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Oaxaca Night Food Tour: Culinary Backstreets
4.9
15 Ratings
Oaxaca de Juárez
This afternoon-to-evening tour offers an exploration of Oaxaca’s backstreets during a culinary transition, allowing participants to savor some of the city’s finest nighttime food venues. Additionally, it provides insight into their significant contribution to sustaining Oaxaca’s civic life.
This afternoon-to-evening tour offers an exploration of Oaxaca’s backstreets during a culinary transition, allowing participants to savor some of the city’s finest nighttime food venues. Additionally, it provides insight into their significant contribution to sustaining Oaxaca’s civic life.
Duration:
5 hours
Cancellation:
24 hours
Highlights
- Mercado 20 de Noviembre - Oaxaca’s culinary scene is a delightful blend of two worlds, both equally appetizing. In the morning, a vibrant array of eateries and vendors open up, ready to kickstart the day for Oaxacans. As evening approaches, a new wave of stalls and vendors emerge, ensuring the city’s culinary festivities continue. Locals will tell…
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Mercado 20 de Noviembre - Oaxaca’s culinary scene is a delightful blend of two worlds, both equally appetizing. In the morning, a vibrant array of eateries and vendors open up, ready to kickstart the day for Oaxacans. As evening approaches, a new wave of stalls and vendors emerge, ensuring the city’s culinary festivities continue. Locals will tell you: the true flavors of the city come alive at night.
On this afternoon-to-evening tour, participants will explore this culinary transition, savoring some of the city’s finest nighttime food spots while understanding their vital role in Oaxaca’s community life. The journey includes strolling through historic neighborhoods and public spaces, offering a glimpse of a side of the city that few visitors experience, day or night. - Oaxaca - The adventure begins in Oaxaca’s historic center, just as the night food stalls start to appear and a fresh set of aromas fills the air. The first stop is a vendor outside one of Oaxaca’s main markets, serving tortas and tostadas to homeward-bound workers since 1930. Joining the after-work crowd, participants will taste their renowned and hearty creations. The tour continues to a new family-run restaurant, now a neighborhood favorite, dedicated to one of Oaxaca’s essential ingredients: beans, served from large clay pots. Here, a sampler of their comforting dishes, which creatively honor traditional Oaxacan cuisine, will be enjoyed. The exploration proceeds to a small shop run by a local woman passionate about cacao and chocolate, where her artisanal creations will be sampled.
- Iglesia del Carmen Alto - As the tour progresses through the neighborhood, another iconic streetside business will be visited. This family-run stand has been selling tortillas stuffed with chicken and mole since 1965. Now managed by the fourth generation, it is a strategic stop for evening shift workers, hungry locals, and those looking to fuel up before a night out.
- Museo Belber Jimenez - Energized, the group will join locals in a nearby park to enjoy one of the most traditional and satisfying Oaxacan street foods, corn in a cup, perfect for a leisurely stroll. With cup in hand, the night parade continues to encounter the heavyweight of Oaxacan late-night meals, the tlayuda, a large, thin, and crisp tortilla topped with various ingredients. Just as the taco is to Mexico City, the tlayuda is to Oaxaca – affordable, filling, and endlessly customizable. A visit to a local favorite, selling them since 1952, is included. To conclude, traditional Oaxacan sweets from a stand in a church courtyard will be tasted, followed by a mezcal tasting led by a young master distiller, one of the few women crafting this agave spirit. It’s a perfect conclusion to an evening filled with the guardians of Oaxacan culinary traditions and their nocturnal endeavors.

