Get FREE email communications from Fodor's Travel, covering must-see travel destinations, expert trip planning advice, and travel inspiration to fuel your passion.
Mexico City has been a culinary capital ever since the time of Moctezuma. Chronicles tell of the extravagant banquets prepared for the Aztec emperor with more than 300 different dishes served. Today's Mexico City is a gastronomic melting pot, with some 15,000 restaurants. You'll find everything from taco stands on the streets to simple, family-style eateries and elite restaurants. The number and range of international restaurants is growing and diversifying, particularly in middle- and upper-class neighborhoods like Polanco, San Angel, La Condesa, La Roma, Lomas de Chapultepec, and Del Valle. Argentine, Spanish, and Italian are the most dominant international cuisines; however, you'll also find a fair share of Japanese, Korean, Arabic, and French restaurants. Mexico City restaurants generally open 7–11 am for breakfast (el desayuno) and 1–6 for lunch (la comida)—although it's rare for Mexicans to eat lunch before 2, and you're likely to feel lonely if you arrive at a popular restaurant before then. Lunch is an institution in this country, often lasting two or more hours, and until nightfall on Sunday. Consequently, the evening meal (la cena) may often be really light, consisting of sweet bread and coffee, traditional tamales, and atole (a hot beverage made from corn and masa and sometimes chocolate) at home, or tacos and appetizers in a restaurant.
If having dinner, most locals start out at 9 pm; restaurants serving dinner stay open at least until 11 pm during the week, and later on weekends. Many restaurants are only open for lunch, especially on Sunday. At deluxe restaurants dress is generally formal (jacket at least), and reservations are recommended; see reviews for details. If you're short on time, you can always head to American-style coffee shops or recognizable fast-food chains all over the city that serve the tired but reliable fare of burgers, fried chicken, and pizza. If it's local flavor you're after, go with tacos or the Mexico City fast-food staple, the torta (a giant sandwich stacked with the ingredients of your choice for about $3). Eating on the street is part of the daily experience for those on the go, and surprising as it may seem, many people argue that it's some of the best food in the city. Still, stick to crowded stands to avoid a stomach illness.
Also cheap and less of a bacterial hazard are the popular fondas (small restaurants). At lunchtime fondas are always packed, as they serve a reasonably priced four-course meal, known as the comida corrida, which typically includes soup of the day, rice or pasta, an entrée, and dessert. There are few vegetarian restaurants, but you'll have no trouble finding nonmeat dishes wherever you grab a bite. Vegetarians and vegans, however, will have a more difficult time, as many dishes are often prepared using lard.
Colonia Polanco, the upscale neighborhood on the edge of the Bosque de Chapultepec, has some of the best and most expensive dining (and lodging) in the city. Zona Rosa restaurants often fill up with tourists, so don't expect to be sitting with the locals here. The Condesa and Roma neighborhoods buzz with a younger crowd all week.
There are few more satisfying experiences after a night of dancing and drinking than devouring a plate of tacos at this taqueria with a spacious dining room on Avenida Álvaro Obregón. Fillings include trompo (al pastor), chicharrón with spicy house-made salsa, and beef; a side of the crunchy fried papas orinoco potatoes is a must. Orinoco is open until at least 3:30 am most nights and until 5 am on weekends, and there can sometimes be a long wait for a table. There are a few other locations throughout the city, including the original location on the border between Roma and Condesa.
One of the hottest restaurants in the city, this spot serves gourmet touches on Mexican classics with playful inventiveness and traditional ingredients. The base of all plates here, most of which are vegetarian, is mushrooms; even the drinks and the desserts have a fungi element to them. The cuisine is experimental, yet familiar, as mushrooms have an ancient culinary history in Mexico.
One of the most beautiful restaurant settings in the city, this gracious 1837 hacienda in Tlalpan Centro oozes history and personality, from the peacocks strutting about the sweeping lawns and gardens to the plates of sophisticated, haute Mexican and European cuisine served on hand-painted plates. Although open late most evenings, it's especially nice to relax here over midday comida, soaking up the garden views while supping on chile relleno stuffed with duck and topped with tamarind sauce, or filet mignon topped with a rich mushroom sauce.
So named for its location blocking access to a narrow staircase, this tiny stall is known for its deep-fried quesadillas, a notch above others in the neighborhood. Be prepared for a line any time you visit.
This cherished Zona Rosa spot (open daily from 1 pm to 7 pm) has been in service for more than 100 years and its partially covered hacienda-style courtyard at the back, set off by an ivy-laden wall and fountain, is still a midday magnet for executives and tourists alike. A veritable army of waiters scurries back and forth serving tried-and-true Mexican favorites. Two slightly more luxe branches don't have the same historic charm, but the closest, Casa Bell (Praga 14, Zona Rosa), a courtyard restaurant ringed by dozens of caged chirping birds, is a must on a sunny afternoon.
This laid-back seafood eatery brings the beach to Mexico City. Try the fresh taco Gobernador or tostada Punta Mita accompanied by a michelada.
