Get ready for Oaxacan cuisine to arrive in South County. The long-awaited La Oaxaqueña (2925B Lemay Ferry), first announced a year ago, is scheduled to open in Mehlville, with a ribbon-cutting March 15.
Yolanda Soriano, who co-owns the restaurant with husband Jamie Rosas is an Oaxaca native who gained her culinary chops alongside her mother in Mexico and honed them while working at restaurants since she was a teenager, most recently at the helm of G Burrito food truck, as well as a series of La Oaxaqueña pop-ups over the past two years. The menu at the restaurant highlights traditional Oaxacan dishes and includes Tex-Mex favorites that Soriano has perfected over the years.
Find the best food in St. Louis
Subscribe to the St. Louis Dining In and Dining Out newsletters to stay up-to-date on the local restaurant and culinary scene.
The majority of dishes on La Oaxaqueña’s menu are made with fresh corn masa, with the only exception being those featuring flour tortillas. La Oaxaqueña’s masa is nixtamalized and ground on-site for the softest, freshest tamales and tortillas. The tamales are memorable, filled with chicken and Soriano’s house-made mole. A plantain leaf replaces the more-common corn husk wrapping for a fresher, sweeter flavor, which complements the rich corn masa.
You’ll also find fresh masa in the molotes, football-shaped appetizers filled with chorizo or Oaxaca cheese. They’re fried and topped with refried beans, cabbage, queso fresco, and salsa. Masa also appears in the picaditas, which are similar to sopes but made with fresh blue or white masa and given pinched edges. They’re topped with asiento (unrefined pork lard), refried black beans, cheese, cilantro, onions, and salsa.
The must-try dish at La Oaxaqueña is the tlayuda—both the name of the dish and the hardened tortilla that houses refried black beans, asiento, cabbage, meat, avocado, Oaxaca cheese, and salsa. The iconic dish is Soriento’s favorite on the menu. To her, it is Oaxaca. “Every state in Mexico has its own food,” says Soriano. “In Oaxaca, it’s tlayuda.”
Tex-mex favorites include quesadillas, chimichangas, fajitas, tacos, burritos, and more. Patrons of G Burrito will recognize most of the burrito offerings, including the fan favorite and namesake G Burrito. Here, it’s renamed the Burrito Oaxaca, but the flavors are the same: shredded chicken or ground beef with rice and beans, smothered in cheese dip and topped with lettuce, sour cream, and pico de gallo.
The restaurant will feature a full bar specializing in Oaxacan margaritas, made with mezcal in place of the more common tequila. Other traditional Mexican drinks include house-made horchata and Mexican fruit waters.
La Oaxaqueña will be open seven days a week, 11 a.m.–9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m.–10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
