The 36 best restaurants in Mexico City
For the past three years, post-pandemic, the excitement for Mexico City and its expansive dining scene has seen few signs of slowing down. The tourist corridor of Condesa/Roma has mushroomed with restaurants, bars, and coffee shops – there seems to be a hi-fi listening room with natural wine and small plates on every corner. Michelin stars are now being anointed, in a somewhat haphazard manner. And an exciting nuevo-retro taqueria moment is in full swing, with rotating spits of al pastor in different shades and proteins. The saturation of dining options may mean that there is more mediocrity than before, but bad meals are still few and far between. In this list of the best restaurants in Mexico City, the reputable stalwarts and classic institutions remain, and we’ve selected the new additions from the middle ground.
Every review on this list has been written by a Condé Nast Traveller journalist who knows the destination and has visited that activity. When choosing things to do, our editors consider landmarks and experiences that offer an insider’s view of a destination, keeping authenticity, location, service, and sustainability credentials top of mind. This gallery has been updated with new information since its original publication date.
Lina
Through an arched door, Lina emerges into a warmly lit corridor with drop-down ceilings and a cosy, intimate feel, all blond wood, white walls, beige brickwork and pendant lighting. The bar anchors the space on the left and a long, open kitchen showcases a wood fire grill and the cooks in clean, white aprons hovering over dishes. The vibe is homey but elegant. The menu follows the rhythms of the season and what local farmers are growing. Fish, vegetables, and salads shine. Most dishes are based on classic presentations like salad, ceviches, and grilled meat, for example, but always with a gentle creativity and beautiful plating. A Caesar salad is reimagined as a sultry dip for sparklingly fresh lettuces, radishes and herbs. The fish is draped in a corduroy-esque ribbing of green mango and cucumber. A boy choy kissed by carbon with macadamia nuts and green curry. For the meat-n-potatoes eater, there is a delicious, albeit straightforward, steak, grilled to mid-rare and flanked by a fan of avocado.
Address: Lina, Av. Yucatán 147, Roma Nte., Cuauhtémoc, 06700 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico
Website: lina.mx
Fugaz
Quirky and interesting without being overwrought, Lacorazza's culinary mind is creative and thoughtful. Not all of the dishes work all of the time, but that's part of the fun, and the menu changes every week, so there is always something new to try out. Recently, marinated, raw tuna cubes sat on top of a creamy hazelnut and bean puree while a fatty pork jowl was balanced by a tart salsa verde and sprigs of purslane. Desserts are simple, like pears poached in vermouth, sprinkled with cacao nibs and a cloud of whipped cream. There are three tostadas on the menu that never change. Fugaz is casual in the best sense of the word and first-rate for a number of uses: take a book and perch on their doorstep with a glass of wine; have multiple rounds of tostadas with friends; take your mom when she wants to see what the cool kids are doing; a Tinder date that you can bow out of quickly, if need be.
Address: Fugaz, C. Orizaba 3 B, Roma Nte., Cuauhtémoc, 06700 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico
Website: instagram.com/fuuuugaz
Maza Bistrot
Under-the-radar in a neighbourhood chock full of restaurants and bars, Maza Bistrot operates quietly but distinctly. The high-end of restaurants in Mexico City has been dominated by Mexican and Mediterranean-leaning concepts for a decade: what works is often a copy of the old. Maza Bistrot brings new flavours – via India – in a boxy space with tall ceilings and amber lighting. There are spacious wooden tables, a long banquette and a small bar at the back. The food is the main event here. While a few French touchstones are sprinkled throughout (onion soup with a touch of cumin; buttery escargot served with naan; mussels with rasam) Chanana transports you to the streets and home kitchens of north western Indian. There's biryani baked under pastry en croute, a Mumbai-style slider with squishy housemade buns holding spiced potato; pakoras, curries, and raj kachori are well-calibrated and delicious, showered in crunchy bits, sauces, seeds and herbs. There are a few Indian desserts like kulfi, gulab jamun, and a crepe. Mexico City needs more restaurants like this.
Address: Maza Bistrot, Plaza Washington, C. Dinamarca 47B, Juárez, 06600 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico
Website: instagram.com/mazabistrot
Contramar
The artsy-upper crust of the La Condesa neighbourhood, hangers-on following the scene, businessmen on lengthy lunches, and a smattering of tourists crowd the tables here. At Contramar, you'll fully understand why lunch is the most important – and longest – meal of the day in Mexico City: By 2pm on Fridays, the brandy and rosé start flowing and lunch turns into multiple rounds of food and drink, smoke breaks on the sidewalk, and a place to be seen. The food is well-executed: tuna tostadas with chipotle mayonnaise and fried leeks, bracing ceviches and aguachiles, whole grilled fish a la talla served with warm tortillas and refried black beans. Dessert is exceptional – a waiter will bring over a tray to show you what's available, but just order as many as you can handle.
