972 Best Restaurants in Mexico

This cozy, well-established restaurant and wine bar is ideal for conversation and lingering over a light meal from the eclectic menu that shows Mexican, Spanish, and Italian influences. Try the wild mushrooms and goat cheese in pastry with brandy sauce, the steak tartare with curly french fries, and the cajeta crepes for dessert.

Part art gallery and part restaurant, LagoAlgo is the best place to have a meal that's actually in Bosque de Chapultepec. The focus in the kitchen is on fresh, local cuisine with strong Mexican flavors. It's a little fancier than most places in the area, but it still has a come-as-you-are vibe if you'd like to wander in after a day in the park.

The walls are decked with cartoon figures and bursts of color at this lively space that differs from its more sophisticated and spendier night-time sister restaurant, Máximo Bistrot. Come in the morning to feast on smoked-salmon bagels with poached eggs, acai bowls with seasonal fruit, and croque monsieur sandwiches, while afternoons are the time for gourmet pizzas, pastas, ceviche, roasted chicken, and other satisfying fare. There's an extensive menu of craft beers, too.

Right on the beach just north of the pier at Playa Los Muertos, Langostinos is a great place to start the day with a helping of Mexican rock music, cranked up to a respectable volume. For lunch or dinner, the house favorite at this professional and pleasant place is surf and turf (called mar y tierra), and the three seafood combos are a good value. The kids can play on the beach while you linger over coffee.

It's one of the newer restaurants around the Plazuela Machado, with some of the most comfortable outdoor-fanned seating as well as air-conditioning inside. The menu is loaded with meat dishes, including a carne rellena de champinones y queso (beef stuffed with mushrooms and cheese), and the salsas and Spanish wines truly complement all the fare. After a meal, head to the small café on the corner and grab a piece of cake and a coffee.

This restaurant, with a balcony overlooking the central plaza, serves up hearty home-style cooking . Try the delicious caldo tlalpeño, a tasty broth with chicken, tortilla, avocado, and cheese, that comes with a plate of chili chipotle that you can use to spice up the soup. At dinner there's also a large plate—that's perfect for sharing—with grilled beef, fried chicken, fresh cheese, guacamole, and beans with tortilla chips.

All roads in La Antigua seem to lead to this riverfront restaurant, a favorite for years. The huge arches facing the water are hung with nets full of cardboard fish. Try the shrimp cocktail or the cazuela de mariscos, a seafood stew filled with shrimp, crab, octopus, and mussels in a spicy green sauce. Afternoons at 1:30 and 6:30 there's marimba music, and on weekends the musicians are joined by dancers.

Massive globes of 15 types of margaritas and a Mexican guitarist singing American covers make this a magnet for tourists, but it also draws locals. If you're looking for cheap and delicious Mexican food, you've come to the right place. Tacos stuffed with chorizo, marinated pork, and flank steak pervade the menu, though it's the quesadillas, with fillings like pumpkin flower, poblano pepper and onion, and pork skin that shine. Chilangas, or fried, folded-over quesadillas with melted cheese, also merit the trip, while the volcanoes (hard-shell taco cups filled with cheese and your choice of meat) are not to be missed. The outdoor-garden setting of Las Guacamayas is kitschy, with trees sprouting up from the floor, and Christmas lights strung from branch to branch. Painted murals run along the walls, and wooden chairs surround tables with plastic coverings.

It's only a block from the beach near the heart of the Golden Zone, but this chic and reasonably priced hotel restaurant provides a serene alternative to the ear-splitting beach-bar scene. There's a pleasant patio—if you don't mind looking at busy Avenida Playa Gaviotas—or a slightly mod dining room with wood-beam ceilings, polished stone floors, minimally dressed dark-wood tables, and a few red-and-white accents. At lunch you'll find simple, filling fare like ceviche, hamburgers, and fish tacos; at dinner the Mexican-Mediterranean menu is heavy on fresh fish specialties, like dorado in a honey glaze.

This popular Mexican family restaurant sits on the west side of the Alameda. Here you might get homemade rosca bread (a sweet, round loaf) with your coffee and an assortment of daily specials. The made-fresh-daily corn tamales are hard to beat; other specialties include the chiles rellenos (cheese-stuffed chili peppers) and the carne milanesa (similar to chicken-fried steak).

This downtown spot has an outstanding variety of regional dishes, including pechuga jacuané (chicken breast stuffed with black beans and smothered with an herb sauce). Red-sashed waiters hoot and holler when someone orders pompo, a punch made with mineral water, pineapple juice, lemon juice—and lots of vodka. The big draw is live marimba music in the afternoon and evening. From 9 pm to 10 pm on weekends folk dancers take to the floor.

Las Tunas is a residential neighborhood north of downtown that's almost exclusively filled with vacation homes, short-term rentals and inns, and construction sites building the two. Amid all of that, however, is a coffee shop and bakery with perhaps the best breakfast in all of Todos Santos. If you have a rental car, it is absolutely worth making the drive up to start your morning here.

For a taste of Latin America's deliciously spicy cuisine and exuberant attitude toward life, visit this laid-back place where everything is colorful and everyone is happy. Order dishes of Mexican, Argentinian, Cuban, and Peruvian origins, among others, and try their exquisite cocktails while listening to live Latin music.

Named for its location on the map, this upscale restaurant at El Cielo Vineyards specializes in grilled cuts and Baja-Yucatán cuisine. Suggested El Cielo wines are listed next to each menu item to assure a perfect pairing with dishes baked in annatto, sour orange, and other unique indigenous spices. The pork belly tacos are particularly good, as is the cast-iron octopus bathed in chili oil. The main challenge is deciding between the strawberry crumble or the chocolate ganache pudding. 

