By Joan Gordon
Oaxaca Kitchen
228 College St., New Haven, (203) 859-5774
Hours: Lunch, 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Monday-Saturday. Dinner, 5 p.m.-9:30 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 5 p.m.-10:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 4 p.m.-9 p.m. Sunday. Brunch, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Sunday.
Prices (same for lunch and dinner): Starters $4-$12; entrées $13-$22; desserts $6-$7.
Amenities: Major credit cards accepted. Wheelchair accessible (street and bar level tables only). Reservations suggested on weekends, including brunch.
Price: $-$
Rating: Four out of four stars.
In a nutshell: Fresh and inventive. Some of the best Oaxacan and Mexican fare to be had in the state. We loved it all, from the guacamole, gazpacho, crab cake, buffalo burger and sea bass to the ultimate tres leches cake.
Five intense foodies recently gathered in New Haven to sample the fare at the newly opened Oaxaca Kitchen. Mexican food fans all, we were eager to try this newest venture of chef Prasad Chirnomula. It did not disappoint, and was reasonably priced to boot.
Customers who have feasted at Chirnomula’s Thali-monikered Indian restaurants will not be surprised to hear he has ventured into another robust cookery style. As more and more ethnic cuisines become popular, an Indian chef creating Mexican dishes shouldn’t raise any eyebrows. (Italian food at Modesto’s in Norwich is created by Mexican chef/owner Modesto Moran.)
The restaurant space at Oaxaca has been painstakingly decorated. A few tables on a front brick patio invite you into the tiled entry, followed by a good sized bar. Each detail — colors, wall treatments, rough-hewn beams and leather — has been designed to mimic a cantina with Spanish colonial accents. Up a few stairs to the dining room, terra cotta pot lids collaged onto the surface adorn one wall in the dining room, while on another, little sculptures of colorful lizards climb a mesh screen.
Our informative and amiable server, Colin, proffered housemade corn chips and a superb salsa. We munched while watching our order of guacamole being prepared tableside in a hefty molcajete. It was absolutely delicious, complete with Spanish onion, a tad of cilantro and a Serrano chili.
Small touches
Little touches often separate the mundane from the extraordinary, and Oaxaca’s gazpacho offered ample evidence. Toasted pepitas, swirls of jalapeño oil and the coup de grace (or, more fittingly, golpe de gracia), a dollop of roasted red pepper sorbet, elevated the thick tomato-avocado base. Mango sorbet highlighted the ceviche Vera Cruz.
We split most dishes. The menu is so well put together we wanted one of everything. Jumbo lump blue crab cake was delicious and creamy, with a crunchy coating of blue corn chips surrounded by a roasted tomato coulis. Flour tortillas were available paired with fish, chicken, beef or pork and came with a creamed, chipotle accented sauce.
Chilean sea bass had been draped in a masterful Oaxacan yellow mole sauce. The accents were black beans, roasted grape tomatoes and queso fresco for balance.
Meat eaters could revel in the marinated hangar steak, Bistec a la Parilla, or pork tenderloin finished with a thyme jus. However, we just had to try one of the massive buffalo burgers. The over-sized patty was mixed with chopped chorizo and served over Oaxacan cheese, roasted poblano peppers and grilled onions. What could be better? Well, maybe the chili-spiced fries. Dipping them into the housemade ketchup was a special treat.
The bar has a large list of tequilas, plus six superb Mezcals native to Oaxaca. But Negra Modelo, my favorite Mexican beer, was available, and we shared a few sips.
Sweet desserts
Desserts? No way we would omit them. Of the three offered, we split two, skipping only the orange flan. Sopapilla cheesecake was very creative, a layer of traditional cinnamon-fried dough topping a Mexican vanilla cheesecake surrounded by golden agave nectar. It came garnished with a cookie spelling out “Oaxaca!”
I almost inhaled the kitchen’s fabulous Tres Leches cake. Since first tasting my friend Lee White’s version, I had always thought nothing could ever top it, but Oaxaca’s did the trick (sorry, Lee). Could I have been a sucker for the margarita cream and chocolate swirl on top?