Address: Contramar, Durango 200, Roma Nte., Cuauhtémoc, 06700 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico
Website: contramar.com.mx
Hugo
Hugo is a wine bar by Isabel Castillo and Thierry Chouquet, in the trendiest nodule of Condesa. Michael Crespo, their American-Filipino chef, cut his teeth in the kitchens of NYC, and that style of minimal, small-plate, high-quality cooking is a large part of the charm of this restaurant (even though you'll be paying NYC prices). His deeply caramelised, borderline burnt Basque cheesecake is known about town. Everything dish fits in the five-inch diameter of a side plate – delicious, you just want more of it: Scallops with supreme citrus and pink peppercorn, gnocchis in brown butter and chicken jus, a radicchio salad, a pork Milanese. The drink menu here is wine, wine, and wine, and lots of it natural and orange. Recently, the group expanded to the corner, opening a still-unnamed, larger restaurant where pasta is the focus. With crisp white tablecloths, perfect lighting, and serious wine service, with Crespo's expertise in the kitchen, their sister restaurant is poised to shine – once they figure out a name for it.
Address: Hugo, Av. Veracruz 38, Roma Nte., Cuauhtémoc, 06700 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico
Website: hugoelwinebar.com
El Turix
This tiny, bare-bones taqueria normally has a line snaking out the front. If there's no space to squeeze in at the tiny steel counter, most people stand out in front to eat. Office workers with their ties thrown over their shoulders, passersby refuelling, and construction workers stop by here. El Turix excels in the cochinita pibil department – pork rubbed with achiote and citrus, buried underground and slowly smoke-roasted. The meat is topped with a pickled red onion and served on panuchos (lightly fried tortillas filled with black beans), tacos, or tortas. Note that the scarlet-coloured achiote seed dyes everything an electric orange, so be careful not to stain your clothes while eating. On the museum circuit in Polanco? Missed your reservation at Pujol? El Turix may actually be the best place to eat in Polanco if you're looking for a quick refuel.
Address: El Turix, Av. Emilio Castelar 212, Polanco, Polanco III Secc, Miguel Hidalgo, 11540 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico
Website: instagram.com/turix_oficial
Ultramarinos Demar
Shiny steel and seafoam green tiles lend a diner-cum-oyster-bar feel to the joint. On a corner, across from their lauded restaurant Martínez, Ultramarinos Delmar is couple Lucho Martínez and Fernanda Torres' temple to pristine seafood. This restaurant runs on the freshest seafood available in Mexico City, complemented by generous portions of butter and chives. The raw bar, featuring oysters, clams, and a dish of raw kampachi and salmon, showered in olive oil and capers, sourced from Swan Oyster Depot, eases you into a meal. There is shrimp cocktail, crab claws, tostadas and crudos. The salt-baked fish is perfectly executed, napped in butter. I'd like to be buried in their lobster roll. Like all of Martínez's cooking, the execution is on point. There are a few fun wildcards: queso fundido, a melting pool of cheese with a spicy fish chorizo, to be wrapped in flour tortillas and crab cakes whose sweet flesh with no errant shells is reason enough to spend your paycheck.
Address: Ultramarinos Demar, Merida 21, Roma Nte., Cuauhtémoc, 06700 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico
Website: demar.rest
Galanga Thai House
In the patio of a beautiful, open-air mansion, Galanga Thai House, the defining Thai restaurant in the city, is steered by powerhouse chef Somsri Raksamran and her Mexican husband, Eleazar. The menu is ample and the dishes elegant, with thoughtful touches throughout: banana leaves folded just so; fans of cucumber; the tod moon gung speared with ginger. The flavour of gaeng kiew wan, a green curry with beef and baby eggplant, extends into tomorrow with herbs and chiles. Her desserts are also elaborate, showered in edible flowers, featuring cheery doughs dyed with morning glory and pandan. The couple also owns Kin-Thai Eatery, which focuses on Thai street food and their most recent creation, Somsaa Wine and Tea Room in another stunning, Porfirian-era manoir.
