Restaurant Week at Oyamel is a loud, crowded, and chaotic affair. On Tuesday night, the tables were full and the waitstaff already looked haggard at 7 p.m. Our waitress’s explanation of the Restaurant Week menu was barely audible over the din; luckily, the instructions are also printed at the top of the menu. For $35.08, diners can choose three “antojito” (Mexican-style tapas) courses, one taco, and dessert. The selection is decent – each antojito course has four options, plus four types of tacos and two desserts.

Oyamel has several ceviche dishes on the regular menu, so we thought it wise to order the salmon ceviche, along with the “‘Gaspacho estilo Morelia” salad for our first course. The salmon came dressed in a vinaigrette of mezcal and tossed with chilies, cilantro, and cucumbers. Also, see that foamy stuff in the picture? That’s “mezcal air,” a nod to the current molecular gastronomy trend. While I was initially gleeful at the prospect of eating “air”, it turns out that air doesn’t really have much flavor, be it the regular or mezcal variety. In the end, the ceviche tasted a little one-dimensional, save the occasional pop of heat from the diced chili pieces.

The gazpacho was even more confounding. It is a salad of diced jicama, mango, watermelon, and cucumber. When the salad arrived, our waiter squeezed some Mexican sour orange juice over the top. Unfortunately, it was remarkably similar to regular orange juice. Mostly, the gazpacho tasted like a fruit salad that was inexplicably sprinkled with the tiniest shavings of queso fresco. Had the pieces of cheese been bigger, or the orange juice actually tart, the flavor combination might have risen to something more exciting.