Restaurante Oaxaca

I drive by this little restaurant in the corner of 30^th and MLK everyday on my way to and from work, so I had to stop by when I knew I would be driving by one weekend.
It was just two of us, and there was one table finishing up when we walked in. We were told we could sit wherever we wanted, by who we later found out is the owner. The food was fantastic and authentic, not too salty lr greasy or Americanized. Their tamales are wrapped in banana leaf, something I love because of the Smokey flavor imparted to the masa.
The owner sat at another table in the dining room with his wife while we ate, so we struck up conversation with them. This is one of the great undiscovered family owned and run restaurants that is a reason I love Indy. They gave us an entire to go container full of candy and mints, including Ferrero Roche at the end of our meal.
One downside– you have to weave through the kitchen and step over things to get to the restroom

the best damn tortas in the city! need to clean up the dining area though.

Amazingly good traditional Mexican food. The Torta Cubana was outstanding. Perfectly done with chorizo, Barbacoa, ham, tomato, peppers and egg on a pressed Torta. Tacos Dorado were hot and fresh rolled tacos served with Arroz and homade refried beans.

This restaurant is in a sketchy neighborhood but it’s worth the trip. The interior is very much a hole in the wall. But the food, wow, the food knocked my socks off. The salsa verde is damn near perfect. They serve it with flour tortilla chips — an interesting change. The queso is great, too, but not typical of American-​style queso. Seems very authentic and is extremely tasty. I had the chicken burrito. It was huge and awesome. The kids had beef tacos, and they were excellent. My husband had tacos dorados, which were also very good. Couldn’t complain at all about the food. I also had amazing mango juice which was delicious. I just wish this were in a slightly better location, but we’ll still go back.

I was fantasizing about the corn tamales today and remembered to write a review! Holy cow, they are incredible. So is the mango juice and salad and rice and whatever in the world the green sauce is. It’s all stellar. Authentic and excellent. I don’t mind driving way yonder. I disregard my physical safety… all for a gosh darn perfect tamale. (I suggest you do the same. Maybe not at night though.)

What a pleasure. Small but the food is outrageously good. A real authentic Mexican treat here in indy. The owner is the nicest. It’s a small start-​up family run restaurant. You can feel the pride of Mexico pouring through this place. I recommend to all!

Always great friendly service here and the food is delicious! One of my favorite spots for quick delicious and authentic Mexican food near downtown.

This was some of the best Mexican food I have had. I know the outside look of building may not be the best. But, I was still able to eat inside with no problem. I also took a coworker here and she said it was the greatest he had ever tasted. I will say that I was not the most impressed with the hot tamales. But everything else that I was given was great. Don’t be afraid to go here. I promise you won’t be disappointed.

This restaurant is interesting. When you walk in you will think you are in someone’s garage or unfinished basement. Don’t judge this book by its cover. They serve high quality food and everything we tried was amazing. I highly recommend the juices they offer. The melon juice is amazing. I also loved the mango juice. All entrees are big enough to share and priced well.

Authentic Mexican! When we pulled up we almost left because it isn’t the prettiest place, but the lady who owns/​cooks/​waits tables is so incredible sweet and the food was great! The salsa verde was HOTTTTT but good. Agree with a previous review saying to order the drink… highly recommend the pineapple mango mix! Tacos were great, empanadas were delicious, quesadillas wonderful… all delicious. Don’t judge a book by its cover! You won’t regret coming here! :)

While I recognize that there are some people who may object to giving a restaurant with a bit of a lackluster interior a five star review, I think that the quality of the food and the genuinely kind and attentive service I received there merit nothing less. The food at this little restaurant is absolutely delicious. The interior may not be the nicest, it is irreproachably clean.
The barbacoa tacos were served on fresh and delicious corn tortillas with fresh herbs and were wonderful, not to mention they were $ 2 a pop. I live in Boston, and a remotely similar quality taco would be at least $ 3.50.
The tamales were the best I’ve had in Indianapolis. Simple and perfect. The meat was in large, flavorful chunks and the corn meal was perfectly moist without being soggy.
The plantains were excellent. I recommend them served with the sour cream and cheese with a side of evaporate milk. I know this may sound a bit odd. It was insanely good. I couldn’t figure out why I’ve ever eaten plantains without these accoutrement. There is no going back.
Final food note: do yourself a favor and get either a mango or pineapple juice drink. They are huge, three bucks, and wonderful. I was worried they were going to be over-​sweet. They were not. Money well spent.
All of these wonderful dishes cost about $ 35 dollars, and we three diners were unable to finish. We also bought a second round of fruit drinks before we realized how full we were. The tamales, plantains, and tacos for three persons totaled only $ 18. That’s ridiculous.
Finally, the server was a young woman who was attentive, polite, and truly pleasant.
Great food. Great service. Five stars. Go.