Address: Galanga Thai House, Monterrey 204, Roma Nte., Cuauhtémoc, 06700 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico
Website: instagram.com/galangathaihouse
Masala & Maíz
Masala y Maíz brings together a casual Mexican lunch restaurant with flavours that feel personal to owners Norma Listman and Saqib Keval, particularly as it incorporates recipes from the latter's Indian heritage. The always-changing menu often includes esquites, traditional Mexican corn kernels, with fresh coconut milk, ginger, turmeric, and topped with purslane, and the fermented rice pancake called uttapam is made here with garbanzo beans and nixtamalised blue corn. With a cookbook about to drop (2026), a Chef’s Table Netflix episode, and a recent move to a more spacious location in Centro, Masala & Maíz is maturing into a true fine-dining restaurant. Their captivating mix of Mexican technique and Indian touchstones has been refined, and she’s all grown up and ready to preen in a sexy space that reflects their evolution. A few early winners, like shell-on prawns in ghee infused with vanilla, remain, but the menu is mostly new, with a whole roasted kuku poussin and vinegary mussels in salsa balchao, with a full cocktail menu and coffee, to boot.
Address: Masala & Maíz, C. Artículo 123 116, Colonia Centro, Centro, Cuauhtémoc, 06040 Cuauhtémoc, CDMX, Mexico
Website: masalaymaiz.com
Mi Compa Chava
Seafood is a hangover cure in Mexico, and almost everyone eating here is intent on either fixing last night’s damage or getting a head start on creating today’s. On the sidewalk, crowds of locals and tourists alike line up for avid fisherman Salvador Orozco’s creative takes on Sinaloa and Baja seafood. The artful aguachiles (raw shrimp in spicy sauce) rightfully land on almost every table, as do selections from the cold bar, which come with house-made hot sauces. Anything from the raw half of the menu is a sure bet, though cooked dishes like the fish birria quesadilla can help fill out a meal. The airy space, bright-yellow metal tables, and open kitchen running the length of the room support chef Salvador Orozco’s vision of a Mexican coastal town seafood cart, while a plant-laden parklet holds outdoor tables.
Address: Mi Compa Chava, Zacatecas 172, Roma Nte., Cuauhtémoc, 06700 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico
Website: instagram.com
Restaurante El Cardenal
An old-world elegance and delightful formality, without any stuffiness or snobbery, colour everything here – the space, the staff, and the presentation of the food. The lively, fun vibes come from the roaming musicians and the celebratory mood of nearly everyone sitting down to the classic Mexican dishes served using the dairy from the restaurant’s own farm. Big Mexican families dress up to celebrate all kinds of occasions at the grand round tables, ladies who lunch linger long at the smaller tables, and in between them, the groups of tourists soak in the atmosphere. Most of the dishes here are classics, prepared with well-sourced ingredients and simply presented. The restaurant has its own ranch, so anything with dairy is a must-order, including the conchas with nata (sweet shell-shaped bread with cream). Equally important to try are the seasonal dishes, which center on uniquely Mexican ingredients only available for short periods of time – like maguey flowers or corn fungus called huitlacoche.
Address: Restaurante El Cardenal, Calle Palma 23 Cuauhtémoc, C. de la Palma 23, Centro Histórico de la Cdad. de México, Centro, Cuauhtémoc, 06000 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico
Website: restauranteelcardenal.com
Maizajo
Covered floor to ceiling in handmade salmon tiles, Maizajo is a multi-faceted space in Colonia Condesa, with a crush of people at the entrance. Maizajo is a tortilleria (a shop selling masa and fresh tortillas in a variety of shades), a taqueria, and a full-service restaurant. One way to experience Maizajo is similar to any other Mexico City taqueria experience but with better tortillas, ordering, say, a taco de longaniza and a taco de bistec, anointed with salsas from the salsa bar. Other is to dig through the menu for some of their more unique offerings, like lamb flautas, crunchy and earthy; a quesabirria made with mushrooms; or the taco de persa, which features a rotating, cheffy taco, pulled from the special monthly events they do called Maizajadas, inviting local chefs to riff on the Maizajo platform in very fun, wild parties thrown at the taco bar. The restaurant upstairs serves more elaborate dishes like mole, grilled meats, and plated tamales.
