Michelin says the young chef at Oaxaca’s Tika’aya brings a refined flair to indigenous Mixtecan dishes and that they wouldn’t be out of place in far ritzier settings. Mexico’s amazing cuisine leans heavily on Mixteca traditions and the Oaxaca region is the gastronomic epicentre of the country.
I’m wondering if we experienced the Michelin effect since it arrived in 2024. Five years ago, a Yelp post showed the seven course menu was $35 (US) per person. We paid $124 C per person for the same number of courses, before tip and drinks. The extremely dark, rustic room made it difficult to see what was on the plate. I needed a camera light to capture images of what we ate.
The dishes were complex, creative, and tweezered into place à la international tasting menu style, and not remotely ‘indigenous’ aside from some ingredients. Flavours blurred and courses felt repetitive. Except for the one served with a burning piece of charcoal meant to smoke the food but came right for me instead.
There was a table of six and us, otherwise pretty quiet.
#oaxaca #miztecacuisine Less