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Mexico City has been a culinary capital ever since the time of Moctezuma. Chronicles tell of the extravagant banquets prepared for the Aztec emperor with more than 300 different dishes served. Today's Mexico City is a gastronomic melting pot, with some 15,000 restaurants. You'll find everything from taco stands on the streets to simple, family-style eateries and elite restaurants. The number and range of international restaurants is growing and diversifying, particularly in middle- and upper-class neighborhoods like Polanco, San Angel, La Condesa, La Roma, Lomas de Chapultepec, and Del Valle. Argentine, Spanish, and Italian are the most dominant international cuisines; however, you'll also find a fair share of Japanese, Korean, Arabic, and French restaurants. Mexico City restaurants generally open 7–11 am for breakfast (el desayuno) and 1–6 for lunch (la comida)—although it's rare for Mexicans to eat lunch before 2, and you're likely to feel lonely if you arrive at a popular restaurant before then. Lunch is an institution in this country, often lasting two or more hours, and until nightfall on Sunday. Consequently, the evening meal (la cena) may often be really light, consisting of sweet bread and coffee, traditional tamales, and atole (a hot beverage made from corn and masa and sometimes chocolate) at home, or tacos and appetizers in a restaurant.
If having dinner, most locals start out at 9 pm; restaurants serving dinner stay open at least until 11 pm during the week, and later on weekends. Many restaurants are only open for lunch, especially on Sunday. At deluxe restaurants dress is generally formal (jacket at least), and reservations are recommended; see reviews for details. If you're short on time, you can always head to American-style coffee shops or recognizable fast-food chains all over the city that serve the tired but reliable fare of burgers, fried chicken, and pizza. If it's local flavor you're after, go with tacos or the Mexico City fast-food staple, the torta (a giant sandwich stacked with the ingredients of your choice for about $3). Eating on the street is part of the daily experience for those on the go, and surprising as it may seem, many people argue that it's some of the best food in the city. Still, stick to crowded stands to avoid a stomach illness.
Also cheap and less of a bacterial hazard are the popular fondas (small restaurants). At lunchtime fondas are always packed, as they serve a reasonably priced four-course meal, known as the comida corrida, which typically includes soup of the day, rice or pasta, an entrée, and dessert. There are few vegetarian restaurants, but you'll have no trouble finding nonmeat dishes wherever you grab a bite. Vegetarians and vegans, however, will have a more difficult time, as many dishes are often prepared using lard.
Colonia Polanco, the upscale neighborhood on the edge of the Bosque de Chapultepec, has some of the best and most expensive dining (and lodging) in the city. Zona Rosa restaurants often fill up with tourists, so don't expect to be sitting with the locals here. The Condesa and Roma neighborhoods buzz with a younger crowd all week.
General consensus says that this miniscule taco stand on the border between the Plaza San Juan and Chinatown serves the best al pastor in Centro, and has been doing so since 1959. There are now three branches around the neighborhood, and several more scattered around town, but the original remains the best by far.
Open since 1955, Café Bagdad occupies a long narrow room in an 18th-century house on the Plaza de la Aguilita, one of several plazas in Centro's rundown and hectic but charming eastern side. Coffee beans are toasted and ground on-site and simple but hearty comida corrida (all-inclusive meals that include soup of the day, rice, beans, tortillas, and fruit juice) comes at an affordable MP80.
The logo says "tradición desde 1970," but in fact El Parnita is a more recent addition to Roma's lunch scene: a hip, updated take on the simple family-owned fonda. The menu consists of antojitos (snacks like tacos, tostadas, and ceviches), from recipes culled from the family's travels throughout the country, such as rellenito, a chipotle chile stuffed with cheese and beans in a sauce of piloncillo (unrefined brown sugar) from Zacatecas; and tacos viajeros, homemade tortillas piled with pork loin and leg long cooked in citrus, from Michoacán. While it's a hugely popular spot for trendy types, local workers and families come, too, enjoying it for the affordable neighborhood restaurant it is at its core.
The flavorful Lebanese cuisine—including baked eggs, raw kibbeh, falafel, grilled kofta, dolmas, and cucumber salad—at this charming restaurant with amiable servers is perfect for filling up before or after a stroll or run in nearby Viveros park. If you're not sure what to order, the best approach is the extensive sampler platter, or dine here on the weekend, when there's a huge buffet offering. Many items are available to go, including jocoque, baba ghanoush, dolmas, and all of the sweets.
Named after El Tajín pyramid in Veracruz state and a longtime proponent of the "slow food" movement, this elegant lunch spot inside Jardin Cultural Del Centro Veracruzano sizzles with pre-Hispanic influences. Innovative appetizers include chilpachole, a delicate crab-soup with epazote and macha chile paste, while main dishes might include rabbit in a guajillo mole sauce and octopus cooked in its own ink with red wine, olives, and almonds.