Address: Maizajo, Fernando Montes de Oca 113, Colonia Condesa, Cuauhtémoc, 06140 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico
Website: maizajo.com
Pizza Félix
An orange neon marks the entrance to Pizza Félix, tucked down an alleyway between Quentin and Bar Félix on Roma's main drag. An open-air, covered patio, perfect for the always-temperate CDMX, has a high bar lined with stools and cute mismatched furniture. Solid pizzerias in Mexico City are few and far between, but Felix succeeds mightily. Neapolitan-style pies emerge from the wood-oven, topped with house-made sausage or tender meatballs. The menu also offers several great salads, including a kale Caesar and a zippy fennel-and-burrata number. Whether you're coming in for just a pizza or a longer, coursed-out meal of grilled sardines and carbonara pasta, you can't go wrong. Servers are eager to bring you anything you need, be it salt or a phone charger. You'll want to make your way here for a good meal that won't break the bank.
Address: Pizza Félix, Av. Álvaro Obregón 64, Roma Nte., Cuauhtémoc, 06700 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico
Website: pizzafelix.adomicil.io
Esquina Comun
Equina Común was born out of Ana Dolores González and her partner, Carlos Pérez-Puelles' apartment, an unsanctioned, rabble-rousing, one-dining-room space full of their personal knick-knacks and art on the wall. The restaurant is, perhaps, the first clandestine rooftop restaurant to be awarded a Michelin star, last year. González and Pérez-Puelles consistently defy expectations, redefining what a fine dining restaurant 'should' be. Mexican chef Ana Dolores González, born in Mexico City, lived and cooked in Peru, then ran the corn-focused kitchen at Expendio de Maiz (also on this list), as the brain behind many of their successful dishes, before spreading her wings and flying off to open her own project with her partner, Carlos. Her food is replete with herbs, fruits, and vegetables in interesting combinations and deep, soulful flavours. A recent dish of smoked plantain, featuring shrimp, coconut, and provolone cheese, was richly balanced. A flat iron steak main, accompanied by purple mizuna, yellow beet, and pink mushroom, showcased a rainbow of market vegetables.
Address: Esquina Comun, Fernando Montes de Oca 86, Colonia Condesa, Cuauhtémoc, 06140 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico
Website: instagram.com/esquinacomun
Chuan Bei Wei - 川百味 火锅串串香
This side of Juarez and the Zona Rosa just north has emerged as part of a Chinese and Korean restaurant concentration in the past decade. Even more recently, an electric vein of regional Sichuan restaurants has been opening, bringing an oily chile-inflected sheen to the neighbourhood and a lashing of mouth-tingling Szechuan pepper. Choose between a mild, soy-based broth and a spicy version. The spicy seethes with oil and is painfully delicious, or a combination of the two in a yin-yang formation. You get up to peruse the refrigerators full of beef tendon, raw strips of rib-eye, fish balls, greens, tofu, clams, lotus root, mushrooms, little sausages, and more. Grab what looks good and then dunk away, plopping the ingredients into the soup and fishing them out with chopsticks and ladles. Mix your own dipping sauces from the salsa bar with sesame paste, soy, garlic, hoisin, chile crisp, sugar, and black vinegar.
Address: Chuan Bei Wei - 川百味 火锅串, Hamburgo 234 , Mexico City, 06600
Mexico
Comal Oculto
Under-the-radar in a neighbourhood chock full of restaurants and bars, Maza Bistrot operates quietly but distinctly. The high-end of restaurants in Mexico City has been dominated by Mexican and Mediterranean-leaning concepts for a decade: what works is often a copy of the old. Maza Bistrot brings new flavours – via India in a boxy space with tall ceilings and amber lighting. The food is the main event here. While a few French touchstones are sprinkled throughout (onion soup with a touch of cumin; buttery escargot served with naan; mussels with rasam) Chanana transports you to the streets and home kitchens of north western Indian. There's biryani baked under pastry en croute, a Mumbai-style slider with squishy housemade buns holding spiced potato; pakoras, curries, and raj kachori are well-calibrated and delicious, showered in crunchy bits, sauces, seeds and herbs. There are a few Indian desserts like kulfi, gulab jamun, and a crepe. Mexico City needs more restaurants like this.
Address: Comal Oculto, Calle Gral. Gómez Pedraza 37, San Miguel Chapultepec I Secc, Miguel Hidalgo, 11850 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico
Website: instagram.com
Panadería Rosetta
There are two locations of this lauded bakery from chef Elena Reygadas, who also operates Café NIN, Lardo, and Rosetta, all rooted in Italian-inflected, Mediterranean fare. The European-style bakery cafés are the best of the bunch – perfect for coffee and a sweet roll, or a sandwich and a beer. The pastries, beloved by all, stand out in a city where dry, crumbly, margarine-filled specimens are the norm. The guava and ricotta Danish is dreamy, as are the conchas, a traditional crackly-sugar-crusted Mexican sweetbread. Don't ignore the chocolate-glazed doughnuts, savoury focaccia, and rustic loaves of bread either. Swing by in the morning and get a box of pastries to-go, then eat them back at your hotel or in a city park.