Oaxaca Kitchen
228 College St., New Haven, (203) 859-5774
Hours: Lunch, 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Monday-Saturday. Dinner, 5 p.m.-9:30 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 5 p.m.-10:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 4 p.m.-9 p.m. Sunday. Brunch, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Sunday.
Prices (same for lunch and dinner): Starters $4-$12; entrées $13-$22; desserts $6-$7.
Amenities: Major credit cards accepted. Wheelchair accessible (street and bar level tables only). Reservations suggested on weekends, including brunch.
Price: $-$
Rating: Four out of four stars.
In a nutshell: Fresh and inventive. Some of the best Oaxacan and Mexican fare to be had in the state. We loved it all, from the guacamole, gazpacho, crab cake, buffalo burger and sea bass to the ultimate tres leches cake.
Five intense foodies recently gathered in New Haven to sample the fare at the newly opened Oaxaca Kitchen. Mexican food fans all, we were eager to try this newest venture of chef Prasad Chirnomula. It did not disappoint, and was reasonably priced to boot.
Customers who have feasted at Chirnomula’s Thali-monikered Indian restaurants will not be surprised to hear he has ventured into another robust cookery style. As more and more ethnic cuisines become popular, an Indian chef creating Mexican dishes shouldn’t raise any eyebrows. (Italian food at Modesto’s in Norwich is created by Mexican chef/owner Modesto Moran.)
The restaurant space at Oaxaca has been painstakingly decorated. A few tables on a front brick patio invite you into the tiled entry, followed by a good sized bar. Each detail — colors, wall treatments, rough-hewn beams and leather — has been designed to mimic a cantina with Spanish colonial accents. Up a few stairs to the dining room, terra cotta pot lids collaged onto the surface adorn one wall in the dining room, while on another, little sculptures of colorful lizards climb a mesh screen.
Our informative and amiable server, Colin, proffered housemade corn chips and a superb salsa. We munched while watching our order of guacamole being prepared tableside in a hefty molcajete. It was absolutely delicious, complete with Spanish onion, a tad of cilantro and a Serrano chili.
Small touches
Little touches often separate the mundane from the extraordinary, and Oaxaca’s gazpacho offered ample evidence. Toasted pepitas, swirls of jalapeño oil and the coup de grace (or, more fittingly, golpe de gracia), a dollop of roasted red pepper sorbet, elevated the thick tomato-avocado base. Mango sorbet highlighted the ceviche Vera Cruz.
We split most dishes. The menu is so well put together we wanted one of everything. Jumbo lump blue crab cake was delicious and creamy, with a crunchy coating of blue corn chips surrounded by a roasted tomato coulis. Flour tortillas were available paired with fish, chicken, beef or pork and came with a creamed, chipotle accented sauce.
Chilean sea bass had been draped in a masterful Oaxacan yellow mole sauce. The accents were black beans, roasted grape tomatoes and queso fresco for balance.
Meat eaters could revel in the marinated hangar steak, Bistec a la Parilla, or pork tenderloin finished with a thyme jus. However, we just had to try one of the massive buffalo burgers. The over-sized patty was mixed with chopped chorizo and served over Oaxacan cheese, roasted poblano peppers and grilled onions. What could be better? Well, maybe the chili-spiced fries. Dipping them into the housemade ketchup was a special treat.
The bar has a large list of tequilas, plus six superb Mezcals native to Oaxaca. But Negra Modelo, my favorite Mexican beer, was available, and we shared a few sips.
Sweet desserts
Desserts? No way we would omit them. Of the three offered, we split two, skipping only the orange flan. Sopapilla cheesecake was very creative, a layer of traditional cinnamon-fried dough topping a Mexican vanilla cheesecake surrounded by golden agave nectar. It came garnished with a cookie spelling out “Oaxaca!”
I almost inhaled the kitchen’s fabulous Tres Leches cake. Since first tasting my friend Lee White’s version, I had always thought nothing could ever top it, but Oaxaca’s did the trick (sorry, Lee). Could I have been a sucker for the margarita cream and chocolate swirl on top?
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