What kind of food does Cesca Bistro serve?

Cesca Bistro serves modern Oaxacan food built on a French bistro format. The short menu mixes Mexican ceviches, French-style tartares and steaks with a few pasta and vegetable plates, and it changes with what the Oaxaca markets have. When I filmed, the orzo with soft shell crab in pumpkin sauce and the sweet potato millefeuille with goat cheese were the two plates that stood out.

Who is the chef at Cesca Bistro?

The chef and director is Saúl Carranza, who has cooked for the hotel group Grupo Habita for more than a decade. He runs the restaurants at Otro Oaxaca and Escondido Oaxaca in Oaxaca city and at Hotel Humano in Puerto Escondido. Cesca Bistro is his own project outside the hotels.

What are Cesca Bistro's opening hours?

When I filmed in August 2026 Cesca Bistro opened at 2 pm and closed at 10 pm, staying open until 11 pm on Fridays and Saturdays. It was closed on Tuesdays. Hours at new restaurants move, so check the website or call before you go.

Do I need a reservation at Cesca Bistro?

It is a small room, so booking is a good idea for dinner and on weekends. Cesca Bistro takes reservations by phone at +52 951 139 0285, through the reservations page on cescabistro.com, and it is also listed on OpenTable. Walk-ins at 2 or 3 pm on a weekday are usually fine.

Where is Cesca Bistro in Oaxaca?

Cesca Bistro is at Avenida Independencia 1405-A, Colonia Centro, Oaxaca de Juárez 68000, on the eastern side of the historic centre. It is roughly a 10 to 15 minute walk east of the Zócalo along Independencia and a few blocks from Parque El Llano.

How much does dinner at Cesca Bistro cost?

Cesca Bistro does not publish its prices online and I did not film them. OpenTable lists it in its $$$ tier, which in Mexico corresponds to roughly 600 to 1,000 MXN, about 35 to 55 USD, per person for two or three plates and a drink. Steaks and the seafood plates push the bill higher; the herbal infusions and vegetable plates keep it lower.

Why is it called Cesca?

The restaurant is named after the Cesca chair, the cantilevered steel-and-cane chair Marcel Breuer designed in 1928 at the Bauhaus. The dining room is furnished with Cesca-style chairs in leather and metal, chosen by the Mexican design studio Decada, which did the interiors.

Are there non-alcoholic options at Cesca Bistro?

Yes. Alongside wine and cocktails, Cesca Bistro serves house herbal infusions that are alcohol free and sugar free. There is also a short list of Mexican wines and beer.

Cesca Bistro Oaxaca: menu, hours, reservations and address

Modern Oaxacan-French bistro from chef Saúl Carranza, with a short menu mixing Mexican ceviches, French tartares, steaks, and an orzo with soft shell crab in pumpkin sauce. Interiors by Mexican design studio Decada, named after Marcel Breuer's 1928 Cesca chair. Open 2pm-10pm, until 11pm Fri-Sat, closed Tuesdays. Reservations by phone.

Chef Saúl Carranza, who runs the kitchens at Otro Oaxaca, Escondido Oaxaca and Hotel Humano, opened his own short-menu bistro on Avenida Independencia in a house redesigned by the studio Decada. Here is what is on the menu, what it costs, when it opens and how to find it.

What Cesca Bistro is

Cesca Bistro is a small modern bistro in a restored colonial house at Avenida Independencia 1405-A, on the eastern side of Oaxaca’s historic centre. The restaurant describes itself as a modern Oaxacan bistro with a relaxed atmosphere, inspired by the spirit of the French bistro. In practice that means a short menu that puts Oaxacan market produce and coastal seafood into French formats: tartares, ceviches, steaks, a pasta or two and a handful of desserts.

It is the first solo project of chef Saúl Carranza, who for years has been the cook behind the restaurants of Grupo Habita, the Mexican boutique hotel group. It opened in 2026 and was still new and quiet when I filmed in August.

The interiors are by Decada, the Mexico City design studio of Cecilia Tena and Lucía Corredor, which has appeared several times on Architectural Digest’s AD100 list and whose furniture also sits inside Casa Wabi and Hotel Escondido on the Oaxacan coast. The restaurant takes its name from the Cesca chair, the cantilevered tubular steel chair that Marcel Breuer designed in 1928 at the Bauhaus. The dining room is filled with Cesca-style chairs in leather and metal, set against the exposed red brick and concrete of the old house, a cast iron staircase, a very large entrance door and accent mirrors.