Address: Panadería Rosetta, Colima 179, Roma Nte., Cuauhtémoc, 06700 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico; Panadería Rosetta, Puebla 242, Roma Nte., Cuauhtémoc, 06700 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico
Website: instagram.com/panaderiarosetta
El Mirador de Chapultepec
Open since 1904, this cantina is flush with power-lunchers and chic middle-aged couples. A mahogany-coloured bar and panels on the wall lend an old-school, seasoned feel. Some multi-generational families having formal lunches and businessmen on their third round of tequila – there aren't many women here without men. Eating here is like travelling back in culinary time to 1950s Mexico. The menu features refined, yet somewhat traditional dishes, including hearts of palm salad, beef broth soup (the signature dish), braised tongue, salt-baked fish, and surf-and-turf ceviche with shrimp and raw beef. To dress up, go out, and have an earnest Mexico City fancy cantina experience. Get the gang together, order anything that piques your interest and get a few tequilas deep.
Address: El Mirador de Chapultepec, Av Chapultepec 606, San Miguel Chapultepec I Secc, Miguel Hidalgo, 11850 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico
Website: cantinaelmirador.com
Tacos del Valle
Four four-top tables on the street and a slim counter inside this new-style taqueria, imported from Northern Mexico, give off a nuevo-retro vibe. Since they opened, there has been a perpetual line of customers waiting to snag a table to try these better-than-average bites. Mexico City residents are always eager to sample new taco offerings; the city is the hub of the country's taco culture, and regional variants are highly sought after and beloved. The menu is defined by three trompos, or vertical spits: a classic, red adobo with pork belly; carne asada; and a black pork belly version coated in a carbonised-chile rub, to be slivered and draped onto delicious tortillas, cilantro and onions and anointed with one of their eight (!) salsas that range absolutely no heat to medium-hot, nothing that will blow the roof off of your head. Their signature taco, La Tijuanita, features cheese, avocado, and tender cubes of carne asada (beef) with crispy potato sticks, and is a must.
Address: Tacos del Valle, Av. Álvaro Obregón 130, Roma Nte. Cuauhtémoc, Roma Nte., Álvaro Obregón, 06700 CDMX, Mexico
Website: tacosdelvalle.com
Quintonil
Blond wood, greenish hues, and a back dining room cloaked in vines reflect the earthy modern Mexican menu that focuses on vegetables, mushrooms, roots, and herbs. The Polanco restaurant also operated an off-site garden that grows some of the produce used in the kitchen. There are the Pujol fans and then there are the Quintonil acolytes. Representing a new wave Mexican cooking, the kitchen here serves a long nine-course tasting menu that showcases indigenous Mexican ingredients: corn, beans, squash, chiles, and mushrooms, along with a few meat dishes. You can also order à la carte if you don't want to commit the time and money to the tasting menu. Desserts, like a cheese flan with celeriac ice cream, shine.
Address: Quintonil, Av. Isaac Newton 55, Polanco, Polanco IV Secc, Miguel Hidalgo, 11560 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico
Website: quintonil.com
Expendio de Maiz sin Nombre
Welcome to chef Jesús Tornés’s transported version of a rural kitchen in the state of Guerrero, where he grew up: fresh ingredients, including fruit from his own backyard, sit in baskets, and the clay pots are stacked on the stone wall behind the wide comal. There’s no menu; instead, a staff member asks you after each plate if you’d like another, while the cooks create a symphony of corn-based dishes. Recipes inspired by traditional rural Mexican cuisine, heirloom ingredients, and colourful fruits and vegetables will come at you (slowly – nobody’s in a hurry here) until you cry "Uncle." Bring your most easygoing and food-loving friends, so you can just dig into anything the kitchen serves. But maybe only one or two buddies, since this spot works best for smaller groups.
