Almoraduz Cocina de Autor

What Almoraduz is

Almoraduz Cocina de Autor is a contemporary Oaxacan restaurant on Boulevard Benito Juárez in Rinconada, the short commercial strip on the western side of Puerto Escondido between Playa Carrizalillo and Bacocho. It opened in 2013 and is owned and run by chefs Quetzalcóatl Zurita and Shalxaly Macías, a married couple who cook and host the room themselves.

The concept is cocina de autor, chef-driven cooking, built on Oaxacan ingredients: coastal fish, mole, chapulines (grasshoppers), huitlacoche (corn fungus) and the herbs of the Chatino region where Zurita grew up. Dishes borrow techniques from elsewhere, so a risotto or a carpaccio sits next to a tostada or an enchilada. The name is a coastal Oaxacan herb, similar to oregano and marjoram, that the chef’s grandmother used to season her sauces.

Almoraduz has been in the Michelin Guide Mexico since the first edition in 2024 and stays in the 2025 and 2026 selections as a recommended restaurant. It does not hold a star or a Bib Gourmand. The guide calls it the restaurant that has set the standard for serious cooking in Puerto Escondido, and locals I spoke to described it as the one Michelin Guide listing in town that has earned the attention on food alone.

Who cooks here

Quetzalcóatl Zurita was born in Santos Reyes Nopala, in the Chatino hills inland from Puerto Escondido, and grew up between the coast, the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and the Central Valleys. He started cooking at eight with his nanny, Doña Áurea Santiago, whose herb gave the restaurant its name. At 18 he enrolled at the Instituto Culinario de México in Puebla and later worked at Pujol in Mexico City, then came back to the coast and opened Almoraduz in 2013 at the age of 24 with Shalxaly Macías, who runs the front of house and co-writes the menu. Zurita is a member of the Colectivo de Cocineros de Puerto Escondido, a group of chefs working with local producers, and contributed to the book Grandes Chefs Mexicanos: Fuego.

Awards and press

• Michelin Guide Mexico: recommended restaurant in the 2024, 2025 and 2026 selections.
• The New York Times: recommended Almoraduz in its 2017 coverage of Puerto Escondido.
• Regular coverage in Mexican food press, including Animal Gourmet, Food and Wine en Español and Elle México.

How the menu works

There are two ways to eat here.

• Tasting menu: a seasonal set menu of roughly five to seven courses that changes with the Oaxacan coast. It opens with a symbolic copal cleansing and an amuse-bouche of chapulines and corn stew, and each dish is explained at the table. A drink pairing of Mexican wine, mezcal and cocktails is optional.
• À la carte: starters, salads, pastas, fish, meat and desserts. This is the way to eat lighter or cheaper, and the kitchen serves it at the same tables.
• Signature dishes: the tostada of confit pork jowl with refried beans, guacamole and chapulines; the catch of the day with chimichurri, spinach and grapefruit; the black seafood risotto with squid ink and huitlacoche; the confit duck enchiladas with mole negro; the coloradito mole, which takes over ten days to make; and an Oaxacan chocolate lava cake with a burnt-milk popsicle.

What I ate

I ate à la carte on a July evening. The fried chapulines came first, unpretty and salty and exactly as they should be, followed by a mole that looked like a brown mass of chocolate and spice and tasted far better than it photographed. The black seafood risotto was my favourite plate of the night, the duck enchiladas were the dish I would tell anyone to order, and the tomato salad with basil ice cream was the surprise. The food is traditional Mexican at heart, so do not expect the micro portions and macro prices some people associate with the Michelin name.

What it costs

Prices below were listed in June 2026 by a visitor and match what I saw in July 2026. They move with the season.

Item	Price
Tasting menu, per person	1,500 MXN, about 80 USD
Tasting menu with drink pairing	2,300 MXN, about 125 USD
À la carte starter	About 180 MXN, about 10 USD
À la carte main	From about 320 MXN, about 17 USD
Signature cocktail	About 160 MXN, about 9 USD

Two people eating à la carte with a drink each will spend around 1,000 MXN per person, about 55 USD. Review sites put the typical bill between 700 and 1,000 MXN per head. Cards are accepted.

How to book

Reservations are recommended, and for the tasting menu in high season they are close to essential.

• OpenTable: search for Almoraduz Cocina de Autor, Puerto Escondido.
• Phone: +52 954 582 3109.
• Instagram: @almoraduzpuerto, which links to the booking page.

Hours are Thursday to Tuesday, 16:00 to 23:00, dinner only. The restaurant is closed on Wednesdays. Walk-ins are seated when space allows, but the room is small and fills by 20:00 from December to April and over Semana Santa.

Getting there

• Address: Boulevard Benito Juárez 11 and 12, Rinconada, Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca 71987, Mexico.
• Neighbourhood: Rinconada, the strip of restaurants and shops between Playa Carrizalillo and Playa Bacocho on the west side of town.
• On foot: about five minutes from the top of the Carrizalillo stairs and ten minutes from the Bacocho hotels.
• By taxi: 10 minutes from the centre and the Adoquín, 15 to 20 minutes from La Punta Zicatela. Fares within town are fixed and cheap; ask your hotel for the current rate.
• Parking: street parking on the boulevard is usually available; the strip is quiet after dark.
• Nearby: Pez Gallo at Club Bacocho, a few minutes away, is the breakfast option on this side of town.

Before you go

• Dress code is casual. Sundresses and linen shirts are the norm; there is no formal requirement, but it is the dressiest room on this side of Puerto Escondido.
• Allow two hours for the tasting menu. Courses are explained one by one. Book by 20:30 at the latest for the full sequence.
• Say your restrictions when booking. The tasting menu leans on seafood, pork and duck; the kitchen adapts for vegetarians and allergies with notice.
• Air conditioning is limited. The room is open to the street with fans and greenery; it is warm in May and June.
• Cards work, cash helps. Cards are accepted, but Rinconada card terminals go down when the power does.
• Kids are welcome earlier. Families do come, but the pace of the tasting menu suits adults; à la carte is the easier choice with children.
• Compare with the hotel restaurants. If you want the other Michelin Guide listings in town, La Bóveda at Casona Sforza and Glou Glou at Casa TO are design-led hotel dining rooms; Almoraduz is the stand-alone chef’s restaurant.
• 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 is the short version of this dinner, dish by dish. For the rest of the town, open my Puerto Escondido map or browse the full list of Puerto Escondido recommendations.