(Not So Comprehensive) Food Guide: Mexico City
Let’s be honest, a big reason we went to Mexico City is its world renowned culinary scene, with some of the top restaurants in the world. With such a strong conversion rate it’s a cost effective way to try a ton of amazing food without breaking the bank.
We got tons of great recommendations, and did tons of our own research, so we of course weren’t able to hit up every restaurant. I (Jon) also got the stomach flu on the last 2 days which made hitting up everything on our list impossible. However, we’ll do our best to share our experiences, and for anything we didn’t try, you’ll have to report back to us.
Of the things we did try we’ll denote with a scale of asteriks, (*) being you can probably skip out on this to (***) meaning you absolutely have to try this, highly recommended.
Restaurants
Pasillo de Humo **
Hip but authentic breakfast/brunch foods with gorgeous ceiling light. Great place to try some traditional Oaxacan food, with friendly staff who were patient with our inability to speak Spanish. We tried the Huevos a la Oaxaquena, Cazuela de Heuvo y Chupulines (grasshoppers), and the traditional Oaxacan coffee, Cafe de Olla (basically coffee with sugar and cinnamon).
La Docena **
La Docena is a trendy, all around good food restaurant. It’s full of foreigners, but the food was fantastic and memorable. The Chicharrones, Uni in a Grilled Avocado, and Pupol were all amazing, and the grilled fish we had was tasty and well cooked as well.
Camela Y Sal ***
We came here on the first night of our arrival, and were blown away by this restaurant. Head chef Gabriela Ruiz has recently come into the spotlight and we could absolutely tell in her cooking. We had way too many dishes, but everything was worth the money. Probably the most distinctive dish we had, however, was the Jicama Salad. Refreshing and unique. Highly recommend coming here.
Pujol ***
Pujol was the most anticipated part of our entire trip. Having seen Enrique Olvera on Chef’s Table and Final Table, we were super excited to try a top 50 restaurant of the world. We’ll let the photos speak for themselves, but the food was super inventive and well worth the effort of getting to the neighborhood and making reservations. The whole tasting menu ended up costing us roughly $120 USD a person, so definitely attainable.
Pujol also has a Taco Omakase, and we saw the event taking place as we had our tasting menu. While we didn’t get to try it our servers mentioned that their favorite foods on the menu are on that menu. Make reservations and let us know how it is!
El Califa *
El Califa is a neighborhood taqueria recommended to us by our Airbnb host. Really clean, affordable food, with great tacos all around. If you have a free meal where you want to be amongst some locals, definitely stop by for tacos.
Lardo *
After getting crazy sick, we had one more meal and our Airbnb host had mentioned that Lardo next door was great for brunch, and boy was it popular. It certainly was where all the trendy and fashionable people were eating brunch, so it was pretty fun to people watch. The food was pretty good, though we wouldn’t go out of our way to come back.
Tacos Los Güeros (did not try) ***
We were actually strongly recommended this place, but because Jon was sick we weren’t able to stop by. Apparently this is one of the top spots in Mexico City for street style tacos. Highly recommend giving it a shot if you’re able.
Bars + Lounges
Fifty Mils (did not try) ***
Licoreria Limantour (did not try) ***
Xaman Bar (did not try) **
Le Tachinomi Desu (did not try) **
Baltra Bar (did not try)*
La Lavanderia *
Snacks
Churreria El Moro
Really the only snack besides tacos you really need. The best churros we’ve ever had, not much more to say. There’s typically a line in many of the locations, so be sure to set aside some time.
