Zandunga Oaxaca: Beware of the Blob

Against the better counsel of "B", our expat amiga in Oaxaca, Sra. Cuevas and I lunched at Zandunga, a restaurant the is billed as "Comida Istmena". (Food of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.)  She said, among other things, that the food is heavy. (Well, we are well acquainted with heavy Michoacán fare.)

The new location is next door to La Biznaga. It's a dazzling, contemporary styled space, with a long list of mezcales inscribed on the tall, white wall.

We liked the ambience, we liked the genial servers, but the food failed to meet some basic expectations. Zandunga seems more of a hip mezcal bar with a relatively short food menu.

Food menu-there's more but not shown here

I was given a couple of generous samples of mezcal to assist me in choosing which I would drink. I decided to have the Espadín Destilado en Olla de Barro, for its smoothness on the palate.

Mezcal tasting

We were brought a plate of complimentary botanas.

The brown, ground stuff is fish. Surprisingly good!

Sra. Cuevas' first course was a Molito de Camaron, an intensely flavored dried shrimp soup. We liked it. The orange colored rice was reminiscent of a curry.

Molito de Camaron

I had a Sopa de Frijol, which unfortunately was too salty.

Sopa de Frijol

I was able to redeem it to a large degree by adding a bit of a hot-sweet-sour chile and onion pickle.

The platos fuertes were a mixed success and a failure.

I ordered Cochito Horneado, interested in comparing it with a dish I'd recently made myself. This oven baked pork dish was good in a homey way, but nothing extraordinary.

Cochito and Mashed Potatoes with Vegetables

Doña Cuevas did not fare well with her Estofado de Res con Frutas. I was dismayed by the appearance and texture of the stuff on her plate. (I would have sent it back, but she is more accepting than I.)

It was a flattened blob of brown pulp, like a reheated leftover, as from our freezer, of last month's stew. This is the sort of thing we might possibly eat at home, but for a restaurant to offer it is unacceptable.

Estofado de Res con Frutas. A simple salad.

Then, to aggravate matters, the food was tepid. I sent mine back for heating. Sra. Cuevas ate hers, said it didn't taste bad, but would never order it again.

To send out food in such poor condition is unacceptable to me, and I would not recommend the restaurant, except possibly for drinks and antojitos. We would not go back.

RATINGS
Food:*

Service: ****

Ambience: Hip, Contemporary

Price: $$$ Not worth the price. La Cuenta.

Restrooms: Clean and artistic

Lo Bueno: good bar

Lo Malo: too much brown food

Keywords: drink here, eat at La Biznaga next door.

Location: Garcia vigil 512-E, Oaxaca 68000, Mexico

Tel: (951) 5162265

MAP