let these guides be just a starting point…follow your senses and try a little bit of everything…be kind, remembering you are but a visitor here

Sprawling and tantalizing, with food and art everywhere you look, Mexico City holds the capacity both to mesmerize and to overwhelm. Part of what is so captivating about it, like many great food cities around the world, is that you can have an astoundingly good $5 breakfast on the street, sit down for a medium-priced lunch in the afternoon, and have an inventive tasting menu for dinner. Yes, Mexico City has a bit of everything, and loads more beyond just the food, including the vast Bosque de Chapultepec, the unforgettable Museo Nacional de Antropologia, and the haunting Anahuacalli. This guide only scratches the surface of all there is to eat, let alone do, in Mexico City, and hardly even gets into all the taco spots, which I could write an entire second guide about. I’d encourage you to spend more than a couple days there, so you have the chance to wander and explore some of it’s gorgeous central neighborhoods like Roma Norte and Condesa, which can be reminiscent of European cities, and so you have a chance to get out of those neighborhoods and make your way to Coyoacan, Xochimilco, or elsewhere in this endless city. 

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Local Guides & Tours:

Tours around the city, plus a blog where you can find great resources for eating around the city: https://www.thecuriousmexican.com/

Early morning trips along the canals of Xochimilco, followed by fantastic brunches sourced from the crops that grow right alongside it: https://www.arcatierra.com/

Taco tours and more: https://clubtengohambre.com/mexicocity 

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Expendio de Maiz: an ideal restaurant format, for me. Sit down, let them bring you course after course of whatever they are cooking that day, and let them know when you’re full. It’ll usually run you around 500 pesos or a bit more, and is entirely centered around masa and its many iterations.

Paramo: Wind up a small, sort of hidden staircase next to Expendio de Maiz for a fantastic mezcal bar. The space here opens up before you in unexpected grandeur, like entering a loud European beer hall; or tuck yourself into one of the small side rooms for a more intimate experience. I’d recommend the cazuelas, if you’d like food. A cazuela is a hot pot of a stew or meat cooking in a salsa, and Paramo offers several to choose from.

Pujol: A classic for a reason. This famous tasting menu spot in Polanco was featured on Chef’s Table a while back and continues to play the hits. They also offer a cheaper, very intriguing taco tasting menu modeled after an omakase experience. I’d also highly recommend their accessible brunch option, Molino El Pujol in Condesa, which puts the same focus on masa and other ingredients but in a more pared down setting. 

Comida Corrida: Not a restaurant but a concept, which sounds more profound than I mean it to. The classic everyday lunch for everyday people all over Mexico, “fast food” here means a lovely and very affordable three course meal. Start with a soup or salad, then have noodles or rice, and follow that with whatever mole, meat in salsa, or other guisados that the restaurant has to choose from that day, served with the obligatory stack of tortillas. It’s a great way to plop yourself down in a not-so-touristy setting for an hour. 

Taco Sublimity: Also not a restaurant; also more of a concept. Tacos are, of course, remarkable all throughout the country, but perhaps nowhere better and in such abundance as CDMX. Most pop up in the evenings, though some will open during the afternoons as well. Some of my favorite days in Mexico City have been simply wandering from neighborhood to neighborhood all day, for miles, stopping for tacos at anywhere that looks good—which is most every place. I’m just going to name a few places here for you to bookmark in your own wanderings, as you can find further writing about them from others if you’d like: Tacos Rubens. Los Cocuyos. El Kaliman. Turix. Los Parados. And, for a trendier sit down spot between mezcal and pulque, Orinoco.

Caldo de Gallina Luis: this 24 hour establishment is the hangout for many cooks in the city after they finish their dinner service, and for good reason. They serve giant portions of Caldo de Gallina, in addition to enchiladas and more. It’s a warm, comforting bowl of nourishment reminiscent of pho and makes for a steadying meal anytime of day.

