Casa Oaxaca

[Busboy]

No one ate the grasshoppers. Despite the 10 or so tequila selections nobody crawled deep enough into the anejos or patrons to order flamin cheese with insedts on the side. We did cut a wide swath through the rest of Casa Oaxaca's (wah-HA-Kuh) menu, however, came away quite pleased with the results.

This is not standard Mexican (American) fare. No burritos or chimichangas or fajitas. Instead, it's a fine place to get your mole (mo-lay) on. As with curries, there seems to be an infinite variety of moles and Casa Oaxaca offers a little rainbow of options: brown, black, yellow green and red moles splashed atop various meats. Though I don't pretend to know much about Mexican food -- DC being largely bereft of anything other than boring chain and chain-like salsas 'n' guac joints -- the Mole Coloradito was pretty impressive. The tender strip of skirt steak graced by beans and a red, non-chocolate mole was alarmingly eatable and tried my best not to share. The black mole was pretty tasty, as well; the green mole on baby back ribs struck me as a little subtle -- that is, boring -- but what do I know from moles? My friend ate it with great glee.

The tacos are the small, soft type and when stuffed with shredded, marinated lamb and topped with a not-unfirey salsa are excellent.

The grasshoppers are just one of two nasty-sounding appetizers, the other being the Ravioli de huitlacoche (wee-tlah-KOH-cheh), aka corn fungus, aka corn smut, aka Mexican corn truffle. Whatever, it's good stuff, hard to find in DC and put to good use here, in combination with a squash-blossom poblano sauce. The ceviche -- the fish finely chopped and mixed with pineapple -- and the plantain won-tons (rounds of green plantain pounded into dumpling wrappers) stuffed with black beans were standouts, as well.

Desserts were only OK, with the Flan de Horchata being a bit leaden (they're working on the recipe, we were told) and the Tirramisu Oaxaqueno quite good.

Few things are as refreshing as a tequila with an iced Mexican beer to wash it back, but the Michelades Cubana was pretty good: beer, lime, and chili sauce poured over ice. The restaurant also offers about a dozen tequilas, the usual Mexican beers and random (at this point, it's only been open a week) types of South American wine.

The room is nice -- I'd almost forgotten that good Mexican food can be served without fluorescent lighting and a big screen TV showing soccer matches -- and the service very friendly. Apps are $7-10, main courses $15-19.

All in all, an excellent addition to the neighborhood and I'm looking forward to getting back soon.

Casa Oaxaca. 2106 18th St. NW Washington, DC 202/387-2272 (Website coming soon).

[sara]

Oh you SO missed out--grasshoppers are wonderful. Really. I can't wait to come to DC and try theirs.

[DTBarton]

Sietsema's Post review of Oaxaca from yesterday:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?n...ies=Restaurants