Don Crudelio Huatulco — Restaurant in Oaxaca

This place is fantastic. I don’t normally drink micheladas because they often just taste like beer and tomato juice to me but I decided to try one while we waited for our food and I was blown away. A perfect combination of briny, earthy, sweetness with just a hint of tomato. This is now my ideal Michelada. And that was only the beginning.

I ordered an Octopus taco and Taco güero, which is a mild chile filled with cheese and shrimp and wrapped in bacon. Any food that’s bacon-wrapped, to an American, seems a little overdone, but it was delicious. The bacon is sliced almost prosciutto-thin and the filling blends so well with the rest of the taco you can’t exactly distinguish what you’re eating, only that it’s a little salty, a little spicy, a little sweet from the shrimp and the sauce. It’s good.

The octopus taco also did not disappoint: quickly seared tentacles in a pile of toasted garlic and sweet chile slices. The meat is tender and sauce piped(!) around the fresh tortilla provides a slight tanginess to balance the filling.

Our party also ordered Aguachile, a ceviche-style dish, and Coconut Shrimp (tastes like shrimp wrapped in a delicious coconut-amaranth granola, served over lemon-rice -It may be great if you like coconut shrimp).

Everything was perfectly seasoned and they do not ignore the presentation, which is beyond what I expect for $200...

Update April 2025

Our second visit, my wife had a drink called the Velvet which included a show… fire and smoke. I had a classic Margarita. 100 pesos here for a Margarita and very good. I also got a bottle of water for the table. Our server brought us two little bowls of fish broth that we think we were to drink....we passed on these. My wife had the coconut shrimp again which she enjoyed. I had the marinated grilled fish and vegetables/salad which was also very good. We both had the Key Lime pie, a different version from the usual. The top was not the usual meringue but a hard meringue instead. Very tasty. The bill came to 1020.

Party of 6. Drink prices are reasonable White wine offered was fine. Coconut shrimp rather dry.Tacos gobernador were good. Very novel presentations of entrées. FYI: not able to split bill amongst couples....

This was such a wonderful dining experience, tucked away in a neighborhood, super cute! Truly a hidden gem and restaurant that is putting out some pretty great dishes in a lovely, but small space. Cocktails, too! Best classic margaritas of our trip for sure! All our food ordered was definitely next level in flavor and seasoning, and we were even visited by the chef at the end of our meal to ask about our experience. It was lovely to chat with him and his inspiration for the dishes. FYI we only had to wait a few moments to be seated, but next time we would make reservations to be sure we were able to get a table as they did get busy as the night went by on...