Best markets in Oaxaca

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During our month-long stay in Oaxaca we attempted a healthy midweek lifestyle to offset our vacation-like weekends. Almost every day we would pick up some rotisserie chicken from various local vendors and then visit one of Oaxaca’s best markets to collect some fruit and veg.

We came to learn that each of these Oaxaca markets were filled with other surprises and specialities. There would be food and drink vendors, fresh juices and traditional Mexican ice creams called ‘nieves’. The markets would be broken up into different districts of goods. There were areas just for fruit, or bread, or mole, or even pets! Sundays at the markets of Oaxaca are big days for barbecue. A tradition I was delighted to come across at the beginning rather than end of our trip!

We recommend staying central in Oaxaca city. We did that ourselves and it made everything so easy and walkable. First, we stayed at a Booking.com apartment in the Centro neighbourhood. For our last couple of nights, we treated ourselves to an upgrade at Suites de la Parra. This hotel was set right beside the central markets of Oaxaca city so the perfect base to explore the best markets in Oaxaca.

Mercado 20 de Noviembre – best market for the Smoke Alley experience

Mercado 20 de Noviembre is at the very centre of town. Food vendors and bread stalls make up almost the entirety of the inside of the market. Just aisle and aisles of bread (even though bread is generally uncommon in Mexican cuisine). 

We ate here a couple of times, including the most popular looking restaurant that wasn’t barbecue, La Abuelita. The mole chicken and tamales were tasty, but not as impressive as the food we had eaten outside of the market.

Towards the end of our trip, we ate at the market’s famed Smoke Alley or Pasillo de Humo.

It was all a bit chaotic so I am not 100% sure how the setup worked exactly. I *think* you pick your meat vendor/barbeque-er, and pay them for your cooked chorizos, tasajo (beef), and cecina (spice-rubbed/marinated pork). When you sit down at a table, someone from a different business looks after those tables. From them, you can order your sides and drinks. There was an old woman walking around with stacks of tortilla that you can buy – yet another mouth to feed (wait a second, wasn’t that supposed to be my role?!). So lots of parties involved to make up your lunch. It’s impossible to say that it was bad value, but the previous two Sunday’s we had also spent eating barbecue at the markets too and had a more authentic and better value experience.

Mercado IV Centenario – best market for Sunday barbecue

We had one of those better experiences on our first Sunday in town. I stumbled upon a grill at the market next to our apartment, Mercado IV Centenario.

The market itself was nothing to write home about. Just a couple of stalls selling veg and raw meat, with a small string of juice bars. A truly local market. At any one time about half of the stalls were empty. But on that Sunday morning, I saw a slew of barbecues being set up with hot charcoal and piles of meats.

The meat from Carniceria Hermanos Sumano was amazing, ridiculously portioned, and even more ridiculously inexpensive. Here we became accidentally spoiled for our Sunday barbecues to come. We discovered later that they were a butcher first, and street food stall second, only on Sundays. Comparing this to the stall we went to in smoke alley simply was no comparison. Though Smoke Alley is more of an experience unto itself.

Tlacolula Market – best market in the Oaxaca region

Tlacolula Market, one of the – if not the most – famous markets in the region of Oaxaca. It is about 45 minutes outside of the city. On Sundays it sprawls out into the town for what seems like forever. The market contains EVERYTHING. Remember those ‘districts’ I talked about? At Tlacolula Market, these districts were more like markets of their own.

One entire section of the hall was freshly made bread, which the city was so famous for producing (our guide told us that most of the bread sold in the markets in Oaxaca city actually comes from Tlacolula). Another section was laid with gigantic pots sitting precariously over even more gigantic flames, full of molten hot goat barbecoa. I was genuinely scared to walk down the hall of this section. If one of these pots fell at least 20 people would be scarred for life with third degree burns.

Of course, barbecue stalls entirely made up one of the sections. There was nowhere to really sit down and eat this barbecue, so we saw several people standing holding with oversized basket plates, eating their meat and tortillas.

We actually didn’t get this barbecue, as I had just opted for some delicious spatchcock grilled chicken, and Sam wanted the famous barbacoa. But we are certain we can recommend eating it here for an ultra-casual stand up (literally) lunch.

Other markets in Oaxaca

Mercado Benito Juárez is immediately north of Mercado 20 de Noviembre. You may not even notice you have walked from one into the other. It primarily stocks cheap goods for tourists and locals, but is the best market in Oaxaca to discover the occasional gem of a fruit stall, or an abuelita dishing out bowls of traditional Tejate.

Another weekend we visited La Cosecha Organic Market. This is by far the best market in Oaxaca to discover traditional Oaxacan drinks. We particularly enjoyed Pozontle and Tepache here.

Near our apartment, outside the magnificent Basilica of Nuestra Señora de Soledad, was a tiny outdoor market with seven or eight Neverias. Some of these ice cream stalls have been around for years. Neveria El Niagra was our favourite and it was founded in 1927.

There are also a couple of stalls here like La Soledad selling traditional Oaxacan sweets and cakes.

We also did a walk through of the sprawling and chaotic Central de Abastos market, following in the steps of the great Antony Bourdain (but wishing we had a local guide like he did).

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