Zandunga Sabor Istmeño

Really enjoyed this restaurant. Struggled to find gluten free items, but the majority of the menu was gluten free here! We got 3 dishes to share, and they were all delicious. Courtyard where we ate was beautiful. The mezcal drink we had was also phenomenal. The best drink we had in Oaxaca! Would recommend!

After lots of walking, we stopped here for lunch and mezcal cocktails and were very happy with everything. The corn elote was sweet and delicate, the enchiladas con mole a great flavorful and savory pairing with that. Cocktails were also great, and what an excellent atmosphere.

If you’re looking for excellent dishes and a wonderful experience you need to check out this restaurant. The service ambience match the magnificent menu. Moreover the mix cocktails are a must try. I think the restaurant is well priced and well worth the experience.

Amazing food! Mexican food a level up. Everything was full of flavour and it’s a lovely environment with nice atmosphere and friendly staff. Reasonably priced for the quality. Definitely recommend

What an amazing restaurant. This place is a wonderful example of something that I love to experienc in different places. They take Oaxacan food, a cuisine that is rich with flavor, texture and aroma but born of humble origins, and they elevate it in the context of fine dining. The result is a spectacular experience that presents all the best aspects of traditional dishes with care and respect. The embellishments are minimal and only serve to frame the food of Oaxaca and lavish upon it the same love and attention that any good food deserves. Don't miss a chance to eat here.

Food was mid compared to the other spots we’ve tried in Oaxaca so far. I do enjoy my corn & cheese tamale, but the other vegetarian options here felt limited so I had a mushroom tlayuda to supplement (large portion size!). My partner had the catch of the day which he found dry and bland. Vibes in the restaurant were nice with and the service was attentive and kind. I liked the courtyard seating and the central location of the spot. It felt like basic tourist-y food overall.

My wife and I went here on our honeymoon. The food was delicious and I especially recommend the sweet elote tamale! We did however have a horrible service experience. Our server was very sweet and “recommended” a glass of the house wine since it was our honeymoon. We had already ordered cocktails but she insisted on having us try the wine and when we said it was nice poured us glasses. Given the context it seemed the house wine was a gift from the restaurant for our honeymoon. Although we honestly didn’t want wine, we forced ourselves to finish it to show gratitude for the kind gesture. When the bill came we were shocked to see the wine on it for 390 pesos! I alerted the restaurant of the error but they said we had accepted the wine and refused to take it off. So basically we were forced to pay for wine we didn’t even want on our honeymoon! This is not the type of service you expect at a fine dining experience. It was obviously a communication error, but seeing as both my wife and I had the impression that the wine was complimentary they should have taken at least one glass off the bill. It really tainted the entire experience of dining here.

Loved the vibe at Zandunga, relaxed, welcoming, and full of Oaxacan charm. I had the ceviche and the corn tamal, and both were incredible. The ceviche was super fresh and well-balanced, and the tamal was soft, slightly sweet, and full of flavor. Definitely a place I’d come back to.

Spent close to a week in Oaxaca to eat everything and of all this things I ate, one of the dishes that stood out was the chicken tamales covered in mole. Zandunga wasn't even in my initial list of restaurants to try out, so very glad I happened upon this gem. Highly recommended.

This is a beautiful establishment. My fiancé and I came here to celebrate my birthday and we left very pleased with our experience here. They provided us both English and Spanish menus. To start off they gave us a complimentary appetizer. I wasn't a big fan of the complimentary appetizer. However, we ordered the guacamole with chapulines (grasshoppers) as well as the beef empanadas to start and they were soo good. For entrees we had the pig suckling and the enchiladas with mole. Portion sizes were huge. The pig sucking was soft and juicy and packed with flavor and fell right off the bone. The enchiladas were very flavorful and pared well with their mole sauce. I will definitely be back the next time I'm in Oaxaca.

Delicious food and amazing cocktails! Wish I would have eaten here when I was a little bit more hungry.

First day in Oaxaca and what a way to start the evening right , I saw this place on yelp and I said we gotta come here ... best choice I could of made the food was SO Delicious and the drinks OMG on point so refreshing , every dish we had tasted so Amazing and full of flavors the place is so beautiful inside it's an open restaurant so you get the full nice breeze of air that comes in the restaurant , the staff was amazing always bringing us what we wanted on time . I highly recommend this place ..

Sweet location in a beautiful courtyard surrounded by quaint and classy shops. I liked the house appetizer (given free of charge). They said it was a "white fish" but didn't seem fishlike but was good. The Oaxacan style tortillas were tasty. Mushroom empanadas were delicious. Mole was good. All well presented.

Enjoyed a later dinner here after a flight. The standouts were the tamal de elote and the beef stew- both were unlike any other versions of those dishes I've ever experienced. Delicious. The restaurant is also quite pretty and the cocktails were good though not memorable. Service was nice but very slow.

