Oyamel: Modern Mexican cuisine with bold flavors and a vibrant, open-kitchen vibe.
Oyamel is a Mexican restaurant in Washington, DC, delivering elevated Mexican classics and adventurous plates. Diners praise queso fundido, flavorful guacamole, shrimp ceviche, and a wide range of tacos, plus memorable desserts; the service is noted as friendly and attentive. The bar offers tastings and pairings, and the open guacamole station adds a lively, modern Mexico City vibe to the dining experience. Address: 401 7th St NW, DC 20004.
401 7th St NW, Washington, DC 20004, USA
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Freshly made guacamole prepared tableside with high-quality ingredients for a customizable experience.
A wide variety of tacos, including lengua, chapulines, and atún pacífico, showcasing authentic and innovative flavors.
Shareable dishes like queso fundido, camarones al mojo de ajo negro, and quesadilla de chicharrones for a communal dining experience.
A curated multi-course meal paired with cocktails or wine, offering a comprehensive taste of the menu's highlights.
Indulgent options such as tres leches cake, flan, and chocolate cake, often featuring unique twists like roasted coconut ice cream.
Expertly crafted cocktails and a great wine selection to complement the dishes, available as part of tasting experiences.
Overall rating
Kevin
Delicious guacamole! Wide range of tacos to choose from and other food that I honestly didn't pay attention to. The deserts were amazing! They took their time and made sure the pineapples were delicious. Salsa had lots of flavor. Clean facility, we walked here from the streets of DC and it was a nice break. Recommended for sure
BW
Late lunch at Oyamel Cocina Mexicana on Jan 2 with four adults and one baby. The upscale Mexico City vibe is spot-on—stylish, energetic, and inviting. Service was attentive without hovering, which we appreciated. The menu offers elevated Mexican classics with some adventurous options. We ordered the quesadilla de huitlacoche, tacos de chapulines, nopal asado, lengua, minilla veracruzana, hongos en molito, guacamole, and atún pacífico. Flavors were bold and well seasoned, and everything was nicely presented. At this price point, I expected slightly more refinement in execution, but the meal was still memorable and enjoyable. Overall, a great spot for an upscale Mexican dining experience, and I’d happily return to explore more of the menu.
Jay Shen
Six years later, I returned here with my partner and a friend, so we were able to try many dishes, which leads me to say that I enjoyed the small plate setup that this place offered. When I first came here six years ago, I only tried their chips and guacamole, which was amazing, and I loved seeing how they still had an open station allowing customers to witness guacamole being made. Out of all the dishes, I enjoyed the Camarones al Mojo de Ajo Negro the most because the shrimp was sautéed very well. I could taste the mixture of shallots, árbol chile, Poblano pepper, lime, and garlic very well because that combination provided a lot of flavor. The Quesadilla de Chicharrones tasted pretty good as well. The salsa made a difference in defining the taste because the pork belly itself didn't have much taste, despite there's cheese and onions inside with the pork belly. My partner had the Frijoles Refrito con Queso and they said the texture was consistent and the dish was pretty good with no other highlights to mention. As far as tacos go, most of them are good, but I wouldn't say they were spectacular enough to justify the prices. There wasn't much for me to offer in terms of constructive criticism, but having a $8 lengua taco that tasted just as good as what I can get from another joint that offers me the same taste for much less is how I would approach reviewing all of the tacos we have tried. We also had the Pastel de Tres Leches con Piña for dessert, which essentially was a tres leches cake with pineapple chunks, whipped cream, and roasted coconut ice cream next to and on top of it. The ice cream was a great addition because it helped define a taste. The pineapples tasted a bit off, like it had too much vanilla (or vanilla extract), therefore there was a bitter taste. The hint of rum flavor was pretty nice, especially combining that with the ice cream and the cake, which could alleviate the potentially unpleasant taste that some people may find. Overall this was a good spot to have a nice meal at. The vibe was modern which I thought was an indication of its thematic emphasis. Servers were very good at taking our plates away upon seeing that we had finished some of the dishes. I would definitely recommend anyone to at least try the food here once.
Natallia K
Fantastic experience! We chose tasting menu ($80) + cocktails pairing ($45) and we absolutely loved it! We had reservation but decided to sit at the bar, Dioren the bartender was simply amazing! Delicious drinks, great wine selection, fast food service, soooo good! We got a complimentary glass of sparkling wine - it was our anniversary. Highly recommend this place!
Anthony Spicola
My family and I enjoyed our dinner at Oyamel. The many plates we tried were very tasty. The queso fundido went quickly along with the chips and salsa. One of my cousins couldn't get enough of the guacamole. I really enjoyed the shrimp ceviche and the refried black beans with crema. The chicken tacos, gulf coast white shrimp and the chicharrones quesadilla were also popular. We finished by ordering 4 desserts which were all devoured. The first to go were the chocolate cake and the flan. The service was friendly and helpful.