Think of this as Mexico City's equivalent of your favorite all-day diner: open from 7 am to 4 am every day of the year, La Pagoda is the best of several (admittedly very similar) old school cafés lined up along the northern side of Avenida 5 de Mayo. The food is far from extraordinary, but the atmosphere is beyond charming, with its long bar and bright lights, service that borders on the maternal (expect to be called mi amor or mi vida at least once), solid breakfast dishes served all day, and a perfect café con leche to snap you out of a late-night or early-morning stupor.
An old-school cantina, come here for the vibes and the excellent service. You'll find classic Mexican meat and seafood dishes.
Inside the Hotel Presidente InterContinental, you'll find elevated traditional Mexican ingredients like huitlacoche, a type of fungus that grows on corn, and chapulines, or grasshoppers. If you visit for breakfast, order the blue corn chilaquiles for a nourishing start to the day.
Chilaquiles are by far the top draw at this friendly brunch spot a block from Avenida Amsterdam; it also offers up a nice selection of other all-day dishes, from fruit-yogurt bowls and avocado toast with eggs and goat cheese to molletes topped with butter, beans, Oaxacan and manchego cheeses, and pico de gallo. The chilaquiles are build-your-own: you choose your sauce (chipotle, habanero, and more), protein (eggs, chicken breast, cecina steak, vegan chorizo), and other ingredients (anything from asparagus to panela cheese)---with enough toppings, this can be a dish to last you the entire day.
In a creaky old house that practically backs up to Museo Frida Kahlo, this unpretentious restaurant with friendly servers and reasonable prices serves well-crafted, authentic Yucatecan cuisine, including classics like rich and flavorful papadzules (tortillas stuffed with hard-boiled eggs and smothered in a pumpkin seed-tomato sauce) and tender cochinita pibil. Be sure to start with a cup of sopa de lima (a soup of shredded chicken, tortillas, and lime), and perhaps an order of panuchos (fried tortillas stuffed with beans and topped with different meats and sauces). Note that this is the restaurant's second location, having opened here in 2021; the original, in Del Valle, has been going strong since 1982.
It’s not hyperbole to say that there are few interiors in the city as pink as the decor within this diner just near the San Cosme metro station. Cochinita Power specializes in Yucatecan food (read: pork and habanero salsas) with a set-up somewhere between a food cart and a restaurant, but without the hustle and bustle of standing and eating on the street. When you're ready to order, your server will arrive with a paper menu to mark your choices on. There’s not much to choose from: it’s really pork, pork, and more pork. But the food is tasty and cheap, and the service is great and speedy if you’re on the go.
Tuck into plates of exquisitely prepared, traditional Mexican snacks like tlacoyos, sopes, flautas, and quesadillas with rich sauces and authentic, carefully curated ingredients. Tortillas are hand-made on the tiny restaurant's comal, and there's lovely outdoor seating in a sidewalk space decorated with vertical wooden slats and pretty plants.
An institution known for its classic Mexican cooking, today El Cardenal has locations all over the city, but the branch to try is on Calle Palma, in a three-story building in the florid style of the late 19th century. Inside, the atmosphere (think beige walls and white tablecloths) and food are old school; the best time to come is breakfast, when trays of pan dulces make for a pleasant prelude to eggs or chilaquiles. Another location in the neighborhood can be found at Marconi 2.
A neighborhood favorite since 1962, this spacious taqueria with a striking black awning and red-and-white color scheme offers up hefty platters of delicious tacos and other classics. Try the costras crujientes, in which the meat is wrapped in fried cheese before being wrapped in a tortilla, or any of the alambres al carbón with bacon, onions, chile poblano, and any number of fillings.
General consensus says that this miniscule taco stand on the border between the Plaza San Juan and Chinatown serves the best al pastor in Centro, and has been doing so since 1959. There are now three branches around the neighborhood, and several more scattered around town, but the original remains the best by far.
Open since 1955, Café Bagdad occupies a long narrow room in an 18th-century house on the Plaza de la Aguilita, one of several plazas in Centro's rundown and hectic but charming eastern side. Coffee beans are toasted and ground on-site and simple but hearty comida corrida (all-inclusive meals that include soup of the day, rice, beans, tortillas, and fruit juice) comes at an affordable MP80.
The logo says "tradición desde 1970," but in fact El Parnita is a more recent addition to Roma's lunch scene: a hip, updated take on the simple family-owned fonda. The menu consists of antojitos (snacks like tacos, tostadas, and ceviches), from recipes culled from the family's travels throughout the country, such as rellenito, a chipotle chile stuffed with cheese and beans in a sauce of piloncillo (unrefined brown sugar) from Zacatecas; and tacos viajeros, homemade tortillas piled with pork loin and leg long cooked in citrus, from Michoacán. While it's a hugely popular spot for trendy types, local workers and families come, too, enjoying it for the affordable neighborhood restaurant it is at its core.
