Kman wrote:A must-have for me when I visit there is the nopales/cebolitas to start - I feel they do a great job at prepping the nopales and the onions are always grilled just right. The tartness of the cactus with the smokey grill-char + sweetness of the onions just starts the meal off right.

How funny - that's exactly how we started that meal. I couldn't say for certain, but I thought that the onions were actually deep-fried, not grilled. Either way, they sure were delicious, though we had a hard time not filling up on that + chips before the chiles rellenos, chicken mole, and a few tacos al pastor (which I rather like at La Oaxaquena ) came out.

-Dan

dansch wrote:

Kman wrote:A must-have for me when I visit there is the nopales/cebolitas to start - I feel they do a great job at prepping the nopales and the onions are always grilled just right. The tartness of the cactus with the smokey grill-char + sweetness of the onions just starts the meal off right.

How funny - that's exactly how we started that meal. I couldn't say for certain, but I thought that the onions were actually deep-fried, not grilled. Either way, they sure were delicious, though we had a hard time not filling up on that + chips before the chiles rellenos, chicken mole, and a few tacos al pastor (which I rather like at La Oaxaquena ) came out.

-Dan

Interesting. I've never been served onions that appeared anything but grilled, with distinctive char-spots, no less. My LO experiences are limited to the N. Milwaukee location, though - was this there or the Diversey location?

Kman wrote:Interesting. I've never been served onions that appeared anything but grilled, with distinctive char-spots, no less. My LO experiences are limited to the N. Milwaukee location, though - was this there or the Diversey location?

I took my Mom, who was up visiting from Virginia, to La Oaxaquena last night (N. Milwaukee). We ordered the nopales & cebollitas as our starter and both agreed that they were deep-fried, not grilled. Don't get me wrong, totally delicious, but definitely fried.

Everything was fantastic and my Mom, who lives in a town with depressingly mediocre Mexican options but was raised in Southern California craves the good stuff, got in her fix.

-Dan

We hit la Oaxaquena this afternoon, I got the huachinango con mariscos, Mrs. Trpt had the cecina (curiously spelled cesina). Both were excellent, and more than ample. Nice space too.We had been once to the one on west Diversey, not really impressed. The Milwaukee location was terrific, we'll certainly be back.

I went to the Milwaukee location last week. On the positive side, the enchiladas with mole were very good and the service was very friendly. It was a nice comfortable immaculately clean restaurant.

Unfortunately, we were quite disappointed in the food overall. Most dishes were bland, almost to the point of being unseasoned. The three salsas were different colors, but were otherwise watery and indistinguishable. We ended up eating everything with the bottled hot sauce on the table. The whole red snapper with nopales was perfectly fried, but with no apparent seasoning / flavor for either the fish or the nopales. Seafood salad over lettuce was again perfectly cooked, but with no real flavor. We were offered ranch or Italian dressing for the salad, but declined. I really wanted to like this place, but I don't see myself returning. I wonder if others have had recent positive experiences.

Jed wrote:I went to the Milwaukee location last week. On the positive side, the enchiladas with mole were very good and the service was very friendly. It was a nice comfortable immaculately clean restaurant.

Unfortunately, we were quite disappointed in the food overall. Most dishes were bland, almost to the point of being unseasoned. The three salsas were different colors, but were otherwise watery and indistinguishable. We ended up eating everything with the bottled hot sauce on the table. The whole red snapper with nopales was perfectly fried, but with no apparent seasoning / flavor for either the fish or the nopales. Seafood salad over lettuce was again perfectly cooked, but with no real flavor. We were offered ranch or Italian dressing for the salad, but declined. I really wanted to like this place, but I don't see myself returning. I wonder if others have had recent positive experiences.

Jed, sorry to say I totally agree with your assessment. I've been twice over the course of the past year and a half and was very disappointed both times. The mole was thin and artificial tasting, the rice was sad and mushy, and the tortillas were soggy. It seems La Oaxaquena's best days are behind it.

turkob wrote:

Jed wrote:It seems La Oaxaquena's best days are behind it.

serves me right for not looking on LTH before going last week. I had the huachinango mojo de ajo, snapper seemed fresh but was fried for far too long. Salsas were ok, nothing special. Unless a number of positive reviews come up, I believe last week was my last visit.

Current reports? Would like to drop by but it's so far out of my normal circuit that I'd rather get some trusted advice than experiment.... Thanks.

go often...still pretty solid...love the octopus app and the pickled jalepeno..only complaint is stale chips but all in all pretty good