Tasty and authentic! Very reasonably priced. The tamales are HOT tho. Be prepared. They are done in a different style with banana leaves, which is cool. There are hundreds of ways to prepare tamales, so it’s nice to have something different. There is a small dining room but they also make orders to go. Check it out!

We stopped here for lunch with our kids on a Saturday. The restaurant is not much to look at but the food was good. I had chicken tacos, they were great. My 6 year old and husband had quesadillas. They were also tasty and very cheesy. My husband said he didn’t like the beans though. We tried the fried plantains with the sweet milk on top, which made a yummy dessert. I gave it 4 stars though because the owner, Miguel, was so friendly. He took excellent care of us and even gave my daughter treats to go.

TLDR slow service, decent food, clean bathroom. 3.5 stars
My mother and I entered this restaurant completely unsure what to expect. the reviews were good, but the inside looked shody at first glance. The decorations are pretty nice though, and the floors are cheap sheet vinyl but otherwise clean. The bathroom was clean as far as bathrooms in obscure restaurants go.
There was only a small group of young guys hanging out and no one attending the store when we first stepped in. Took about about 5 to 7 minutes before anyone came to us. They brought a nice basket of corn chips and delicious and fiery jalapeño salsa.
We ordered then ordered a mango smoothie, one of each flavor of empanada (four in total), one of each tamale (3), and a barbecue pork. I was very disappointed at the empanadas. The crust was a greasy oily mess with very flat flavor, but the beef one tasted pretty good. I would not recommend ordering the cheese empanada. I couldn’t sample the rest as I was much too stuffed from eating delicious barbecue lamb.
The lamb was juicy, tender, and chewy, with juice coming out of every bite. It came with rice and refried beans which were both pretty bland. Along with everything else they gave us some nice, moist, and tasty taco skin which into which I put lamb, rice and, refried beans. It was so good I made a second one and added my mom’s unfinished avocado and tomato to it.
I can’t comment on the tamales as I also didn’t get to eat those from being stuffed, but I did drink my mango smoothie. The smoothie was obviously made from fresh mango and was very smooth. After we finished our meal, the check took about 5 minutes to arrive and 3 minutes to process.
I would’ve given 3.5 stars for refreshing authentic Mexican food, especially considering that this is Indiana, but Unilocal can only give 3 or 4 stars. There was too much waiting so I didn’t round up up as I normally would and instead chose to round down.

As a So Cal transplant to Indy, really impressed with food here. Everything is made fresh, including the salsa and chips. I had the chicken mole and the sauce was great. The flan is one of the best I ever had and probably big enough for 2.

I am happy to be chowing down on BBQ goat and rice with refried beans, fresh salsa Verde with raw onions and, my favorite herb, cilantro. I laugh at the location references-​sketchy seems to mean a mixed race neighborhood. But if you like good food don’t let the neighborhood «snobs» deter you. Meet the sweet abuelas and enjoy Oaxacan deliciousness!

Consistently delicious, fresh, and reasonably priced. The shrimp empanadas are to die for… And they have Menudo! The only Mexican restaurant in the city that makes that amazing dish. Order ahead for carry-​out if you are in a hurry as they only have the one abuela in the kitchen.

I’ve been here a few times for good tacos. I was not impressed with their tamales, but the tacos are very good. The tacos are flavorful, filled with meat and cheesy! Just the way that I love them. They are also very fast with their carry-​out orders and I do not wait more than 10 minutes for my food. I’m not sure if I would ever eat inside. Maybe a little more effort to make the inside presentable would help. However, it is clean.
If you are craving tacos and in the area, this would be a great spot to visit.

Menudo so good makes you wanna slap yo mama and whoever else is close! Stopped into my new fav lil spot after traveling from Anderson on my way to the workstation. As always I’m greeted with a smile and a bit of nice convo from the owners daughter. What a sweetie. This place ceases to amaze me, and the homemade tortillas DELISH.

Never underestimate the power of Unilocal,and never underestimate the greatness of Restaurante Oaxaca. I live very close to this restaurant, but never tried it. To be honest, even though I have lived in the area for 25 years, I was slightly perturbed by the location. I never thought a decent Mexican place would set up shop at 29^th and MLK. I then read the other reviews on Unilocal,and decided to give the place a try. AS for my previous notions: I was dead wrong; I was an idiot!
Restaurante Oaxaca is the quintessential hole-​in-​the-​wall restaurant. It is very small, and wasn’t the slightest bit crowded. In fact, my brother and I were the only customers. We were immediately greeted by a very friendly Mexican woman who showed us to our seats. We were immediately given homemade chips and salsa (red and green), both of which were spicy (to my liking!). I ordered fajitas that contained chicken, beef, shrimp, and chorizo. The dish was terrific; in fact, it was the best plate of fajitas I have ever had! The best thing about the fajitas may well have been the homemade corn tortillas. They were a gift from heaven.
If you’re looking for excellent, truly authentic Mexican food in Indianapolis, look no further. Get yourself to Restaurante Oaxaca! You will never regret it!