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In addition to the restaurants around the zócalo, you'll want to head to Boca del Río. Many restaurants here are modest, but serve some of the finest seafood in this part of the country. If you'd like to eat with the locals, try the Mercado Hidalgo for breakfast or lunch; it's a 10-block walk south from the zócalo. Seafood lovers can get a quick fix at the fish market, a mint-green building at the corner of Avenida Aquiles Serdán and Avenida Landero y Coss.
Playa de Hornos, a popular stretch of sand south of the Acuario de Veracruz, is lined with thatch-roof seafood shacks. They all serve basically the same thing: fish cooked any way you like it. This place, with a giant neon sailfish positioned on the roof, is among the closest to the aquarium and one of the best. Grab a table in the open-air dining room or one under an umbrella along the surf.
The Guinness Book of World Records honored the founder of this friendly seafood restaurant for dreaming up the world's longest seafood-stuffed fillet of fish, which was once prepared in the street along the waterfront. You can find smaller, but equally scrumptious concoctions and live midday music at this open-air dining room. Especially popular are the camarones Pardiños (juicy shrimp stuffed with manchego cheese and wrapped in bacon) and ostiones a la diabla gratinados (spicy oysters topped with grated cheese). Dishes like cheese-stuffed plantains satisfy vegetarians.
Though it's tucked away in Boca del Río, this open-air eatery is one of city's most popular seafood restaurants. Specialties include mussels, grouper, crab claws, and octopus prepared as you wish. For those who relish spicy food, the ostiones enchilpayados (in cream and chipotle chili) are a cut above the rest.
Popular bands play Thursday through Sunday from 3 to 7, so you may need a reservation on those days.