Who cooks here

Saúl Carranza Zatarain was born in Nayarit and has spent more than a decade with Grupo Habita. He directs the kitchens at Otro Oaxaca, the group’s design hotel opposite Santo Domingo, at Escondido Oaxaca in the centro, and at Hotel Humano next to Zicatela beach in Puerto Escondido. His hotel menus are built on weekly market shopping and small local producers, and he has spoken about learning a coastal style of mole from the staff at Hotel Escondido and taking other dishes from his aunts and grandmother in Nayarit and Michoacán. Press for the hotels mentions that he cooked in Michelin-starred kitchens earlier in his career, though the restaurants are not named.

At Cesca Bistro he cooks without the hotel framework: one short menu, an à la carte format and a room that seats a few dozen people.

The menu is à la carte and short, a page rather than a book. It changes with the season and with what the Oaxaca markets carry, so treat the plates below as a snapshot of August 2026. The structure when I visited was:

Raw and cold starters: Mexican-style ceviches and French-style tartares, the two ideas side by side.
Vegetable plates: cooked vegetables treated as courses, not sides.
Mains: steaks, seafood and one or two pastas.
Desserts: a short list, fruit led.
Drinks: wine, cocktails, beer and a list of house herbal infusions that are alcohol free and sugar free.

What I ate

Orzo pasta with soft shell crab in a pumpkin sauce. This was the plate of the evening for me.
Sweet potato millefeuille layered with creamy goat cheese, an unusual pairing that worked.
A ceviche and a tartare from the starters list.
Pineapple carpaccio with olive oil ice cream for dessert.
A house herbal infusion instead of wine, which I found a welcome option in a city where most menus stop at mezcal and water.

The menu will have moved on by the time you read this. The orzo and the millefeuille are the two dishes to ask about.

What it costs

Cesca Bistro does not publish its prices online, and I did not film the bill. OpenTable lists the restaurant in its $$$ tier. Using that tier as a guide, budget as follows:

Item	Price
Starter (ceviche, tartare or vegetable plate)	About 200 to 350 MXN, 11 to 19 USD
Main (steak, seafood, pasta)	About 350 to 600 MXN, 19 to 33 USD
Dessert	About 150 to 200 MXN, 8 to 11 USD
Herbal infusion	About 80 to 120 MXN, 4 to 7 USD
Typical spend, two plates and a drink	About 600 to 1,000 MXN, 35 to 55 USD per person

These are estimates from the price tier, not figures from the menu. Steaks and whole seafood plates sit at the top of the range. Prices at a new restaurant move often, so confirm on the day.

How to book

Phone: +52 951 139 0285.
Email: gerente@cescabistro.com.
Online: the reservations page at cescabistro.com, and the restaurant is listed on OpenTable.

Hours when I filmed in August 2026: 2 pm to 10 pm, until 11 pm on Fridays and Saturdays, closed on Tuesdays. The restaurant announced a short closure in early August 2026 on its social media, so it is worth confirming that it is open on the day you plan to go. For a weekday lunch at 2 or 3 pm you can usually walk in. For dinner from Thursday to Saturday, book.

Getting there

Address: Avenida Independencia 1405-A, Colonia Centro, Oaxaca de Juárez, Oaxaca 68000, Mexico.
Neighbourhood: the eastern side of the Centro Histórico, on the long avenue that runs past the cathedral.
On foot: about 10 to 15 minutes east of the Zócalo along Independencia. Parque El Llano is a few blocks to the north, Santo Domingo about 15 minutes away.
By taxi: any driver knows Independencia. Give the number and the corner, since the 1400 block is beyond the part of the avenue most visitors walk.
Parking: street parking on the side streets is limited in the evening. There is no dedicated lot, so a taxi is easier than a rental car.

Before you go

It is a bistro, not a tasting menu. Order two or three plates each and share. There is no fixed menu.
Vegetarians are fine. The vegetable plates are full courses, and the kitchen adapts.
Not drinking? Ask for the herbal infusions. They are made in house and contain neither alcohol nor sugar.
Dress is relaxed. The room is designed, not formal. Locals come in what they wore that day.
Go before the crowds. The restaurant was quiet in August 2026 and easy to book. As a chef’s own project with a hotel-group pedigree, it is likely to fill up.
Pair it with Otro Oaxaca. Carranza also cooks at the hotel opposite Santo Domingo, where breakfast on the patio is the meal to try. See my Otro Oaxaca review for that side of his cooking.
Check the hours before you go. The hours on this page come from the venue’s public listings, which drift, so confirm on Google Maps or the venue’s own channels before a special trip.

Watch the visit

The reel above walks through the room and the plates from this dinner. For the full list of places, open my Oaxaca map or browse the rest of the Oaxaca recommendations.