23 Best Restaurants in Side Trips from Mexico City, Mexico

High ceilings, dangling wood beams, and distinctive light features hint at the marriage of traditional and contemporary approaches to Mexican cuisine at this stylish restaurant across from Museo Amparo. Creative takes on mole are a specialty, including sweetbreads with escamoles (ant larvae) and a white mole sauce, and 36-hour-braised short rib with an ancho chile adobo sauce, but you'll also find dried-beef tartare with jalapeño oil and blue-corn masa filled with black beans, pork shank, and cotija cheese. Save room for the inventive desserts. 

This sprawling, open-air restaurant in an affluent neighborhood northeast of downtown has a lush garden setting that makes it a perfect choice for a relaxing meal on a balmy day, of which there are many in Cuernavaca. The farm-to-table-inspired menu features a mix of classic and contemporary dishes, such as shrimp tacos with a mildly spicy sambal salsa, aguachile with tangy passionfruit sauce, or pasta with classic fettuccine carbonara.

Although best known for the artisanal mezcals produced by its widely known and well-regarded Conejo en La Luna label, this bustling restaurant with a long, covered patio is a great option for grabbing a meal before or after your time visiting the adjacent pyramids. It's one of the area's better breakfast options, with a nice range of classic Mexican egg and chilaquiles dishes, and later in the day you can enjoy hearty fare like lamb barbecue (on weekends only), escamoles (ant larvae) sauteed in herb butter, and tacos filled with cecina (locally produced cured beef). It's open until 6 on weekdays and 7 on weekends, making a potential early-dinner option after exploring the ruins. There's a second location in CDMX's Condesa neighborhood.

Downtown Cuernavaca is a bit lacking in trendy dining, but this casually fashionable open-air restaurant in stylish Las Casas B&B Hotel serves some of the most beautifully plated and delicious food in the city. It's a mix of contemporary Mexican and Mediterranean dishes, from sea bass risotto with roasted artichokes and kalamata olives to grilled chicken in a rich mole negro with caramelized bananas and hand-made blue-corn tortillas. There's also a selection of creative pastas, pizzas, and salads. Be sure to save room for the homemade desserts. 

Among the city's countless restaurants specializing in Pueblo-style mole sauces, this relaxing spot set in a gracious galleried building with wood-beam ceilings, soaring arches, and tile floors is one of the finest. The sampler plate with chicken or cheese enchiladas smothered under three different kinds of mole sauce are a delicious way to learn about the differences in preparation of these complex sauces. Other beloved dishes like Tacos árabes with shaved lamb and albóndigas (meatballs) with a slightly spicy jalapeño sauce are executed perfectly here. The friendly staff can help explain the differences among the many kinds of mole sauces offered. 

Walk a couple blocks south of Tepotzotlán's main plaza, which is lined with mostly unmemorable restaurants, to reach this beautifully designed modern Italian spot set in a handsome old building with towering windows and brick walls. The extensive menu features creative pastas, pizzas, and sandwiches served on house-baked artisan breads---try the linguine with shrimp and octopus sauteed in garlic or the Argentinean-style choripán sandwich, with chorizo, a mix of cheeses, and chimichurri sauce. 

Although there's a charming downstairs seating area, the rooftop terrace of this delightful bistro serving creative Mexican dishes as well as pizzas and gastropub fare is hard to beat, with its views overlooking the town's central plaza and the steep cliffs that frame Malinalco. Highlights from the diverse menu include a tiradito of raw cecina with serrano chiles, marinated wild-boar tacos, and trout topped with pineapples, ham, and cheese in a lightly spicy sauce. Among the pizzas, the Yucateca-inspired pie with tender cochinita pibil and cured purple onions is a favorite. Save room for the traditional corn cake with whipped cream and berries for dessert.

This stylish restaurant set on the rooftop terrace of the enchanting Hotel Boutique Pueblo Lindo offers not only some of the best views in town, but also delicious, beautifully presented modern Mexican dishes. Start the day with huevos rancheros, fresh seasonal fruit, and one of the decadent house-baked pastries; later in the day, try the grilled fish of the day with pureed potatoes and a mango salsa, or enchiladas with chicken and hibiscus flowers. Everything is prepared with care and using fresh, often seasonal ingredients. 

Across the street from the dramatic spires of Parroquia de San Andrés Cholula, this simple sandwich shop serves delicious versions of classic tortas as well as Puebla's beloved version of these hearty sandwiches, the cemita. Try it with chicken milanesa (with thinly pounded and breaded chicken) or local sausage with all the fixings, including cheese, avocado, jalapeños, and chipotles in adobado sauce.

The marvelous view of the Palacio de Cortés is a major draw of this rambling restaurant with sprawling patios, leafy plants, and traditional artwork. The menu mixes Mexican and international foods; you might try the breaded veal stuffed with Serrano ham and manchego cheese, the trout stuffed with shrimp and roasted red peppers, or the tacos filled with grilled cactus.