You won't need your phrase book to translate such well-known French dishes as chicken with Roquefort at this adorable little bistro. Sip a crisp Bordeaux (there are several on the reasonably priced wine list) as you nibble the perfectly prepared pâté. Locals drop by to taste the city's only chocolate mousse and crème brûlée. On the gracefully crumbling walls of this colonial-era building hang etchings of Parisian sights. The back dining room, more intimate than the one facing the street, looks out on a flower-filled courtyard.

One of the newer and decidedly modern French restaurants that abound and, indeed, fit in perfectly amid Condesa's vaguely Parisian vibe, this dapper bistro is a charming option when you're seeking a slightly fancy but still unpretentious dinner out. You'll find all the classics here, well-prepared and artfully plated, including salade niçoise, filet mignon, duck leg confit, and beef bourguignonne.

Perched on a hill overlooking the Boca de Tomatlán little cove, Le Kliff has an extraordinary setting; couples choose to get married here because of the views. Though a bit stuffy, this is a great place to impress a date. The menu includes exotic delicacies such as oysters zarandeado style and satay shrimp with coconut and cream cheese. 

Maroon-and-white-stripe cushions adorn dark-wood chairs and banquettes, brass lamps hold thick white candles, and wide windows afford dramatic bay views. The menu is Italian, with an emphasis on Mediterranean dishes. Check out the cozy bar, where there's a mural depicting the history of Manzanillo. Prices are high here; you're paying as much for the dining room's personality as you are the food.

Located in the middle of a lemon grove garden, you won't soon forget this alfresco dining experience. Menu items that highlight the peninsula's fresh seafood and produce like bluefin tuna steaks or pork ribs are expertly cooked over an open flame grill.

Flowers and artwork lend warmth to this sophisticated Italian restaurant, where the cuisine includes linguine with lobster, angel-hair pasta with seafood, specialty lasagnas, plus assorted meat and fish dishes. The waiters are laid-back and seem to know everyone who walks in the door. (Most patrons are locals who've been dining here for more than 20 years.) On any given night, many of chef Paolo Ceravolo's offerings are colorful and innovative specials that do not appear on the menu. If you're coming for lunch, plan on a late one—Locanda Paolo opens at 2 pm daily.

Meals in this minimalist dining room are among the most refined and romantic culinary adventures in Roma. Local chef-owner Oswaldo Oliva spent years abroad honing his craft at some of Spain's most hallowed restaurants, and he shares his farm-to-table approach here in the form of exquisitely plated, ethereal bites that change seasonally, but you can expect a number of Mexico-centric ingredients, such as huitlacoche, tomatillos, and honeycomb.

This Tulum outpost of the Playa hipster cantina has a light take on traditional tacos and seafood, which are served with lots of lime and creativity. Batter-fried shrimp on a bed of hydroponic lettuce, grouper with avocado and cucumber, and tacos de pescado are all good bets. Salsa lovers will find eight types on the table and more on the menu. The setting is simple (picture plastic plates, paper napkins, and silverware in buckets), so you can justifiably eat everything with your fingers. After lunch, you can try your hand at the foosball table in back, but you can't while the night away here—it's only open from 12:30 to 7:30.

This upscale seafood taquería is an anchor of Playa's alternative culinary scene, an in-the-know spot for lunch or dinner that reimagines tacos sautéed in olive oil and topped with cucumber or strawberry-habanero salsa. Local favorites include shrimp tacos with "black gold" (beans), fish ceviche with green salsa, and fish tacos wrapped in your choice of corn tortilla, flour tortilla, or a giant leaf of Bibb lettuce. If you're not into spicy food, be careful with the house specialty aguachile. You'll find a second location on Avenida Constituyentes; there's also one in Tulum and another in Cancún.

This vintage Yucatecan restaurant with high colonial ceilings and an elegant atmosphere is a longtime local favorite. The combinado yucateco (Yucatecan combination plate) is a great way to try different dishes like cochinita pibil, longaniza asada (grilled pork sausages), escabeche de Valladolid (turkey with chiles, onions, and seasonings in an acidic sauce), and poc chuc (slices of pork in a sour-orange sauce). In fact, Los Almendros invented some dishes that have become regional classics—including the cheese soup, which is also spectacular. A live trio performs daily from 2 to 5 pm.

This palapa-shaded family restaurant is a great stopover on the highway to San Carlos. It has the lazy-day quality of a more rural place. It's all seafood here: fish fillets, scallops, oysters, and shrimp cooked to perfection.

Come to Los Claros for seafood tacos galore! Fill your tortillas with a variety of fish and shrimp, served battered, grilled, or "crunchy." It's inexpensive, but cash-only.

You can spend the whole day here on loungers enjoying the beach, the ocean, delicious food, and refreshing micheladas. They specialize in seafood, pescado zarandeado, ceviche, and obviously coconuts, but you can order absolutely anything and won’t be disappointed. You can also rent a kayak or play beach volleyball. The owner, Oscar, is always ready to help. No stress, no pressure.

Hung with colorful papeles picados (paper cutouts), this family-friendly restaurant with bright pink walls and regional folk art serves great soups (try the creamy fava bean or earthy lentil varieties), sopes topped with grilled chicken or cecina, and mole enchiladas made in an open kitchen. A specialty is the huauzontles (a broccoli-like vegetable you scrape from the stalk with your teeth).