15 Best Restaurants in Roma, Mexico City

This fashionably casual spot owned by the talented chefs at neighboring Marmota is a great option for anything from sipping espresso drinks while you work to noshing on creative Mediterranean-meets-Pacific Northwest bar snacks while you mingle with friends. Highlights from the kitchen include house-made potato chips with creme fraiche and caviar, one of the best Caesar salads in town, Portuguese tinned sardines, burrata with figs and tomatoes, and a selection of cheeses with figs and honey.

The owners of this tiny Roma kitchen with volcanic-rock floors and walls are devoted to preserving Mexico's ancient culinary traditions, including the nixtamalización process of grinding corn into tortilla dough, which is used to create exquisite yet simple breakfast and lunch fare that changes day to day, according to what's in season. You might enjoy anything from corn tacos filled with fresh cheese, hoja santa (a peppery Mexican herb), and squash blossom, to a blue-corn tortilla topped with avocado, ants, and salsa. They also carry a beer made from corn, produced by the city's Dängo craft brewery.

Just a block away from the famous restaurant that inspired it, this wildly popular bakery is worth the often long wait for a table to savor a fantastic breakfast, lunch, or even a sweet treat to break up your day. The flaky pastries here are second to none—try the blueberry-lavender scones, guava rolls, or mamey-filled berliners. The savory items are just as mouthwatering, including ricotta-spinach croissants and Croque monsieurs. Traditional Mexican atole is served, plus fine espresso and tea drinks, and there's a pantry that sells gourmet groceries, from olive oil to rosemary focaccia.

Equal parts artisan bakery, leisurely hangout, and all-day café, this airy space on a picturesque Roma corner has two large and lushly landscaped dining areas and serves an array of enticing international treats. Start the day with blueberry pancakes or a hearty plate of chilaquiles verdes; later in the day, consider a classic bacon-gouda cheeseburger on a fluffy brioche bun or a slice of the flavorful vegetarian lasagna. Smoothies and craft beers are among the standouts from the extensive beverage menu.

This gourmet market, artisan bakery, and sidewalk café with a prime location on Álvaro Obregón is a top destination for any meal, but especially breakfast and brunch, when you might try French toast with whipped cream and fresh fruit or Greek-style baked eggs with jocoque, olives, tomato sauce, and grilled pita. The rest of the day, the eclectic but slightly Mediterranean-leaning menu features tortas and toasts (like the one with smoked trout, pickled beets, and capers) as well as lasagna, lamb moussaka, and other heartier dishes. The market also carries fresh baked breads, wines, cheeses, jams, salsas, olive oil, and other goodies. There are a couple of additional locations in Roma Norte, including a Colima branch that's mostly a take-out market.

World-famous Pujol mastermind Enrique Olvera is the talent behind Eno, a smart-casual bakery and café on a lively Roma Norte street corner (there's another location in Polanco). The airy brick-ceilinged spot with a handful of sidewalk tables is great for a light meal, dessert, coffee, or atole (a warm Mesoamerican corn drink) from early morning until late at night, with breakfast especially popular. Try the cochinita pibíl or hongos (mushrooms) rancheros in the morning, or a turkey–cheese torte later in the day.

Although the availability of vegan cuisine has come a long way in Mexico City in recent years, few restaurants are devoted exclusively to it, but this small café produces some of the tastiest and most beautifully plated plant-based fare in town. Tortillas at La Pitahaya are as bright pink as the walls (they're dyed with beet juice---the tortillas, that is), and they come with equally bright, fresh fillings like cauliflower with coconut cream and pineapple, and pastor-style oyster mushrooms. There are also hearty raw bowls and tofu scrambles, and chia pudding and almond-milk ice creams for dessert. There's also a selection of house-brewed kombucha. 

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.

Part of the city's warm embrace and advocacy of Mesoamerican culinary traditions, this diminutive café with Mexican folk art on the walls specializes in dishes made with—as the name suggests—corn and chocolate. Tuck into a plate of blue-corn tamales with mildly spicy pork rib meat, eggs grilled with chiles in banana leaf, or cheese gorditas, washing everything down with corn atole or indigenous chocolate drinks (all of which are also available in the form of refreshing paletas, or popsicles).

About 55 vendors offering everything from elevated short-order street food to refined farm-to-tables victuals operate out of this trendy food hall with a popular artisan beer bar, the Biergarten, on the third-floor rooftop space, which is also home to a whiskey bar. The first floor features stalls and a patio seating area, and a smaller mezzanine offers still more options. Some of the most popular choices include paella, sushi, mezcal, boozy paletas, churros, and French crepes.

The menu of this sleek corner space with striking ceramics and statuary lining the walls celebrates the flavorful cuisine of the scenic mountain town of Malinalco, about 70 miles southwest of Mexico City. Some of the more interesting dishes include a starter of chilacayote squash with mint and citrus and a yellow-tomato pico de gallo salsa, and a main dish pork ribs served with a rich red mole sauce.

This stylish mid-century-modern lunchroom offers a contemporary take on classic Mexican and American comfort fare, like ham-turkey-gouda sandwiches with a fried egg on top, cochinita pibíl, and beef milanesa tortas with salsa verde. There's nothing fancy about this place, but it's great for a light in-between meal, late-night snack (it's open til 11 pm), or breakfast, which features a similarly extensive variety of favorites, from huevos rancheros to French toast slathered in berries and agave honey. There are several other locations around the city. 

This cozy bakery/café is a source of singularly delicious Japanese and European treats, both savory and sweet, as well as more substantial fare like grilled teriyaki chicken and curry and rice. Matcha cakes, orange pastries, and perfectly crafted baguettes and sandwiches are among the top options. They also custom design cakes and cookies with a variety of fun motifs, from Day of the Dead to lucha libre.