Although the food is consistently good---omelets, chilaquiles, tamales with mole sauce at breakfast, and salads, pastas, and pizzas in the afternoon—the best reason to dine in this home that once belonged to famed silversmith William Spratling is the elegant setting. The high-ceilinged dining room and terraces of the gracious colonial building exude old-world charm, and tables have wonderful views of the town's red-roofed homes. The restaurant closes at 6 pm, making it an option for only for very early dinners.

Tables at this casually stylish restaurant are centered on a partially open patio with grand views of the mountains. The varied menu includes contemporary takes on regional Mexican fare, including a fragrant soup of corn, zucchini, squash blossoms, and huitlacoche; spaghetti with duck ragu; and salmon cooked over a charcoal fire and served with cauliflower puree and grilled asparagus.

It should come as no surprise that one of the most celebrated and refined restaurants in the City of the Eternal Spring overlooks a lushly landscaped garden---the beautiful dining room is decorated with candlelit tables, arched ceilings, and well-curated artwork. The elegantly plated modern Mexican cuisine relies heavily on seasonal, locally sourced ingredients and might include a cream of avocado soup with cilantro and serrano chiles, filet mignon with a rich chipotle sauce and new potatoes, and grilled shrimp stuffed with crabmeat and served in a lemon-butter sauce.

In a low stone building on a tree-lined street, this unassuming café is overlooked by most travelers but is always packed with locals. The series of small dining rooms means it won't be hard to find a quiet table. The delicious traditional fare includes such dishes as chicken broth with creamy avocados and strips of cactus flambéed with bits of onion and chilies. Ask your waiter if there's caldo de habas, a bean soup with strips of cactus; it's something of a local specialty, and is quite tasty. Open until 8 pm, and quiet after 6, it's best for breakfast and lunch.

Many are drawn to this restaurant for its dramatic setting in an early 19th-century former Jesuit college that now contains a museum filled with pre-Hispanic artifacts and exhibits, but the superbly crafted traditional Pueblan food is excellent, too. Start with a breakfast of eggs in a stew of poblano chiles, corn, and epazote, or later in the day, try the pork chalupas or guacamole with chapulines (grasshopper) followed by chicken in a green pumpkin-seed mole sauce. There are also a number of international dishes, too, like tuna tartare, and bananas Foster for dessert.

Easily the most famous---though also touristy---dining option in the area, this hulking restaurant dates to 1906 and is set within an immense cave with dramatic rock ceilings. The traditional Mexican fare served here is consistently good, including hand-made corn quesadillas filled with seasonal ingredients, tortilla soup, albóndigas (meatballs) in a tomato-chipotle stew, and traditional barbecue. There's a pretty good kids' menu, too. Reservations aren't required, but they're a good idea on weekends and holidays. Although open every day of the year, La Gruta closes at 7 nightly.

You can gaze out over the lake and the town's red rooftops at the Michoacana, which is just a short walk from the zócalo. It's one of the town's best sources of regional fare and a great place for a family meal—and open from 9 am to 11 pm 365 days a year. You can't go wrong here—all the typical Mexican plates you'll recognize are available, but the house specialties include a terrific chamorro (lamb shank) and pre-Hispanic dishes that you won't find everywhere else, such as chapulines con cebolla y chili de arbol (toasted grasshoppers with onion and a spicy red chili sauce), and escamoles a la mantequilla (ant eggs lightly fried in butter).

Head to this friendly and festive open-air café and shop that hosts a range of musical and literary events for a delicious breakfast. The eclectic options include traditional English bangers and mash with sautéed tomatoes and mushrooms, chilaquiles verdes, and baguette French toast. Lunchtime options include healthy salads and sandwiches, and there's an extensive selection of pastries, cookies, and other baked good for dessert.

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). 

This intimate spot has excellent food and hanging lamps and masks. You'll find a fairly typical selection of meat, poultry, and seafood dishes, including salmon with grilled onions and spicy chile de árbol sauce and steak with a savory mustard sauce, but the favorites are garlic-and-shrimp soup and the queso al cilantro, fried cheese on a bed of potato skins, covered with salsa verde.

This cavelike restaurant might only be open on Friday and Saturday, but it has unforgettable regional cuisine and a fun atmosphere with live music. Even simple items like the salsas and frijoles (black beans) are intensely flavored. There's an exquisite sopa de setas (soup of oyster mushrooms), or you could try the signature dish, enchiladas de picadillo con mole de olla (ground beef and raisin enchiladas with a savory local mole).

Just above the market, with a view of the main plaza, this plant-filled restaurant makes delicious regional cuisine served by a friendly staff. The envueltos de mole (chicken-filled tortillas covered in a thick, smoky mole sauce) are an excellent choice if you want to take a break from walking around the market and enjoy a snack. There is often live traditional music at lunchtime.