For the past couple of years there has been a growing number of Mexican restaurants, some run by Americans, that have taken traditions of regional fare from Oaxaca, Baja, Monterey and Guadalajara and transformed them with both respect and commitment to better ingredients of the kind you find in the huge city markets south of the border. I have every reason to believe that the growth in numbers will increase, with more and more diversity, largely because Americans are already very familiar with Mexican food in a way they are not with recent trendy cuisines like Nordic, Peruvian and Korean.
Ixta is a fine new example on The Bowery, having taken over the crushingly loud DBGB Kitchen & Bar, which closed in 2017. You’d hardly know the place now, for what was once a lackluster and colorless room is now an evocation of bold Latino hues and decorations, including intricately hand-carved totem columns and a 12-foot hand painted Tulum-inspired jaguar named “Perla” by local artist Fernando Leon and animated NFTs projected throughout the restaurant, created by artist Ken Forbes. There are 165 seats and 10 at the bar, where the collection of tequilas and mezcals is impressive and go well in the array of exotic cocktails created by Miami native Jenny Castillo.
On a midweek night when the place was about three-quarters full the noise level in the dining room was not bad at all, at least after the pounding techno disco music was turned down. (The owners say they are re-thinking the music.) In search of the meaning of the name Ixta, I found that it may derive from an Aztec legend of a princess turned into the Iztacchihuatl volcano.
Owners Mike Himani, and Marcelo Martins feature a menu with many Oaxacan dishes in modern versions by Mexico City-born chef Francisco Blanco, previously at Le Cirque. His menu is categorized under appetizers, raw bar, salads, tacos, entrees, specials and sides, and pretty much everything is made to be shared.
You certainly want a bowl of guacamole studded with pepitas, salsa matcha and Serrano chilies ($18). Really innovative is the dish of truffled tamale tots with plenty of gooey cheese and prosciutto ($32), a dish not to be missed. Smoked and mezcal-cured salmon—not a fish I associate with any part of Mexico—came sloppily atop corn crisps with sesame and salmon roe ($26), and just didn’t work.
What did work was a delicious, nicely seasoned tuna tostadawith a Japanese Morita ponzu, creamy avocado and black sesame ($23). The best ceviche to have is the combination of catch of the day, octopus, and shrimp with jalapeño, leche de tigre citrus marinade and heirloom tostadas ($27).
Another unusual entry is the “original birria” ($21), a dish from Jalisco, composed of slowly cooked goat’s meat that retains all its juices, guacamole mousse, corn tortillas and a salsa taquera in a consommé. Straightforward crispy hake was done with a tomato and beer-based salsa borracho, jicama slaw and flour tortilla ($21). These are dishes fit for main courses, and, in fact, are somewhat more interesting than the entrees like the New York strip steak and roasted chicken. I do want to go back and try the enchiladas divorciadas ($27) of mole rojo and mole negro with vegetables.
The specials on the menu include a whole branzino with avocado, tortillas and salsa, lemon and the smart addition of kurakake, usually made with dried fish and seaweed, which adds a further scent and taste of the ocean ($40). Esquites is made with corn, turmeric, Parmesan cheese, and ancho chileashes with a lemon emulsion ($12) as a side dish.
Most of the time I look askance at the big-boned tomahawk steak, but Ixta’s is really superlative for its beefy taste, well enhanced by roasted sweet peppers, caramelized onion, sea salt and pico de gallo. The $200 price tag is high, but, weighing in at two pounds, it will readily serve four people.
A delectable way to end off the meal is with either the fat, sugared bombolones with a scoop of ice cream or the rich Mexican chocolate pudding.
No one leaves hungry at Ixta. In fact, you’ll likely leave with food for tomorrow, but more important, you’ll leave with a new sense of the regional variety and enticing seasoning of Mexican food of a kind you haven’t had before in this city.
