The Weekly Eater: At Tlaxcalli, you’re expected to keep an open mind about the meaning of Mexican food

At the surface level, every restaurant is in the business of food service, but behind each there is a driving purpose. For some it’s simply to make money. Those are the places I tend to avoid. Others are driven by a sense of service, hospitality, artistry or education, or some combination of those values.

Count Julio Gutierrez, chef-owner of Tlaxcalli (“tortilla” in the Aztec language Nahuatl), in the latter two categories, and woe to anyone who challenges his views about Mexican cuisine. In his view, it is certainly not the Tex-Mex cuisine that originated north of Mexico’s border and spread across the country, thanks to a combination of migration and fast-food renditions.

My advice, if you dare cross Tlaxcalli’s threshold, is to go in with an open mind, a willingness to listen and try things his way. You may walk away from the experience both pleased and informed.

Gutierrez grew up in Arizona, but his family hailed from Sinaloa on the northwestern coast of Mexico, known as the country’s breadbasket because of its main industries of agriculture, fishing and livestock breeding. He often crossed the border, in the process learning the foodways of the mother country.

Shortly after moving to Hawaii, he noticed the dearth of good Mexican cuisine and nine years ago began cooking up his family recipes at farmers markets. He won a following that led to a food truck, and in 2018 to his first brick-and-mortar location, Santacruz Taco Co., in Kukui Plaza, an experiment that closed a year later.

With more ambitious plans to showcase the depth of Mexico’s cuisine — and wean people off what he considers stateside aberrations such as jumbo rice-filled burritos and chimichangas — he opened Tlaxcalli last fall.

IT’S BEEN a challenge, as people have expectations based on the only kind of Mexican food they know, whether that is tacos filled with lettuce and cheese or dishes layered with sour cream and pinto beans, or Spanish rice introduced by colonizers.

The menu makes the rules quite clear: “Please note that we do not serve rice! We politely decline menu modifications and substitutions. If you agree, you can proceed to ordering.”

There is seating indoors and out, where colorful picnic tables await, providing a familial setting for “normal” people and a bright photogenic backdrop for food “influencers.”

Gutierrez offers a Sunday brunch full of egg dishes, such as chorizo con huevos and huevos a la Mexicana scrambled with tomatoes, bell peppers and onions, at $14 per dish. Otherwise, lunch and dinner menus are the same.

I was drawn to the menu after taking a peek at it in the restaurant’s window. For one thing, it included none of the generic usual suspects that fill most Mexican menus in Honolulu. No burritos, no fajitas; only such temptations as oxtails in chile pasilla sauce ($17), enmoladas (chicken-filled tortillas) smothered with housemade mole sauce ($15) and pork rib tips in chile verde sauce ($15).

I was swooning from the start over Tlaxcalli’s ceviche de atun ($16), or in more familiar parlance, “pokeviche,” wedding the principles behind local poke and Mexican citrus-“cooked” tuna. Gutierrez’s version incorporates large cubes of fresh ahi, smoky chipotle, briny squid ink and spices, with a splash of bright citrus for a poke/ceviche like no other in town. This was heaven and I was rendered speechless, the only sound coming from me was, “Ummmm,” over and over again.

I also got lost in the intricate blend of 20-plus chiles and spices that go into Gutierrez’s mole, which fills the bottom of a bowl of king mushroom mole ($15), the perfect carrier for the sauce. It’s a dish created for vegetarians, but the meaty texture of the Big Island Alii mushrooms, combined with the richness of the spiced chocolate sauce, should satisfy any meat eater.

Meanwhile, kalua pork enthusiasts will find a kindred dish in cochinita pibil, pork shoulder marinated in achiote, spices and citrus, wrapped in banana leaf, shredded and served with pickled red onions, to be eaten with creamy stewed Peruvian beans or tortillas.

Oxtail lovers can get a Mexican take on this local staple, with the sections of meat slow-braised until tender in a non-hot chile pasilla sauce. Overall, the chile sauces here are not particularly fiery. The variety of chiles used in Mexico are embraced for their flavor, not the intensity of pain they can inflict.

ALTHOUGH THE food here generally needs no extra sauce, a house green can be used to add a bright, verdant punch, or a red can add more savory notes to a dish. One of my favorites was on the hotter side, a lilikoi sauce spiked with Hawaiian chiles that accompanied campechana ($18), a seafood cocktail of shrimp, fish and octopus, with tomatoes and cucumbers in a chilled seafood broth. It’s served in a colossal glass goblet with crisp tostadas, an impressive presentation for a cocktail that easily could serve four.

Considering the attention- grabbing nature of the entrees, it’s easier to forget about the basics, soft tortilla tacos that sell for $5 apiece ($6 for fish). Smoked brisket is a good place to start, the taco simply served with a layer of cabbage, a sprinkling of Mexican cheese and lemon wedge. There’s also braised beef tongue, braised beef cheeks, and my usual favorite of pork sprinkled with raw onions and topped with a sprig of cilantro.

I’m not sure if Gutierrez will expand dessert options, but for now there is churro bread pudding, soft and eggy, topped with a crunchy cinnamon-sugar churro, adding up to two desserts in one.

TLAXCALLI

1128 Smith St.

Food: ***1/2

Service: ***1/2

Ambiance: ****

Value: ****

>> Call: 888-5200

>> Hours: 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Mondays to Saturdays; 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday brunch

>> Prices: Lunch or dinner for two $40 to $50; BYOB

Ratings compare similar restaurants:

**** – excellent

*** – very good

** – average

* – below average

Nadine Kam’s restaurant reviews are conducted anonymously and paid for by the Star-Advertiser. Reach her at nkam@staradvertiser.com.