What's Included
- Licensed Guide
- Dinner
- Alcoholic beverages
- Snacks
- Bottled water
- Licensed Guide
- Dinner
- Alcoholic beverages
- Snacks
- Bottled water
What's Not Included
- Private transportation
- Private transportation
Location
Flores Magón 209
Flores Magón
Meeting Point and Maps:
In front of La Casa de Mezcal
Flores Magón # 209, OAX_RE_BENITO JUAREZ, Centro, 68000 Oaxaca de Juárez, Oax., Mexico
Cancellation Policy
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
Customer Ratings
4.9
(15 Ratings)
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Marklm5870up
Apr 21, 2025
We loved this tour! - Fantastic tour! Pablo showed us (my family of four, plus three others) a wonderful time, as we wandered through the streets of central Oaxaca. He was engaging, informative, and extremely helpful in answering our questions. The tour company clearly is hiring the right people. All of us ate extremely well, and learned a lot about Oaxacan cuisine.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Johndn2647dh
Apr 4, 2025
Amazing food adventure! - Great night touring Oaxaca’s food scene. We had a blast and would recommend this tour to anyone - especially those trying to escape the touristy spots. We met so many wonderful people and tried so many new things.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Cathy
Mar 30, 2025
Happy foodie in Mexico - Luis was a wonderful guide. Knowledgeable, kind, and a very likable guy. Curated destinations. Liked that he picked destinations operated by family generations
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Jon_c
Mar 28, 2025
Absolutely Fantastic Food Experience- World Class - This was a fantastic experience. Luiz was an absolute legend and the tour was exemplary. Starting outside a local market, Luiz took us around much of Oaxaca, seeing many local cultural sites along the trip, sharing lots of info. The food side was absolutely world class. Luiz nailed it- taking us places we would never have found and letting us experience a wonderful array of Oaxaca & Mexican classics. Doing day to night allows you to see the changeover of the food stands & different cuisines & the city come to life. Inclusive of a brilliant mezcal tasting, chocolate making & local interactions. Absolutely recommend. 10/10.
Review provided by Viator
Juliet881
Mar 15, 2025
Yummy food tour! - Luis was a fantastic guide! He was very knowledgeable and friendly. You really did feel like you were getting the insiders tour of the local Oaxaca food scene. There was a ton of food on the tour so you will not need dinner! Also you walk a lot so be prepared with good footwear.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Laurahn6896tj
Mar 3, 2025
Love Culinary Backstreets! - We had the best time with Luis. He was knowledgeable and took us to special places in Oaxaca. We were especially impressed that most of the businesses we visited were woman-owned. Would recommend to all!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Silkroadtraveler
Feb 24, 2025
Another Great Tour - Many thanks to Veronica for a fantastic look at Oaxaca by night. We experienced different types of cuisine, visited interesting neighborhoods and even got to make our own hot chocolate.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Elyse_u
Feb 21, 2025
Absolutely delectable. - Luis provided a wonderful tour of the gastronomy of Oaxaca. He introduced us to vendors, flavors and experiences we would have missed if it wasn’t for him. We were extra delighted to participate in a chocolate and mezcal tasting. He was friendly, knowledgeable and considerate of our dietary needs.
Must do experience if visiting Oaxaca and love food!
Pro tip - skip the meal before your tour!
Review provided by Viator
179clivem
Feb 16, 2025
Brilliant day! - Veronica was a totally wonderful guide, so chatty and fun, and we loved trying all the delicious food and eating at street stalls we otherwise wouldn’t have been confident enough to try! Had a brilliant time. Oaxaca is just a magical place and has such a special energy at night - we did the 3:30-8:30pm tour. The only drawback was it lasted an extra hour than what it said (value for money, sure, to get extra time, but tiring when you’re jet lagged) and would have personally appreciated keeping to time. The mescal tasting at the end of the night was a bit too long for our taste as it was primarily a food tour and we were there for nearly an hour which felt too slow. But wouldn’t hesitate to recommend the tour and Veronica was friendly and full of recommendations for the rest of our stay in Oaxaca as well.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Emilyhw7310de
Apr 2, 2025
Not bad, just kind of disappointing - This was honestly just okay to me. I don’t know if I’ve been on other food tours in the past that really blew me away but I was expecting a bit more. The guide was lovely and kind but I felt like I kept prompting them to give us more information about what we were doing. Most of the time they would bring us to a stop and say “this is a taco” and I would be like… and? I go on food tours not only because I love food so much but because it’s a great way to learn the history and culture of a city! I walked away from this feeling a bit disappointed and like I didn’t get the full picture of Oaxacan cuisine or learn too much which is kind of a bummer! All that to say, I think tours like this are INCREDIBLY dependent on the guides but for $100+ USD I think base level quality and information level should be uniform.
Review provided by Tripadvisor