Vegetarian Survival Guide for Oaxaca, Mexico

Last updated on July 10, 2024 by Shannon

Although known as a mega foodie destination, Oaxaca, Mexico is not a great spot for vegetarians; the food culture here is heavy on the pork. By the end of my time living in Oaxaca, I ended up cooking at home most days, or dining almost exclusively at the handful of vegan and vegetarian specific spots.

Since I usually love eating street food while I travel, this was a change of pace. Being prepared is the best way to tackle Oaxaca’s food scene: carry your own nuts and fruits for emergencies; save the best of Oaxaca’s vegetarian spots on your Google Maps; learn how to order your food vegetarian in Spanish.

Beyond that, use my extensive advice below to understand what foods always have lard (pork fat) in them (it’s way more foods than you think), and what foods you can safely order anywhere in Oaxaca.

How to Eat Vegetarian Food in Oaxaca

My key advice for vegetarians visiting Oaxaca, Mexico is to bring patience and diligence. Ask specific questions about your food—especially street food—and look out for lard and meat broths in sauces and corn-based dishes. While there are street foods you can eat, use the recommended restaurants and dishes as your starting point.

As a vegetarian, there are a lot of caveats to the food scene in Oaxaca and it really does help if you speak Spanish before you eat street food. Without Spanish, there’s little chance that you are guaranteed vegetarian street eats, or even vegetarian restaurant eats if you are outside of the city center.

Servers at the restaurants in the city center usually speak English and will often understand a request for vegetarian food. At the nicer restaurants, they will always understand it—but these restaurants are pricier, so it’s a budget saver (and tastier) if you can eat at least one meal a day on the streets.

At street stalls, vegetarianism is not understood. They understand the word vegetariano, but every aspect of what that entails is simply not a part of the local culture. Oaxaca’s indigenous and long-running food culture is deeply entrenched; culturally, vegetarianism is just not understood.

There are two main things you’ll find in your food in Oaxaca, specifically: pork lard and chicken stock. 

How to avoid pork lard in Mexican food.

Let’s talk about pork lard. It’s called both asiento and manteca de cerdo. It’s in everything. This is the largest obstacle to eating vegetarian in Oaxaca; the pork lard is a base for many of the foods most notable in this region. They use pork lard on the tlayudas and the mamelas.

All seven types of mole, the signature sauce, have either lard, chicken stock, or both. You can be 100% certain that if you are not in a vegetarian restaurant that the mole sauce (pronounced MOE-lay) is not vegetarian.

You should always ask specifically about pork lard, using one of those two words, because they may make you a quesadilla, but then add a smear of lard to one side of it without you even realizing it—the smear of lard helps the dough get crispier as its cooking.

Does Oaxaca cheese use rennet?

I’m sad to say that yes, the stringy cheese Oaxaca is most famous for does use rennet in the preparation process to separate the curds and whey.

Many vegetarians I know let this slide in their daily lives—rennet is used to make nearly all hard cheese like parmesan, cheddar, manchego, and Swiss cheese—so you’re likely going to want to apply that same logic here. Even though Oaxacan cheese isn’t completely vegetarian, it’s delicious and worth adding to the list of cheeses you try. It was a staple of my diet when I lived there.

Safe street foods for vegetarians in Oaxaca

Quesadilla

The easiest street food that is almost always safe for vegetarians is the quesadilla with flor de calabaza (squash blossom flower). But to eat even a quesadilla, you need wiggle room in your food standards. Your quesadilla will share a cooking surface, called a comal, with the meat and lard-filled foods.

These surfaces are incredibly hot, so any food on the surface burns off quickly, but local cooks will not take care to avoid contamination.

And I as I noted, Oaxaca cheese uses rennet, so there’s no escaping that if you’re eating cheese.

Mamelas and tlayudas

Although things like the mamelas and tlayudas can be made without the lard, which is usually the first layer, the black beans at all street stalls are cross-contaminated with lard. That means this is not usually safe for vegetarians unless you’re at the Pochote market.

It’s these little nuances that make it hard for many vegetarians to enjoy the street food culture in Oaxaca. It’s possible, but you have to be aware, patient, and kind when they don’t understand. The idea of avoiding lard is just not understood, it’s the base of all of their foods here.

If you’re a flexitarian, then you might look past the trace contamination—they will execute your request to the best they understand, but not always to the degree that a strict vegetarian or vegan might require.

Elotes and esquites

One street food snack that is always safe is elotes or esquites. These are corn snacks served out of metal carts that park near the zòcalo each evening. One is served on the cob, the other is corn shaved into a cup. All of the street carts will serve you either snack. Both types are served with mayonnaise, cheese, lime, and chili—it’s delicious and I prefer mine in the cup as the cob is incredibly messy.

Those are the survival tips for eating outside of the vegetarian restaurants in Oaxaca. Let’s look at the vegetarian, and the vegetarian-friendly (they have at least one interesting veggie dish on the menu) restaurants in the city.

What can vegetarians eat at restaurant in Oaxaca?

Guacamole

For vegetarian-friendly restaurant foods, you’ll have more options. Most restaurants serve guacamole and it’s a great snack—I tried the guacs all over town. Also, most comedores and cantinas, or rather hole-in-the-wall restaurants, will fix you an omelet no matter the time of day; these small restaurants can also prepare a cheese quesadilla with the famous Oaxaca string cheese, called quesillo.

Rice and beans

Note that beans and rice is a flexitarian dish—there is often pork lard in the beans, and anything but white rice is likely cooked with chicken stock for additional flavor.

