Salsa Oaxaqueña Restaurant Dining Review

Dining review: Midtown Mexican food options are increasing, and increasingly tasty

By Mara Severin | Eating out 

Updated: September 13, 2024Published: September 13, 2024

Salsa Oaxaqueña Restaurant

On the other end of the spectrum and decidedly less shiny is Salsa Oaxaquena, a small, quirky spot in a Spenard strip mall with offerings authentic enough to have me covertly googling the dishes on their menu (alas, no photos or descriptions were available to help). I dropped in, solo, for lunch, opting for the carne asada tacos ($22.50) on the sole basis that I had something to compare them to. I also ordered dinner to go — a chicken mole platter ($28) and a beef huarache ($24). I ordered the mole because it is a favorite of my husband’s and I ordered the huarache because, when I googled it, I got a picture of Don Johnson from Miami Vice. Huarache, it turns out, means sandal. As a child of the ‘80s, I considered it a good sign.

The dining room is homey and pleasant if a bit scrappy. It’s a spare space well-served by the lively Mexican pop music playing and there is — intriguingly — a small stage with a mic on which a white cowboy hat was hung. Rumor has it that in the evening, the stage is open for Mexican-inspired karaoke with locals singing rancheras, mariachis and corridos. They had me at the white cowboy hat.

This restaurant is still getting its legs under it, so there are a few kinks that I expect will get ironed out (like the lack of descriptions on the menu). The first is that, with the tacos, you are given a choice of either store-bought tortillas and a side of rice and beans OR house-made tortillas with no rice and beans. This feels like a tacit confession that they’re serving something they don’t think is top-notch. I opted for the house-made tortillas and suggest you do the same. They are excellent and with more flavor than you can find inside a grocery store bag.

The second is that the food takes time. Everything is made to order and you can hear the crackle and sizzle of the grill from behind the counter. That said, it was worth the wait. The carne asada was smoky and well-seasoned, and I loved the salsa bar with adorable pig-shaped molcajetes filled with salsa verde, avocado sauce, grilled peppers and heaps of cut limes.

The huarache was a hit at home. With cool cabbage and avocado toppings atop a hot (sandal-shaped) tortilla, fried beans and meat, I recommend that you eat it quickly before the salad wilts. I loved the balance of bright and crispy toppings with the deep, earthy flavors of the beans and the savory spice on the meat. Next time, I’ll enlist the help of a pizza cutter, and order one as an appetizer.

But for me, the meal of the day was the chicken mole. The dish is startlingly, intriguingly dark — almost black — and the flavor is as deep as the color. The sauce is steeped in earthy spices with a slow heat that lingers on your tongue. The chicken is fall-off-the-bone tender and the rice and beans were well cooked, with just the perfect al dente bite in the grains. I was pretty much stuffed after all this feasting, but over the next few hours, I kept going back to the chicken — a bite off the leg here and a sip of the sauce there. Let’s just say my husband didn’t get his fair share.

If you go:

Salsa Oaxaquena

3505 Spenard Road, Suite B

Anchorage Alaska 99503

907-865-5375

Order Online at : www.SalsaOaxaquena.com