Address: Expendio de Maiz sin Nombre, Av. Yucatán 84, Roma Nte., Cuauhtémoc, 06700 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico
Website: instagram.com
Los Cocuyos
Cocuyos is a minuscule box that looks out onto the street with a handful of plastic stools, a tiny counter, and a burbling vat of meat. Most people stand. Los Cocuyos is all about meat, submerged in lard, slow-cooked until it falls off the bone and is ready to be folded into tiny tacos. The speciality here is the nasty bits (cheek, tongue, throat, and eyes) and the brisket is some of the best in town. Campechano, a chopped-up mix of beef, longaniza, and a little bit of everything else, is a must-order, as is the tripe, which will convince anyone who was previously on the fence about offal. Each taco is served with two tortillas, brushed with cooking fat and sprinkled with onion and cilantro. Order three to start.
Address: Los Cocuyos, Simón Bolívar 59, Centro Histórico de la Cdad. de México, Centro, Cuauhtémoc, 06000 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico
Máximo Bistrot
Reservations are a must – Máximo Bistrot is one of the city's culinary gems, and there aren't many seats or a bar to sit at while waiting for a table. Set in a corner spot in the heart of La Roma, the space is low-lit and understated inside with a half-open kitchen where you can see line cooks at work. The chef, Eduardo García, also owns Lalo!, a more casual daytime spot across the street, and the French brasserie Havre 77. Máximo Bistrot is a farm-to-table restaurant, still a relatively rare thing for Mexico City. The menu changes frequently to reflect the seasons and availability of local produce, and chef Eduardo García sources fruits and vegetables grown on the nearby chinampas of Xochimilco and the surrounding estado. The food is refined and upscale, but retains a bistro-style simplicity: crisp-skinned trout with clams, peas, and wild spinach, or a velvety chicken liver to spread on toast with sweet cherries. Purees, creamy spreads, and sweet sauces find their way onto most plates.
Address: Máximo Bistrot, Av. Álvaro Obregón 65 Bis, Roma Nte., Cuauhtémoc, 06700 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico
Website: maximobistrot.com.mx
El Hidalguense
This two-story, classic Mexico City barbacoa spot is named after Hidalgo, the state where mutton is pit-roasted for barbacoa. It's only open Friday through Sunday, and compared to most barbacoa joints that stand on street corners with folding tables and plastic chairs, El Hidalguense, with its sturdy wooden tables and colourful table runners, is quite fancy. The barbacoa is excellent here. Sheep and goat, rubbed with salt, wrapped in maguey leaves, buried underground with coals, then left to roast slowly overnight, are trucked in from Hidalgo. You order it by weight, and half a kilo is a good starting point for two to four people. Wrap the meat in warm tortillas with salsa, white onion, cilantro, and avocado, and continue eating until you can no longer do so. An order of consommé is an essential part of a barbacoa meal, and other menu items here, like toasted panela cheese, are all great.
Address: El Hidalguense, Campeche 155, Roma Sur, Cuauhtémoc, 06760 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico
Website: instagram.com/elhidalguense_restaurante
El Vilsito
El Vilsito operates as a car mechanic's garage by day, and a taqueria by night. Around 8pm, the al pastor spit crackles to life and the crowds descend for pre- or post-drinking fuel. The open space spills out onto the street and the menu is painted on the wall. Of the thousands of taquerias in Mexico City, El Vilsito is one of the best for al pastor. The heavily spiced pork is shaved off a vertical spit with machetes and folded into tacos with a sliver of pineapple, chopped onion, and cilantro. If you want cheese, order a gringa, a flour tortilla that sandwiches the al pastor with cheese. Salsa sits in hulking molcajetes on the counter. Start with two al pastor tacos and then repeat as needed.
Address: El Vilsito, Petén 248 y, Av. Universidad, Narvarte Poniente, 03020 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico
Website: el-vilsito.foodjoyy.com
Restaurante Nicos
The one-room dining room is formal but not fancy – white tablecloths are balanced out by simple wooden chairs and ageing restrooms (the restaurant has been open since 1957), and you'll be welcomed with a warm handshake. The chef, Gerardo Vazquez Lugo, started the Mexican chapter of the Slow Food movement, so expect dishes that are sourced very carefully. Nico's is a serious restaurant without any pretence. Some dishes, like sopa seca de natas (a sort of crêpe and tomato cream cake) can be traced back to France's influence on Mexico in the mid-19th century, while others are based on regional recipes unknown in urban Mexico City. Order a mix of both, just be sure to try one of the many variations of mole and the warm tortillas whose corn is nixtamalised in-house. If you want a meal unlike anything you can find in urban Mexico City, go to Nico's for a transformative lunch. The cooks are excellent, the menu is interesting but traditional, and the service is polished.