Vegetarian mole

There is a weekly organic market called Pochote and a woman there sells veg mole, but the protests muddled things up and it was disbanded. It’s back in the city during high season but the location changes, as do the vendors, so ask your guesthouse for the latest location.

Oaxaca Centro Vegetarian Restaurants

Calabacitas Tiernas; Porfirio Díaz 1105

Also called La Jicara for the book shop that shares the premises. Offers a vegan menu alongside vegetarian ones and the menu changes often. While once only vegetarian, they added in a few meat options. Very tasty food and the dishes are more interesting than you find in many places. It gets busy at dinner, so go for lunch or before the dinner rush.

Cafetería Xiguela, Hidalgo 202, Barrio Jalatlaco

This both a health-food store and restaurant combo with a commitment to healthy, local food.

A.M. Siempre Cafe, C. José López Alavez 1355, Barrio Xochimilco

This is a great spot for breakfast and a good coffee, and they won’t mind if you camp out with a laptop for a bit and plan out your days in the city. I lived just around the corner from this cafe, so I found it in my regular rotation.

Oaxaca Centro Vegetarian-Friendly Restaurants

Chilhuacle Rojo, García Vigil 304

They serve a vegan coloradito mole, which is tasty and hard to find. This place has an organic farm-to-table premise and a range of options.

Los Danzantes and Catedral, Macedonio Acalá 403 and García Vigil 105, respectively

These are both fancier restaurants in town. If you’re in a mixed group and want somewhere up-scale, I enjoyed the vegetarian options here, although you’re looking at soup or pasta as your mains, not Mexican fare.

Casa Oaxaca: Skip it

There are a paucity of filling options at Casa Oaxaca, a spot highly rated but not remotely veg-friendly. It’s often recommended by fellow vegetarians, but I left super hungry—a few noodles in a bowl doesn’t cut it for me.

Praga Oaxaca, Allende No.106-A

This place is fun when you’re in a mixed group looking to relax with cocktails and good eats. While I didn’t always order food—we often went for sunset mezcal overlooking the church—the meals I had were spot on and had creative vegetarian options.

Happy Cow

Head to Happy Cow Oaxaca for a more extensive list. And do a search for Indian restaurants once you’re there—there were two at last count and they are tasty.

Always confirm your food is vegetarian

When ordering your food at smaller non-vegetarian restaurants in Oaxaca, always confirm it’s vegetarian, even if every ingredient listed is vegetarian. Be the politely persistent person ensuring your server understands you. Even if the menu is in perfect English, don’t count on every ingredient being listed.

I ordered a croissant drizzled in honey and walnuts at Cafe Nuevo Mundo (which has great coffee by the way), and the croissant came with undisclosed sliced ham (?!).

And then there was a time I was hangry and grabbed a slice of street pizza in the Oaxaca city center without questioning that the slice of cheese pizza was just that. Locals were lined up, so I grabbed a slice and drizzled on hot sauce. It took me half of my pizza to realize there was a thin slice of ham baked underneath the cheese (a reason not to drown your food in hot sauce, methinks).

The point is, you need to be vigilant when trying to eat vegetarian in Oaxaca. My Spanish is pretty fluent—I lived in Spanish speaking countries (currently living in Spain) for more than seven years. And yet, I struggled.

To successfully eat vegetarian in Oaxaca, you need preparation and patience. Clarify every ingredient and don’t assume that if you had it before that it’s made the same way somewhere else.

Spanish phrases vegetarians should know

Print it out, screen shot it on your phone—just find a way to have these phrases handy if you’re ordering food and your Spanish is rusty. These are the words and phrases that would be particularly useful for vegetarians:

Spanish Word/Phrase	English Translation
Soy vegetariano/a	I am vegetarian (m/f)
¿Hay platos vegetarianos?	Are there vegetarian dishes?
Sin carne	Without meat
Sin pescado	Without fish
Sin pollo	Without chicken
Sin jamón	Without ham
Verduras	Vegetables
Frutas	Fruits
Legumbres	Legumes
¿Contiene caldo de pollo?	Does it contain chicken broth?
¿Contiene manteca de cerdo/asiento?	Does it contain pork lard?
¿Se prepara con … ?	Is it prepared with … ?
No como carne, pollo, pescado, jamón, manteca ni caldo hecho con estos ingredientes.	I do not eat meat, chicken, fish, ham, lard, or broth made with these ingredients.

Remember, clear communication is key, especially in regions where vegetarianism might not be as common—and that means Oaxaca if you’re anywhere but a touristy dinging venue.

Visiting Oaxaca

Use my Oaxaca Travel Guide to plan your trip, and take at least a few of my recommended day trips around Oaxaca or you’ll miss out on a lot of culture.

Safe eating advice

While tap water isn’t safe for drinking, bottled water is readily available. You’ll have a lot of options for street food both in the city, and while visiting the smaller towns on day trips. Read this guide to thoroughly understand the key principles of safely eating street food.

Where to stay

Midrange: La Betulia, a charming B&B linked to the En Vía social enterprise, offers a beautifully renovated, centrally located stay, while El Diablo y La Sandía stands out for its unique, family-run hospitality.

Budget: Casa Angel Hostel is the top budget choice, known for its clean, spacious rooms, full kitchen, free Wi-Fi, and vibrant backpacker atmosphere.

Upscale: For luxury, consider Hotel La Casona de Tita, which offers a quiet, comfortable stay with homemade breakfasts, or Casa de las Bugambilias, best loved for its charming ambiance and gorgeous bedrooms.