I'll echo the praises here - great food, even better people. Rarely do I find service worth commenting on, but when I'm made to feel as welcome as I was here, it really makes for an even more wonderful experience.
But onto the food. First, boudreaulicious is not kidding about the tamales. We had the red mole with chicken, the green mole with pork and the mushrooms with spicy tomato sauce and cilantro. All three were exceptionally good, better than any I've ever had. And they weren't kidding about the tomato sauce being spicy in the mushroom tamale - fiery! I wish I could rank the three but go with your tastes (or get all 3). They were that good!
I also shared the appetizer of wild mushrooms in plantain leaf with cilantro, green onions and green sauce. I enjoyed it very much but I thought other items were better (no insult at all). And yes, plenty of complimentary chips and bean dip, though I would have also liked some kind of house salsa - not a big deal.
For my main course, I had the cornish hen which came with what is described as a dark, semi-sweet mole sauce. It seemed to me to be somewhere between the mole rojo that came with the tamales and a mole poblano. In any event, the hen was beautifully cooked, the mole delicious (perhaps a tad sweeter than I typically prefer), and the housemade tortillas perfect for cleaning your plate of mole.
As an interesting side point, the hen was served with a large mound of a mayonnaise-based pasta salad, the likes of which you'd expect to find at Jewel. In his review, Sula thought this seemed odd and suggested this might be the result of the chef's experience at Anteprima. But the minute my food was served, one of my dining companions who is from Mexico (and has spent the better part of his life there, though not Oaxaca) pointed at it, laughing, and joked that it's as if we were at a high end Mexican wedding. He said that the pasta salad is exactly what he's seen at what he described as "many of the fancy weddings" he's been to in Mexico. So there's another perspective, though I suspect we'll all eventually agree that it's not the high point of the dish.
I did have a chance to try the carne asada and agree that it was beautifully prepared - nicely charred, medium rare as ordered, and just tender enough.
They were out of tres leches by the time we ordered dessert, but the zucchini cake was very tasty so no complaints here.
Overall, an excellent dinner, and I liked what they did with the old Rique's space. It was nice to see the place packed - I hope it stays that way. I will definitely be back.