seat. Still, there are some great drinking snacks including the bean-stuffed triangles called tetelas, some tlayudas, and wonderful Oaxacan tamales. Try the green pozole, which is technically more Guerreran than Oaxacan.

• Open in Google Maps
• Foursquare

This glossy Mexican restaurant in a former diner is decorated with vividly painted tables and chairs, and presents a southern menu with plenty of Oaxacan choices. The tlayuda is prodigal, as heaped with toppings as it should be, including plenty of avocado and cheese. A fine black mole Oaxaqueño is presented with the usual poached chicken, as well as cecina enchiladas, showing the state’s penchant for dried meats. Another formidable Oaxacan spot, La Placita Mexicana, is located right across the street.

• Open in Google Maps
• Foursquare

• Crowd-Pleasing Restaurants for a Group Dinner in NYC
• The Most Fun Restaurants in NYC
• 23 Restaurants That Show Off the Upper West Side