Tika'aya — Restaurant in Oaxaca

CASH ONLY. $950 pesos per person. Hands down this is ONE OF OUR FAVORITE RESTAURANTS IN THE ENTIRE WORLD.

Chef Toño Garcia clearly has an advanced flavor palate that he combines with his training and unique skill set.

Our water was infused with yerba sante and poleo. This set the tone for the meal as most of the dishes seemed to spiral around the unique bittermint flavor of the poleo. We were given a delicious salsa de cacahuate (peanut sauce) with warm tostadas.

Our first course was a plantain confit with smoked sausage (for the vegetarian version I had it was smoked cauliflower), stewed beet slice, poleo cream, dry cheese and quintaniles salad. It was an enchanting symphony.

We then had a tejate (traditional maize ahnd cacao) that was served chilled with a thick foam on top created from all the whipping action.

As a second course, we had pumpkin seed & broccoli mole, carrot confit, roasted pumpkin, beets in embers, cottage cheese, Jamaican onions and fried parsley. We were fascinated with the dish and it felt like we were explorers on the plate.

After this, we dined on potato and huitlacoche gnocchi, clam chowder, istmeño cheese and purslane. This dish hid purple colored gnocchi inside a perfectly seasoned chowder and had mind-blowing flavors.

After the gnocchi, we were brought another drink, a ferment made with tuna (prickly pear fruit) and poleo. It was a tepache style beverage, in line with the traditional, prehispanic fermented beverages found in the area. It was AWESOME.

Our fourth course was a tlayudita of blue maiz, ancient seeds, conejo herb (Cynoglossum officinale), smoked cheese, dried mushrooms and sweetened seasonal mushrooms, lettuces, radish and guacachile (creamy serrano salsa). Wow. Wow. Wow.

The tlayudita (mini tlayuda) at Tika'aya came in a vegetarian version for us - made with mushrooms and epically seasoned beans. The herb de conejo (often called Indian paintbrush) induced a memory of the desert, the rural areas….the addition of this herb to the beans was like a connection in time and place to the region. It honors the region. It was genius.

Our fifth course was creamy rice, squash flower chimichurri (parsley/garlic/olive oil/oregano sauce), cauliflower salsa, octopus in chili marinade, petite salad, aioli of chintextle (pasilla chili paste made on a volcanic rock) and a puree of chichorro ("Spanish mackerel). The presentation was gorgeous and the balance of flavors makes the heart sing. If only this chef could teach our politicians a thing or two about balance.

Prior to dessert, we were brought a palate cleanser - a glass with a tuna (prickly pear fruit) granita, stalk of coconut gelly, fruit jellies, dried raspberry and other fruits and our server poured an infusion of orange, guava and poleo poured over it. The infusions and ferments here are seriously breathtaking. If you take a moment to feel these in your body, it’s otherworldly.

Our dessert was a camote morado y manzana, chocolate arriba de flor with cardamom. It came to us on a basket of stones. Inside, three layers with very different textures.

The food here is epic and well worth the cost. Criollo is around $1900 and Pujol is around $2500 pesos. We ate at all three restaurants in the same week and Tika’aya was by far the best, most mind-blowing combination of flavors that seemed to bring us right into the Oaxaca countryside on a rainbow carriage with sparkle fireworks.

There are a few areas where some minor fixes could be had. It would be nice if the menu were written out for folks to see. There is a white board in the kitchen - perhaps moving this into the dining area. It doesn’t need to be a printed menu by any means, as clearly this is a labor of love and spontaneous creative process isn’t always able to be written and printed ahead of time. But a chalkboard or white board would be awesome.

-Bex and Das from...

How do you torture a hungry person who has been saving his appetite for a great meal? Give him three or four bites of food and then make him wait ten minutes, repeatedly. Seriously, only eat in this place if you can fill your stomach half with food and half with pretension. I don't understand the number of five star reviews of this place. Either we caught them on a very, very off night, or this is the most blatant example of foodie culture run amok that I have ever seen.

The food itself was good but not great. It was clearly carefully prepared and artfully presented, and the staff was proactive about asking about food allergies, which was important for someone at my table. But of the 8-10 tiny courses we were served, not a single one wowed me the way the food at some other restaurants in Oaxaca have. Besides the portions being tiny, there was no meat other than one small piece of fish on a tostada. We were also never offered anything to drink besides water, and the waiter never checked in with us, even though it should have been apparent from one look at us that we were not enjoying our experience. When the check finally came, we were told that they did not accept credit cards, and we were left scrambling to put together enough cash to cover the hefty bill (1050 pesos a person).

We left still feeling like we needed a full meal. Luckily we were able to get some street tacos nearby, which were dramatically better than anything I ate at Tika'aya and cost...

I loved the experience and the place, to be sure. Teocintle is beautiful, and I very much appreciate what the chef is doing. The food was gorgeously presented and was incredibly unique. I honestly had tastes I'd never had before. The broth in that soup was so complex and tasty, and I loved how vegetable-forward and creative everything was. That said....I do think it was quite overpriced for the tiny servings, and while I appreciate the inventive take on indigenous food, I don't think it needs to be manipulated that much. I think Oaxacan, and indigenous, food stands alone in its beauty and deliciousness. I prefer the traditional preparations. Most everything was delicious here (though I found the mole with the tamale fairly bland, my least favorite mole I ate the entire week). I enjoyed the experience at Teocintle, and I'd love to go do it a couple of times a year. That said, I'd go back again and again to the food we had in the market, at a simple taqueria, and at simple restaurants. I would eat those over and over, they were my favorite dishes of the trip - and while the food at Teocintle was beautiful and inventive, I wouldn't want to eat it everyday. I'd eat the tacos and pozole we had last night at a simple place (we ordered BOATLOADS of food and it was less than $8), the mole and chile relleno at 20 de Noviembre mercado, and the indigenous food at El Son Istmeno, before I would want to eat the food at...