Address: Restaurante Nicos, Av. Cuitláhuac 3102, Claveria, Azcapotzalco, 02080 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico
Website: nicos.mx
Meroma
Meroma opens onto the street with a short bar and a handful of stools – the perfect place for starter cocktails or some bar bites. Up a set of stairs, the dining room is small and cosy, with neutral tones and a slim outdoor space for al fresco dining. This classy and relaxed mid-range restaurant, which serves veggie-focused seasonal cuisine, isn't Pujol. Still, it's just as thoughtful. The menu features seasonal vegetables from husband-and-wife chef duo Rodney Cusic and Mercedes Bernal. He's American but speaks fluent Spanish, she's from Mexico, and together they're great at sourcing stellar, local ingredients that shine in elegant, balanced dishes. There's a pleasing mix: oysters and fish, lamb and quail, and pastas that are hands down the best in the city. Don't miss the orecchiette with lamb merguez sausage and roasted broccoli.
Address: Meroma, Colima 150, Roma Nte., Cuauhtémoc, 06700 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico
Website: meroma.mx
Limosneros
Juan Pablo Ballesteros, the son of the family that owns the storied Cafe de Tacuba, restored this Spanish colonial building that was originally home to a local artisan's guild. The impressionable two-story space has tall doorways, handsome volcanic stone walls, and arched brick ceilings. It offers a glimpse of the past in a modern era, which is reason enough to come. Like the space, the menu tweaks classics in an impressive and creative manner. Chef Atzin Santos favours seasonal ingredients and has a knack for transforming rare insects into approachable plates. Standout dishes include carnitas made with tender rabbit, a soup with foraged greens, and wagyu beef and fig tacos from the six-course taco tasting menu. Swing by for a nice snack and to try some arresting agave distillations that aren't tequila or mezcal in the early evening. Nice place for a date, too.
Address: Limosneros, Pje. Allende 3, Centro Histórico de la Cdad. de México, Centro, Cuauhtémoc, 06010 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico
Website: limosneros.com.mx
Taqueria El Greco
This ramshackle taqueria has been humbly serving its Mexico City neighbourhood since the mid-70s. Not much has changed inside – there's one bare lightbulb on a cord, a few wobbly tables, and the same three employees who know the space like the back of their hands. Well-seasoned taquerias like El Greco are harder and harder to come by in Condesa, where rising rents have been the death knell for old-school institutions. But the tacos at El Greco are top-notch. The tacos Doneraky are served Arab-style on a pita instead of a tortilla, and the meat is marinated differently than at other al pastor places, with salt, minced parsley, and onion. The hamburgers aren't half bad either. Whatever you order, though, add a side of beans and a slice of flan for dessert.
Address: Taqueria El Greco, Campeche 440, Hipódromo, Cuauhtémoc, 06170 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico
Website: instagram.com
Ticuchi
Ticuchi's entrance, open to the street, is a kitchen anchored by an expansive comal, a traditional clay cooking surface. The restaurant is from Mexico City culinary powerhouse Enrique Olvera and lives in the revamped former Pujol space. Agave is the focus of the drink menu here; the list is vast, from tequila to mezcal to lesser-known regional distillates like bacanora and sotol. You can sip rare mezcals straight or try them in interesting, balanced house cocktails. An abbreviated menu is dominated by vegetables with an Oaxacan bent. There's lots of snacky stuff to pair with their cocktails, including a sprinkling of insects, guacamole, little tostadas, tamales, and tacos. Try the al pastor tacos, where axiote-rubbed pineapple stands in for pork, or the barbacoa, here made from seared mushrooms.
Address: Ticuchi, Petrarca 254, Polanco, Polanco V Secc, Miguel Hidalgo, 11560 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico
Website: ticuchi.mx
Fonda Margarita
There's often a line at this classic Mexican breakfast joint located in a quiet residential neighbourhood. The dining room is scruffy, featuring long communal tables with plastic picnic benches and an open kitchen. This is as close as you'll get to eating breakfast in a traditional Mexican household. There are five guisados, classic stews cooked in ceramic cauldrons over charcoal, available each day. Order a few of those and huevos con frijoles – eggs scrambled with refried black beans in pork fat. Served with hot tortillas and the smoky house salsa, breakfast here might be the best thing you eat in a week in Mexico City. Stop by for a must-eat breakfast that will probably be hands down the best of your trip. The pitch-perfect renditions of classic Mexican dishes, eaten while rubbing elbows with strangers, sharing tortillas and passing the salsa, are as satisfying culinarily as it is for the soul.
