El Tacuate Mexican Restaurant

Critic Craig LaBan calls El Tacuate one of the best Mexican restaurants at the Jersey Shore: “Few restaurateurs pay more attention to the details necessary to re-create the flavors of their home in coastal Oaxaca than Carmela and Samuel Velazquez, down to the earthenware comal that lends their stellar tortillas a distinctive texture. They even import river stones, which are heated over flames then dropped into the bubbling caldo de piedra, a seafood stew in homage to the Indigenous Tacuate people of Santa Maria Zacatepec. I have a long roster of favorites coming from this tiny but tidy corner space, including the banana leaf-wrapped tamales laced with mole negro and red-sauced tender pork, and the massive huaraches topped with fatty, flavorful nuggets of al pastor. But the winner is always El Tacuate’s epic molcajete. This carved volcanic stone bowl comes fringed with nopal wings shaved to look like a wig of green hair, and its center is piled high with a bonanza of shrimp, chorizo, spiced pork, and chicken dunked into a pool of two blended sauces, a fiery salsa a la diabla and salsa macha with two distinctive imported chilies — guajillo and costeño — that lends each bite swagger, heat, and depth.”