The Bib Gourmand distinction is awarded to restaurants that offer a multicourse meal at a reasonable price. And while all are unique and the definition of reasonable varies from country to country, the standard of quality is always high.
We’re spotlighting a new Bib restaurant with tips on what dish to order, the best time to stop by, and everything in between. Whether it’s fluffy pizzas in Washington, D.C., or a neighborhood bistro with a famous fish in Toronto, our selection of Bib Gourmand spots will leave both your stomach and wallet satisfied.
With an enviable view over the central square of Oaxaca City, Cobarde could have joined the list of great restaurants offering the traditional moles and tortilla dishes that have turned the city into a foodie capital. Instead, they stand out with an inventive and globally inspired menu, pulling in touches from Chef Pako Cortés’s experience in kitchens across Mexico, New York, Barcelona, and Japan. Naan, freshly toasted on a tandoor, is topped with beef tongue, capers, and yuzu aioli. Carbonara pasta is made with ramen noodles and a piquant kick from Mexican macha salsa and XO seafood sauce from Hong Kong.
“We knew it would be a great challenge to depart from Oaxacan cuisine in such an emblematic space, but we wanted to extend the range of flavors inside of the gastronomic offering,” Cortés says. “I describe it as food of inspiration.”
Check out what our Inspectors have to say about Cobarde here, and below, learn from Chef Cortés about the restaurant’s menu and mission.
What’s the dish to order at Cobarde?
It’s a very difficult question to answer because it’s like asking which of your children is your favorite. Each plate has its own history. However, our customer’s favorite dish is the chicken dumplings. They’re our version of a dumpling: a chicken wing stuffed with a filling of pork, ginger, and fish sauce, coated in a Gochujang sauce. I think that our dumplings have been received so well because it’s a party of flavors, where spicy and sweet come together, and it also identifies with many flavors that we have in Mexican cuisine.
Personally, as a chef, my favorite plate is the sweet squash salad, which has a cucumber-yogurt raita dressing. The squash is cooked at a low temperature with sweet spices, XO sauce, pistachios, and local Oaxacan beans in a red curry. I really like to play with vegetables and extract their maximum potential and flavor through various spices and techniques.
What price range can customers expect at Cobarde?
The price range varies from $550 to $750 pesos per person (about $25 to $40 USD).
What is the best time of day to stop by?
The terrace of Cobarde has one of the best views of the Templo de Santo Domingo church in the heart of Oaxaca, so really any time of day is unique. But I’d recommend right at 6:30 p.m., when the sun is setting and the last rays fall on the temple, transitioning into night for an incredible evening.
What is the idea behind Cobarde?
The idea of Cobarde came from a need to share a good meal with good drinks. It started with a vision to create a space with good mezcal, offering high-end, non-Oaxacan food in the heart of Oaxaca. We knew it would be a great challenge to depart from Oaxacan cuisine in such an emblematic space, but we wanted to extend the range of flavors inside of the gastronomic offering.
We love to think of Cobarde as a place that surprises with its vision and quality of drinks, a place to share a table and a good conversation, with the view of Santo Domingo as only a part of the setting to decorate a great evening. The most important thing for us is that people leave Cobarde talking about the food and the experience.
How would you describe your approach to food and cooking?
We like to define Cobarde as casual haute cuisine. We want to make people feel relaxed when they visit and try dishes that have a lot of work and technique behind them. We want to preserve the feeling of sitting down to eat at a Mexican table where dishes are shared – dishes with new flavors, textures, smells, and unique elements, like our naan.
The focus of the food comes 100 percent from capturing my history as a chef, cook, diner, foodie – all my experience, travels, and the people who have inspired me in the kitchens I’ve worked in in Mexico, New York, Barcelona, and Japan. For that reason, Cobarde has a unique style and it’s difficult to define it with a nationality or type of cuisine. I describe it as food of inspiration.
How did you conceive of a menu that is delicious, yet good value?
From the beginning, Cobarde wanted to be a place where people could enjoy a fair portion and a bill that’s not large. Every day we seek to offer the best quality of product that we can find inside the country, especially with local producers. It’s very important for us to have most of the production of our dishes taking place within the restaurant by our team. This not only helps us to have a good margin and set fair prices, but also allows us to ensure that our product is controlled by us and of the best quality.
Hero image: Lizet Ortiz / Cobarde
Thumb Image: Francisco García Gómez / Cobarde