Amazing food, service, and ambience. My second time there and each was wonderful. Definitely worth a visit!

This was the perfect restaurant to end our Oaxaca leg of our Mexico trip. We had the tamales elote, guacamole,platanos, tlayudas, enchiladas. They were all excellent in taste, quality and price. My favorites were the platanos and the tamales elotes. The sweet and savory profiles of both dishes were perfect blend. The mezcal cocktails are top tier and so cheap. This trip made me a lover of mezcal.

Escaped into this little beautiful restaurant, away from the parade outside. Enjoyed the appetizer on the house, and the mole negro tamal! All the food was delicious and the service was fantastic too! A tad bit pricier than most places - fyi. Would recommend.

The food and drinks were great. Slightly pricer than other places. The decor is beautiful and ambiance is casual. The service was friendly. The guacamole is a must have and also the chicken mole.

Amazing mole and tamales de elote. Being a vegetarian, the vegetarian enchilada with mole sauce was everyone's favorite mole in Oaxaca ! Everyone ordered the Passion fruit mezcal cocktail which had real passion fruit puree. The night atmosphere was beautiful and calming. Would definitely recommend.

Insanely INCREDIBLE!!! The drinks are TOP tier. The food'a flavor and the ambiance. The perfect balance. The Service is great, you feel like they really care. 10000% my fav place in Oaxaca

Really loved it here during our time in Oaxaca. We went for lunch and dinner on two different occasions!

AVOID ZANDUNGA!!!!! It's in the courtyard of the now defunct Biznaga. We had one of the worst meals EVER in Oaxaca. Service was slow and surly. The margaritas tasted both bitter and salty. The fish amuse bouche was over salted and tasted of rotting fish. The empanadas were allegedly 4 different flavors, but all tasted the same wrapped in a tasteless, tough, doughy skin. The main course, some mystery meat in a dark, heavy tasteless sauce....yichhh! The courtyard was lovely until a mariachi band and huge bridal party showed up, then nothing could be heard. Zandunga, with so much good food to be had in Oxacaca, you are racing to the bottom!

Everything was really good and the restaurant is beautiful. I highly recommend the elote tamale and the plantain molotes . Both are so soft and sweet. We are here twice.

Doesn't look like much when I was passing by , but I was dying of hunger. The interior inside is creative and the food was incredible. Definitely a must try while in Oaxaca.

Both photos attached are listed as ceviche pescado. This ruined it for us, I must inform the hotel receptionist who recommended this place.

This place blew me away! Absolutely adorable interior! Cute art & bright light. Very tasty food as well! Service was good. A great place to bring a book and enjoy the ambiance.

The restaurant was really pretty, but the food was not restaurant worthy. The carne de res on the mini tostadas was dry and the edges of the cheese empanadas were hard and even the pico de gallo wasn't good. The only thing I enjoyed was my margarita. It's our last night in Oaxaca and it's a bummer that on our last meal the food was awful. P.S. don't eat here!!

Amazing food, amazing atmosphere, amazing service! A must visit while in Oaxaca. The Jamaica margarita was to LIVE FOR...

Service was mediocre, a little too much hovering. Food over price for what they offer. The picture taken was of the Garnachas when asked no onion the guy said no onion only pickled purple onion... I guess I must be color blind because I do not see any purple. However the food was infested with raw onion inside. What part of zero onion I have an allergy they didn't understand. Food was ok just not my cup of tea. Now the little shops please know they are in no way connected to the restaurant they are their own business but the restaurant will in no way help if you don't have exact change. Bartender couldn't change a $500 pesos bill but was ok to sale me a drink and give me the change. And or all staff tell me that they had no money they had no had a sale when clearly I had just paid in cash over 1400.00 pesos. Overall the the service was not what I expected.

This place is always busy and you need a reservation. The courtyard is nice and sunny! The staff is kind! The food was good not amazing and not bad. The Tlayuda was dry and not so great but the sauces that came with it were good and made it better. The guacamole was amazing. The corn tamale was not so good., it was sweet! But they do warn you its sweet.. but once again with the sauces it was edible. Im vegetarian so it was my only option in the entres. Mom had ceviche! The fish was still pink And raw... The scary part is that i saw a waiter take a worm off of his shirt and put it on the tree in the middle of the courtyard. Yup. Yum yum. Wonder where that worm landed on him! Maybe the kictchen...

Wonderful location, ambiance, food and service. They will make substitutions if requested. Enjoyed the quesillo enchiladas and the many choices for mezcal cocktails.

Huge open space inside with a very beautiful bar filled with tons of mezcal options. Stopped in for cocktails and the service was great. I think we might have just picked bad cocktails on our end. They were okay but we didn't love them.