Rosetta: I’m captivated by this restaurant (and its nearby bakery), even though it might be old news in CDMX by this point. Elena Reygadas, a pioneering female chef known around the country, has crafted a menu with the kind of precision and subtlety that a pastry chef like me adores. The small, vegetable forward plates incorporate flavors like vanilla and smoked cream in ways that bring out the best of the produce without obscuring them. The pastas are handmade and the mains are both inventive and traditional all at once. For me, the real showstoppers were the desserts, which are everything I strive to know how to make. Perhaps this is the best testament to the quality of chef, business-owner, and person Elena is: I was there on a monday night, for my birthday, and she was, despite all her fame, working as one of many food-runners that night, clearing tables and checking in with guests. She came by my table and asked if we were enjoying our desserts, acknowledging that she was the chef only when I recognized her, and when she learned it was my birthday sent out her personal favorite dessert, an hoja santa and chocolate combination I still think about often.

Contramar/Mi Compa Chava: these are each deserving of their own entry, but I’m presuming here you’re in Mexico City for, say, five days, and you only have so many meals can relish, and only one of those is going to be a big seafood feast. So, take your pick: the timeless Contramar, with a gorgeous, semi-European interior, and all the classics, like the iconic snapper painted with two different salsas to represent the Mexican flag, or the tuna tostadas. And don’t sleep on the desserts. Or, you have Mi Compa Chava, something of the rambunctious younger sibling, where its like you’ve been invited to the best backyard barbeque: beer is flowing, giant towers of seafood are emerging at your table and being doused in salsa, and octopus and more are on the grill. I’ll put it this way: some Italian friends recently named Contramar as their favorite because it caters to an “occidental palate,” while American friends tend to prefer the heavy hitting spice and acid of Compa Chava’s flavors. 

Hugo: a wine bar lover’s wine bar. Fantastic selection of low-intervention wines, and lovely, graceful cooking by Michael Crespo. Wine bar food is a fine art, needing to be flavorful but not too flavorful, inventive but not showy, letting the wine taking the spotlight. Here, they get it just right. 

Bosforo: one of those remarkable projects where someone had a vision and executed it with immaculate precision. One long room, the focal point being the bar made of quarry that runs almost the length of it, that serves primarily mezcal out of jars and jugs from small, sustainable producers around the country, namely one of Oaxaca’s very finest, Lalo Cura. This means affordable and delicious mezcal, which is why this bar draws people from all over into the Centro Historico district. It’s dimly lit, often standing room only, and the music is thoughtfully curated by the owner and always hits exactly right.

Fideo Gordo: Stay in the city for a week and you’ll likely reach the point where you want a quick reprieve from tacos, believe it or not. Try Fideo Gordo, a small asian noodle shop making their udon from scratch. Enjoy those noodles drenched in broth, glazed in sauces or chili crunch, and paired with sake or wine. 

Fonda Margarita: An absolute institution for homey Mexican breakfasts tucked away into Colonia de Valle Centro. It’s beans, eggs, salsas, the usual; but, done in ways you haven’t had, and that you won’t forget about. There’s a black bean torpedo-shaped omelet situation that’s light and heavenly, hangover-curing chilaquiles, and wide array of bubbling cazuelas (stews in big clay pots) set up in the kitchen where you’ll find specialties like chicharon in salsa verde. Get there early, as there is almost always a line out the door. 

Tierra Adentro Cocina: I adore this little spot, which sources traditional recipes from around Mexico and offers the most affordable tasting menu for breakfast or lunch. Located in Portales, it’s the ideal pit-stop on your way to the Frida Khalo house. Playful plating, obscure ingredients, and a wide array of Mexican flavors combine for a fantastic meal.

Neveria Roxy: for when you need a little afternoon ice cream, this old-school shop in Condesa offers a wide variety of fruit-based and cream-based flavors. I’m a fanatic of mamey and coconut. Hell, go on a whole ice cream tour in the city while you’re at it: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/03/travel/mexico-city-ice-cream.html