Address: Fonda Margarita, Adolfo Prieto 1364 B, Tlacoquemecatl del Valle, Benito Juárez, 03100 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico
Website: fondamargarita.com.mx
La Polar
Open since 1934, this white-tiled, multi-story restaurant serves just one dish – birria, a goat (sometimes beef or mutton) stew from Jalisco. The tables and chairs are sturdy and the tap beer is oh so cold. There are duelling mariachi bands and a talking parrot for good measure. La Polar has been perfecting its birria recipe – a consommé with tender shreds of meat, clove-spiked red salsa, and chopped white onion – for more than 80 years. The best way to eat it is to fold the meat into warm tortillas, then chase your bite with a spoonful of broth. A side order of avocado rounds out the meal. Get a group to jump over to San Rafael on Thursday or Friday late afternoon to see how the locals kick off the weekend. Pay the duelling mariachi bands for a few songs, order a round of goat stew and cold beer, and let the afternoon slip into evening.
Address: La Polar, C. Guillermo Prieto 129, San Rafael, Cuauhtémoc, 06470 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico
Website: instagram.com
Bar El Sella
The crowd is a mixed bag of doctors digging into fatty plates of pork, casual groups of friends drinking cubas and snacking on chorizo, and the occasional well-dressed, older couple out for lunch. Though technically a bar, Sella is more of an old-world cantina that, like most classics in Mexico, feels Spanish. Jamon serrano, braised octopus with pimenton, and chorizo a la Sidra are all well done here, but the dish that everyone orders is the chamorro – an entire pork shank simmered in its own fat until it falls off the bone, served with warm tortillas, cilantro, onion, and salsa. Come here to experience an insiders-only lunch. Sella is well-known among locals for having one of the best chamorros in town.
Address: Bar El Sella, Dr. Balmis 210, Doctores, Cuauhtémoc, 06720 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico
Website: barelsella.mx
Tamales Doña Emi
The best tamales in Mexico City sell out quickly from this demure storefront on a quiet street in the Roma neighbourhood. While tamales are a common street food, this walk-up shop (with sidewalk tables for those who want to eat on-site) turns the everyday breakfast food into the extraordinary, with the fluffiest masa and a wide variety of flavours, including mushroom with pork, squash blossom with cheese, and a sweet one with figs, nuts, and cream cheese. These are the best, fluffiest, most interesting flavours of tamales in the city. While there is no way to go wrong – they are all great – it’s worth trying some of the specials: like pork loin with olives or beans with cheese and grasshoppers. These tamales require getting up early, so you might just head there alone to make sure your sleeping friends don’t force you to miss out.
Address: Tamales Doña Emi, Jalapa sin número, esquina, Tlaxcala, Roma Sur, Cuauhtémoc, 06760 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico
Website: instagram.com/tamalesdemi
Siembra Tortillería
Look for the black awning stretching out over two storefronts, filled with stools that face the kitchen, where a Venezuelan chef who has lived in Mexico for more than two decades, hands across the bar what just might be the best tacos and tlacoyos in the city. Siembra’s corn focus means the primary goal is making incredible tortillas, which they sell in bulk to locals for home use. But they seem to lavish equal attention on the food they make to order, including octopus, shrimp, and tender sliced beef tacos, squash blossom quesadillas, and tlacoyos stuffed with chicharrones, cheese, or beans. This is the place to get serious about a taco. Come here for a lunch that helps you understand the reasons that corn built so many civilisations here and why, as the saying goes, without corn, there is no country.
Address: Siembra Tortillería, Av. Isaac Newton 256, Polanco, Miguel Hildalgo, 11560, Mexico
Website: siempresiembra.com.mx
Lorea
The food at Lorea is strange, playful, austere, and often, very delicious. The portions are small, but the tasting menu is paced well and builds over time, so you certainly won't leave hungry. You might not like everything you try, but that's part of the fun. Dishes like the toasted cheese frico with wild herbs and duck with passionfruit and beets are explosively good. The kitchen makes the best long-fermented, wild flour bread in the city, which is reason enough to go. Lorea serves an impressive, mind-expanding tasting menu. Come here for client dinners, date nights, or special occasions with a few close friends. It's even more modern than Pujol and combines chef Oliva's time spent in Michelin-starred kitchens with a return to his roots.
Address: Lorea, Sinaloa 141, Roma Nte., Cuauhtémoc, 06700 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico
Website: lorea.mx
This article was first published on Condé Nast Traveler.