Don't get the enchiladas. It says beef but really is some weird bean paste and has no flavor. Friends got chicken and fish and it was bomb, don't make the mistake I did.

Very good food, drinks and attentive staff. We tried the tlayuda and chicken soup this is not your typical Oaxaca food but more from the isthmus of Tehuantepec. Highly recommend.

The single worst meal I have had in Oaxaca. Soulless and just kind of gross. Also who puts mustard in mashed potatoes? So many better options out there

Gorgeous courtyard dining with upscale boutiques. My chicken tamal with mole negro was good but I wish it had more chicken.

This is one of my favorite places in Oaxaca, recommended to me by a local! The dishes are istmeno cuisine, so it is a bit different than what you might typically find! The quality is excellent, and the space is open with a huge exposed ceiling. The music and lighting are good too! As a basic American, I had to get the guacamole. It is so good and creamy! The only downside is if you order this, you may be too full for the next meal! The main dishes were also really great. I highly enjoyed the tamal in mole negro!

The enchiladas with red & black mole are awesome, particularly the sauces. The free starter is good. Their famous cocktail is sour, so not my type. I had a soup and a custom cucumber cocktail, both below average. Can go back for the tasty mole

Tried the sampler plate and enchiladas they were amazing. The sampler plate is filing and you get to a little of everything The drink Llorona was refreshing

Zandunga is a really cool restaurant specializing in the cuisine of the isthmus in Oaxaca. While it was almost 9PM, we were early for the area and quickly got a table on a weeknight. The restaurant was so charming - it was long and narrow with white walls and Tehuana tops for women decorating the walls. The tables and chairs were wood, and the lighting was soft. The service was warm and friendly. Fortunately for us, they also spoke English. We definitely ordered too much food because we were starved and a little spent emotionally and physically. DM ordered a Margarita Zandunga (85 pesos or $4.25), which is the classic cocktail made with mezcal in lieu of tequila. I ordered a Cocktail of the Day (85 pesos or $4.25), which was a mezcal martini with mezcal and gin. Both cocktails were fantastic - perfectly made and with excellent liquor. Before our dinner began, the snack of the house is tortillas al horno served with browned fish and two kinds of salsa - rosa and verde - as well as pickled onions. The tortillas al horno are made in the Oaxacan version of a pizza oven designed for this purpose. The tortillas are more like papadums than the classic version, but they are so good. The super fresh salsas were a zing of freshness with the minced fish that was reminiscent of pate. It was very good. For dinner, we had the Platon de Verduras (130 pesos or $6.50) and the Bontana Zandunga (450 pesos or $21). The Platon de Verduras was a generous plate of mixed grilled vegetables, including mushrooms, green beans, beets, broccoli, squash, onions, red bell peppers and cabbage. A plate of veggies was most welcome. The plato de bontanas was delicious albeit a bit too much for the two of us. It had two garnachas, which are two silver dollar corn tortillas topped with black beans, ground beef, cheese and salsa rojo. They were served with pickled cabbage. There were two molotes, which are sort of like empanadas, which were filled with pork and chicken and were topped with queso fresco, rema, salsa, and cilantro. These two things were both awesome. The corn base and or exterior were super fresh and tender, and the meat was plentiful, well-seasoned and tender. There was pico de gallo made with minced jalapenos, chopped tomato and dried shrimp - great on the tortillas al horno. Surprisingly, the shrimp did not have an odd flavor - they just tasted like sweet little shrimp. There was also carne horneada, which was basically shredded beef in a tomato and spice sauce, but it was a little tough. In the end, it did not matter because we also had a tamale with the same meat as well as olives and raisins. There was plenty of masa left, so I had some with the additional meat. Then there were two totopos or fried plantains served with crema and fresh cheese. The plantain was sweet on the inside and crunchy on the outside. While delicious, I was getting pretty full. Instead, I had the cheese with the rest of the salsa rojo, which was a great combination of creamy, salty and spicy. The service was fantastic and the house water was filtered, flavored with cucumber and totally safe. I highly recommend this restaurant.

Couldn't get a dinner reservation at Zandunga during the week between Christmas and New Years so instead we dropped by for lunch and our party of 5 was seated immediately. Good selection of wines and mezcal to go with the array of small dishes we ordered. Excellent flavors, attentive service, and the chef sent out a house special at no charge. We missed the festive evening energy but our lunch was a sweet respite from the zocalo's hustle-bustle.

The worst place I Oaxaca , please people don't go there , so disappointing place. Bad tomatoes and old meat (

I loved the vibe, the service, the decor, the music and the delicious food and cocktails. I will forever make the passion fruit mescalita I had there. I am removing one star for price. Too pricey!