With its quirky setting inside a large industrial building that also houses an auto repair shop, this Colonia Narvarte Poniente hot spot was featured on Netflix's Tacos Chronicles and is a serious contender in the city's crowded battle for al pastor primacy. Overflowing with happy eaters into the wee hours of the night, as late as 5 am on Friday and Saturday, Vilsito serves pastor tacos with or without cheese along with a good variety of the usual suspects (tacos choriqueso, tortas Cubanas).
Emilio is a popular all-day eatery in Polanquito, combining Italian, Mexican, and Spanish influences. The sidewalk seating is matched with a casual menu of imaginative shared plates and cocktails (try the tacos de pato confitado) while a classic European menu is served on the pleasant terrace upstairs.
From morning through early evening, this casual, contemporary café that opens to a quiet, tree-lined street near Parque España welcomes a mix of regulars and tourists with bountiful plates of Mexican and international breakfast dishes, soups, salads, and sandwiches. The menu tends toward healthy and fresh, with mango-granola bowls, toasted ham-and-gruyere brioche sandwiches, green juices, and fine teas and lattes.
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.
In this intimate pizza place, you'll find a generous selection of excellent thin-crust pizzas and handmade pastas, plus a good variety of cocktails and wines. The pizzas come with red or white bases, with the truffle oil, gorgonzola, and wild-mushroom pie being a favorite among the latter, and the pie with Brie, mozzarella, pepperoni, and cherry tomatoes standing out among the "rosso" pies. You'll find a few other locations around town.
With a focus on wood-fire pizzas and veggie-packed salads, Farina delivers uncomplicated Italian food. The outdoor terrace makes for a cozy and romantic meal, including a full bar. You can also find five other locations in the city.
At the top of the Sears building, you'll find an only okay coffee shop with one of the city's most famous and beautiful views of Bellas Artes. You will need to buy something to enter, so grab a drink or a pastry and enjoy the view below.
This charming colonial-era café is open to the street, with regulars, families, and digital nomads regularly making appearances. It’s bustling, maybe a bit too bustling for some folks to focus on work, but the price-to-quality ratio is impressive, as is its selection of Mexican-style hot chocolate, which range from spicy to sweet to bitter. Whether you're looking for molletes, chilaquiles, or pan dulce, this place has it all, served quick and delicious.
Although this cozy, discrete café is in Roma Norte, it's at the southern end of the less frenetic neighborhood, making it a nice option for a relaxed coffee break or a light snack. The artisan house-baked goods here are superb, from sourdough pizzas to flaky croissants and other French pastries.
Part bakery, part restaurant, you won't be disappointed whether you stop here for a quicker bite or a full sit-down for dinner. The star of the show is the roulette, a round, flaky pastry reminiscent of a croissant and served plain or with savory or sweet toppings and fillings.
Although there's a small indoor dining room, the big draw here is the expansive patio with a retractable glass roof, tall ivy-covered walls, and tables of varying sizes. It's a great place to relax or work on your laptop for a few hours, and there are enough tasty pressed-sandwich (try the Croque Madame), salad, and soup options to make a meal of it. Later in the day, the drinks of choice shift from espresso-related to beer, wine, and cocktails.
At this unpretentious, cozy spot on the north edge of Roma, the short menu of tapas-size plates changes according to what chef Giuseppe Lacorazza picks up that morning at the city's leading seafood market. The focus is always on sustainability and fresh produce---think bonito crudo with tamarind and tangerine, smoked-mackerel quesadillas, steamed clams with spring peas and basil, or Veracruz-style shellfish stew.
Established in 1976 by owners whose grandparents emigrated from Lebanon to Mexico in 1930, this casual spot with red tiles and hammered-tin light fixtures serves some of the most authentic and flavorful Middle Eastern food in the city. A rewarding way to approach a feast here is to share a variety of smaller and larger plates—kibbeh, jocoque, baba ghanoush, fattoush, shawarma, and alambre-style grilled shrimp among them.
Built in the 17th century on the site of a mulberry farm, this hacienda has been transformed into one of Mexico's most elegant dinner spots. The atmosphere outclasses even the food, which consists of both Mexican classics and more experimental dishes that incorporate Spanish and Mediterranean influences. Live music in both the dining and bar areas, which might take the form of a string quintet, a lone pianist, or a strolling mariachi band, adds to the experience.
After 70 years in a tiny alley of a shop deep in Centro's fabric district on Calle El Salvador, Lebanese grocer and baker Helu's moved to bigger, shinier digs on Mesones, where they serve tasty shawarma on homemade pan arabe and empanadas libanesas stuffed with spinach, cheese, or meat. There are also Lebanese groceries like labneh and tahini for sale, popular with members of the community coming through the neighborhood for work.
A friendly family with Italian and Mexican roots operates this tiny artisan bakery that's tucked inside a shop near Jardín Centenario and open only Thursday through Saturday, from mid-morning until they sell out (usually by 2 pm or so). You'll find crisp-but-chewy sundried-tomato-Parmesan and cranberry-walnut-fennel baguettes, flaky scones, soft and chewy amaretto and orange pastries, and lusciously gooey chocolate-banana cakes.
