Who says there are no decent Mexican restaurants outside of the Southwest? Well, me, for one, a few years ago, but I’m happy to eat my words when I find something great. Chef Jose Andres brings to Oyamel in Washington some of the same flair he stunned LA with when he opened the Bazaar, like a salty air foam on top of a margarita. I’m not even a salt-in-your-margarita kind of guy, but this was subtle and able to be pushed aside.
Oh yes, they serve food too, great food. I would have been perfectly happy with just the vegetable menu: papas al mole (fried potatoes with mole sauce), col de bruselas estilio San Quintin (Brussels sprouts with chili sauce, pumpkin seeds, peanuts and lime) and quesadilla huitlacoche, which looked like mini folded tacos packed with corn flavor (huitlacoche is corn mold, but it looks like eggplant, so you don’t need to freak out).