This restaurant has flourished into a renowned restaurant locally and is breaking onto the national scene, with Bon Appétit naming it one of the best new restaurants in 2024 and Nixta by Oro being nominated for a James Beard Award in 2023. Upon reading these reviews, I decided to review the food myself at my home on a clear evening during sunset in September. The co-owners suggested that I try their pollo con mole, chochoyotes mofongo, and tamales. The first dish I tried were the tamales, which were notably more hefty and dense than your typical tamal. To be completely honest, I have never been one for a tamal. I’ve tried and tried, but I simply cannot love them. So, unfortunately, I was least impressed by these, mainly because of my personal biases. On to the surprise delight of the meal. Originating from Veracruz, Mexico, the chochoyotes are these little balls of heaven. They were made out of a plantain-based fried masa, which added a sweet joy to the dish, along with the bacon jam that sat underneath. These two ingredients combined truly brought surprising happiness to my taste buds, as I had never heard of this dish before. Finally, a dish that was nothing more than and nothing less than perfection. The pollo con mole was by far and away the best dish of the night. This was the dish that I took my last bite of, just so that I could have that complex chocolatey goodness left on my tongue as a reminder. They called the dish “pollo con mole,” but this really needs to be called “mole con pollo,” as the mole truly dominated the scene on this dish, and the chicken was but a background actor. The complexity of this mole is hard to grasp for a mere mortal like me. There were so many flavors, all working together to sing this one collective song without contradictions. Despite the variety of flavors, none of them impeded upon the others but rather built upon the previous flavor, bringing along the best of the old flavor and adding a delightful twist. On top of this, the chicken stupendously played the role of a supporting actor, creating a canvas for the mole to paint on. 

         With the flavors nothing but a fond memory now, I yearn to go back. I want more of the food from these two people who started from unlikely beginnings to revolutionists in a redefinition of Mexican food. As Kate Romero said, “I think the idea that people have about Mexican food was very wrong. Thinking it is supposed to be cheap. and it’s supposed to be kind of like a second-class kind of food.” I implore you, the reader, to take up the “gospel of corn” and experience this delicious redefinition of a genre of food.