This was a really nice, modern restaurant with high quality ingredients. Pricey for Mexico, but still reasonable compared to the States. THE WAIT: About 15-20 minutes around 9pm on a Wednesday night. They were packed til well after closing. THE SERVICE: Professional, friendly. MUST-HAVES: Molotes de Platano, Enchiladas con mole! * Free chips, salsa, onion, & dried fish - 3.5 stars Didn't try too much of this; it was unique. COCTELES CON MEZCAL * Llorana con gengibre, jamaica y pina (55 pesos) - 4 stars Refreshing & delicious! ENTRADAS * Garnachas. Tortillitas de maiz fritas, con carne de res, cebolla y salsa de tomate (100 pesos) - 4 stars Unique, nice flavors. * Molotes de Platano con queso fresco y crema (85 pesos) - 4.5 stars Best plantain dish I've ever had! TAMALES * Tamal de Mole Negro con pollo (60 pesos) - 4 stars I never really liked Tamales until this one! The consistency was very moist, the flavor of the filling was great. DE FIESTAS * Enchiladas con mole rojo y negro, rellenas de picadillo de pollo y papa (165 pesos) - 4.5 stars Love the subtle sweet flavors, the slight grittiness to both sauces. Tender chicken inside.

The mojito just was nothing like an authentic Cuban mojito. Not enough lime or mint, too much syrup. The veggie tlayuda was mostly cabbage with a couple pieces of tomatoes thrown in. If there were any beans or cheese, I didn't taste them. The accompanying pickled onions and guac were fine but not enough to have much to add to a big tlayuda. The benches in the side are so uncomfortable, I had to roll up my jacket and put it between the bench and my back. Even that didn't work. Also you don't get the breeze you would have sitting in the uncovered area. The overall atmosphere is nice. Music not too loud for talking and a nice amount of space between tables.

The place is very small but cozy. It has a very unique style. The hostess and servers all of them have a big smile. The food is from a special region in Oaxaca, so the items are also unique as well. All dishes full of flavor, well presented, and with a lot of variety. The black mole between the best in town. I will come back any day.

Love this place. Casual and elegant. Eclectic! They have a great menu of mezcales, a regional liquor from Oaxaca. We recommend the mezcal ensamble Rio Revuelto - Espadín & Madrecuishe - . Another restaurant thats a MUST to visit in the city, to relax and enjoy the local flavors.

Had dinner here; Our food and service was excellent; freshness and presentation of dishes was fantastic. I found the restaurant extra noisy and very crowded; I'll go back on a night when they're not busy;.

Had a wonderful dinner at Zandunga. Makes perfect sense why they have been open for 15 years. Although small, the restaurant serves some amazing regional dishes. As an appetizer we had the garnachas... wow! These are packed with flavor. Simple tostada bottom with some amazing filling on top and cheese. What makes this even more enjoyable is the pickled onion (curtido) with pineapple you accompany the dish with. Flavor!!! For the main I had the roasted/bbq pork. This is served with in a red salsa that I believe is made from the pork droppings. The meat was insanely tender and the flavor was exquisite. Some homemade tortillas helped me devour every last drop and shred of meat. Can't go wrong with this dish. Everything about Zandunga was on point. You'll have a great dinner at a price (cheap) that will make you do a double take and have you coming back Updating this review to 5 star because to this day, me and my wife are still talking about our dinners there. Specifically the garnachas.

The best service ever! Great food and drinks. They had amazing musicians playing in the restaurant as a bonus.

This has been the best meal I've had in Oaxaca. My entire family was pleased and we all have different tastes. May I recommend the Pollo Zandujo and the tamarind water. The ambiance is lovely and the service is stellar.

Beautiful outdoor seating, excellent food, pleasant staff, really pretty boutique shops surrounding. Great mezcal options and nice tasting options!

Our server was extremely attentive and helpful. The menu was diverse and the food was very good. The black bean soup was unique and tasty. The roasted chicken dish with garnachas was also a hit.

I loved it! I read lot of reviews and pictures before deciding to go there and it was worth! Food was amazing! Tlayudas were the best. My wife got a mezcal and I got a horchata which was one of the best I ever tried. I'll try again in my next trip to Oaxaca.

We stumbled onto this lovely place looking for a spot to eat because a lot of restaurants in Oaxaca closes at 9 on Sunday. Wow the food was delicious. We had the estofado and Costilla de puerco. I highly recommend this place to anyone traveling to oaxaca. I almost forgot we also a a delicious Mezcal cocktail called llorona so so good.

AMAZING! This is one of our very favorite restaurants in Oaxaca. That says a lot, being that there are a lot of amazing options in this city. For the yelpers complaining that no one speaks english here, ummm are you serious? You do realize you are in Mexico?? Service was fantastic, servers were attentive, ambiance was cute, and the food is some of the best cuisine I've ever had!

A beautiful environment to hangout in with lovely cocktails and wonderful food and service. A perfect meal for our first night in Oaxaca.