Ranking the Top Restaurants in Oaxaca

[@jose-m549]

Great content guys

[@GeorgiaandDavid]

Thanks so much, glad you enjoyed it :)

[@williamwoods2547]

Hola Georgia and David. I'm glad you found my Jalisco comments. That's a relief. Hopefully they will prove to be useful during a future visit. Since you are going to Sayulita in a week or two the notes about the former village may prove to be interesting as an historical curiosity. You must be about ready to leave Tequila if you have not left already. I suppose you will drive to Manzanillo via Ciudad Guzman, Colima, and Tecoman. I drove that route 50 years ago when all of the roads were two lane. The road network within the triangle formed by Guadalajara, Puerto Vallarta and Manzanillo has grown exponentially. In 1967 there weren't many choices. I drove from Guadalajara to Manzanillo via Cocula, Union de Tula, Autlan de Navarro, and Barra de Navidad. This was in the summer, during the rainy season, but I don't remember much rain while I was in the area. Somewhere around the town of La Huerta, before reaching the coast, the trees had grown over the road and formed a green tunnel several hundred yards long. At the end of the dry season the area from Manzanillo to Sayulita looks like a dry scrub forest. At one point I stopped to take a break and look at the vegetation and noticed 100s of small pale blue insects scurrying across the jungle floor. I spent a week at Bahia Cuastecomate, just northeast of Barra de Navidad. There was a little restaurant there, and maybe a few rooms, but I camped instead. There I met three brothers, Ernesto, Antonio and Agapito Romero. Later I visited them in Guadalajara, where they each had a nice house in an upscale neighborhood. Agapito had a daughter in the university in Guadalajara. Ernesto and Antonio brought six of their 25 sons with them on the campout. If you want a dozen sons you had better hurry up : ). Occasionally they invited me to eat with them. The chilaquiles they cooked over an open fire were great. Chilaquiles is a good campout meal, since tortillas go stale without refrigeration, and it an efficient way to use them up. In 1969 I stopped in Guadalajara to visit the Romero brothers and discovered that Agapito had been killed the year before in a traffic accident. Ernesto and Antonio were on the way to Lake Chapala to clean up their little five acre ranch on the lake prior to selling it so Agapito's widow would have a little income. They invited me to join them and while we were there we enlarged the goat pen and when the goats were let out of the smaller section they headed for the flower pots and devoured all of the flowers. Then they broke up the flower pots and ate them. Every last shard. Amazing. I spent a little time at Barra de Navidad. There was a restaurant or two, and at least one small hotel. The beach had a shore break, typical of most of the beaches around Manzanillo (the beaches have a sharp drop off, causing the waves to well up and break right on the shore, I didn't visit every beach, just the ones I wanted to dive at, so some beaches may be better for wading and swimming. I also spent time at La Audiencia, a little cove near Las Hadas, site of a luxury resort (I think the movie "10" with Bo Derek was filmed there). In 1967 Las Hadas was still a little hotel. La Audiencia had a good trailer park. I don't remember much about Manzanillo itself, but I know it is huge compared to 55 years ago. Most of the beaches north of Manzanillo were usually empty or sparsely occupied. Recently I saw a video of the beaches north of Manzanillo and the coast is crowded with resorts. Oh well. In 1971 I was able to drive from Puerto Villarta to Manzanillo on the new coast road. It did not extend south of Tecoman. In 1969 I tried to drive south of Puerto Vallarta, but south of Mismaloya, every two to three miles, there was a 75-150 foot wide river to ford. I managed two or three in my car, but then the drive wheel of my car found the only hole in the next river bed and my car bottomed out and I was stuck in a foot of water. Fortunately I had a tow chain and there was a road grader working on the far side of the river. He was willing to yank me out of the river but then I was on the wrong side of the river to get back to Sayulita. The next hour was spent carrying rocks out to the middle of the river and filling the hole. I did get back ok. It is all civilized and developed now, so you shouldn't have any trouble. North of the Rio Ameca, which constitutes the north edge of Puerto Vallarta, the land was sparsely developed and there were a few trailer parks where i could camp for about 25 pesos a night. I've talked about Sayulita and Punta Mita in my previous comment. There wasn't much between Puerto Vallarta and Sayulita other than jungle, and further north there was very little before reaching Rincon de Guayabitos, a small town with a trailer park, a couple of hotels and restaurants, plus residences, and a lot of graffiti inviting "yanquis" to go home. I suspect every foot of the Nayarit coast has been developed by now. Happy trails. Stay well.

[@GeorgiaandDavid]

We made the drive to Manzanillo yesterday. We did enjoy visiting the Guachimontones right before we left. It's amazing how great the roads and infrastructure are now but I can see why. The tolls in this part of Mexico are so high we spent over $800 pesos just to get to and from one pueblo mágico 2hours away!

[@williamwoods2547]

@@GeorgiaandDavid $800 pesos! Good grief. At this rate you may have to start eating street food. Tacos de cabeza, anyone?

[@williamwoods2547]

Hola Georgia and David. Well done. This was interesting. Unrecognizable but interesting. I don't think anything comparable to these restaurants existed when I last visited Oaxaca more than 40 years ago. For me quesadillas from a small hotel restaurant were a treat. Of course the price was probably 35-40 pesos. The food looks delicious even if it is out of my reach (unless I'm willing to spend a long weekend in Mexico, rather than a couple of months). By the way, did David keep the little molinillo that came with his margarita? My collection of 40 molinillos doesn't include that one. Molinillos are a cheap item to collect and can be rather elaborate, and 40-55 years ago they averaged about five pesos each. Really nice molinillos are still relatively cheap in Mexico, comparatively pricey in the US. Happy travels.

[@GeorgiaandDavid]

The food in Oaxaca and in San Miguel de Allende was some of the fanciest and most expensive that we have experienced in Mexico. We enjoyed it but we're glad our next stop was Pachuca where prices were much more reasonable. He didn't keep the molinillo. It would have made a good souvenir though.

[@gimmedavidb]

Many travel websites and videos claim that Oaxaca has at least 7 different types of moles. I am in Oaxaca now, and the restaurants in the public markets have maybe only 3 types of moles. Do you think it is worth paying more money to try all 7 moles at more expensive restaurants?

[@GeorgiaandDavid]

We definitely recommend Restaurante Coronita, they have a reasonably priced sampler of all seven varieties. We loved it so much we went there twice. maps.app.goo.gl/up88WU2Xq5fELPD19

[@Catsandnature-1234]

everything looks too good.

[@GeorgiaandDavid]

The food in Oaxaca is amazing!