🍴 Mexico City: 15 of our favorite places to eat

From stand-up-to-eat taco stands to Michelin-starred fine dining experiences, Mexico City has something for every taste and budget. Here are some of the places we keep going back to.

This is an excerpt from our guidebook, Eternal Spring: Our Guide to Mexico City.

You can eat well anywhere in Mexico City and in any price range, and there are so many good options that we had to be particularly selective in what we included here.

Everything here is a ⭐-rated top-rated restaurant or bar. Bars are denoted with a 🍸 emoji, while restaurants are identified with 🍴. Listings with both emojis are notably good in both categories.

To make it easier to find what you want, we identify the neighborhood of each place. And we use a 💲-based system to quickly identify the relative expense of a meal for one person.

Price levels include:

💲 - Inexpensive, $10 or less (MX$200 or less)
💲💲 - Mid-priced, $10 to $20 (MX$200 to MX$400)
💲💲💲 - Expensive, over $20 (MX$400+)
💲💲💲💲 - Fine dining/extremely expensive

If you’re visiting Mexico City for the first time, these are can’t-miss culinary experiences.

🍸🍴 La Azotea

💲💲💲Mexican

You’ll climb quite a few steps to reach this fourth-floor rooftop restaurant in Centro, but it’s worth it. Grab a drink or order a meal and take in the views of Alameda Central, the Torre Latinoamericana, and the Laboratorio Arte Alameda, a former church.

We’re fans of their clericot, a red-wine-based drink similar to sangria, which you can share by the pitcher, the guacamole, and the arrachera (skirt steak).

🍴 Café de Tacuba

💲💲💲Mexican

The 100-plus-year-old Café de Tacuba in Centro offers lots of classic Mexican dishes to choose from, including enchiladas, tamales, and beef, pork, chicken, and fish meals.

You’ll want to admire the art, decor, and architecture, and there’s a good chance a mariachi band will be there to entertain you. Try to have some coins or small bills with you for song requests or tips.

🍸🍴 Café Tacobar del Sur

💲💲Coffee, tacos, cocktails

Tacobar in Roma Sur—the original location is in Roma Norte—jokingly claims to be rated number 2,345 on the “World’s Best Bars” list, but it’s number one with us.

They could draw a crowd with their cocktails alone, especially the Salmoncito, which was invented and popularized by the owner. And they also serve creative, delicious tacos that are unlike anything you’ll find anywhere else.

They’re our favorite in all of Mexico City. We haven’t had a bad taco there, but the chilorio (pork) and champiñones (mushroom) stand out.

🍸🍴 Merotoro

💲💲💲Fine dining

Mexico City has its share of high-end restaurants, but Meretoro in Condesa might be the only one we return to every time we visit. The food, wine, service, and ambiance are consistently top-notch, and you’ll find less common dishes and preparations on the menu, like boar sausage and squid stew. We generally order from the à la carte menu, but they offer a tasting menu as well.

🍴 Oxa

💲💲Mexican

This San Ángel restaurant sits in a lovely, open-air courtyard and serves breakfast/brunch as well as a wide range of Mexican specialties on their lunch and dinner menu. Try the green mole eggs Benedict before you explore the art at the nearby Bazar San Ángel.

🍸🍴 Pargot Restaurante

💲💲💲Fine dining

This tiny gem in Roma Norte recently relocated across the street to an expansive space that’s more in line with the quality of its food than the former, outdoor-only location.

The innovative menu changes frequently, and you should expect creative takes on what you read, like a clam stew that’s chilled and has just a hint of clam flavor, but is delicious nonetheless. Try the orange wine for a truly memorable meal.

🍸🍴 Pujol

💲💲💲💲Fine dining

If you’re a foodie and want to splurge on a high-end tasting menu at arguably the best restaurant in Mexico, Pujol in Polanco is the place for you. You can choose from two options—a taco tasting menu served at the bar, or a traditional tasting menu at a table.

Just be sure to reserve early. Really early. In fact, it may make sense to book a reservation at Pujol before booking Mexico City flights and lodging.

🍸🍴 San Ángel Inn

💲💲💲Fine dining

Head to the San Ángel Inn for an old-school, elegant Mexican meal set in a former monastery. Once you’re done with your brunch, lunch, or dinner, walk off the mole and salsas with a stroll through their colorful, manicured gardens. And then visit some of the parks and sights in San Ángel.

🍴 Sud 777

💲💲💲Fine dining

For a less-pricey, more laid-back prix fixe meal than you get at some of the big-name restaurants, make your way down to Sud 777 in distant Álvaro Obregón, which is about 30 minutes south of central Mexico City by car, unless there’s traffic.

We’ve been twice, and they offer an additional course before dessert if you’re interested, so you don’t have to worry about it being one of those “big plate, small food” kinds of places.

🍴 Tacos los Alexis

💲💲Tacos

This tiny taco spot in Roma Norte has a limited menu, but they execute everything perfectly, and their vegetarian tacos are second to none. Grab a seat at the tiny bar if you can, and watch the magic happen at the open grill.

They’ve also opened a bigger second location in the Cuauhtémoc neighborhood, north of Reforma.

🍴Taquería Álvaro Obregón

💲Tacos

Pop into this casual taco joint in Roma Norte for different types of tacos, enormous tortas, and more traditional Mexican dishes. We like the al Pastor—you’ll see it roasting on the spit out front—in tacos and tortas. Be sure to try the chicharrón de queso, a cheese appetizer that’s as thin and crunchy as a potato chip and even more delicious.

🍸🍴 Taquería Los Cocuyos

💲Tacos

With its famous pot of meat bubbling away alongside the street, this Centro taco stand has been an institution in Mexico City since opening in 1980. You can get all kinds of meat tacos here, from brisket and marinated pork to brains, tripe, eye, and tongue.

For a long time, a street-side stand was the whole taquería. Now they’ve expanded into a full restaurant, so you can sit inside and order from a larger menu that now includes tacos al Pastor.

🍸🍴 Terraza Gran Hotel

💲💲💲Restaurant/bar

The Terraza Gran Hotel serves good, generously sized cocktails, plus snacks, full meals, and brunch. But the main draw is its amazing view of the Zócalo in Centro.

If you’re there at sunset, you may see the ceremony where soldiers lower the enormous flag that flies in the center of the square. And after the sun goes down, watch as the buildings surrounding the Zocalo light up for the evening.

🍸🍴 El Tizconcito

💲Tacos

El Tizconcito in Condesa is famous for having invented tacos al Pastor, and it’s been in business for over 50 years. You’ll see seasoned pork layered with onions roasting on triangular spits and topped with fresh pineapple at the edge of the restaurant.

Order two or three—you can always order more if you’re still hungry—and watch the taco masters deftly shave off slices of pork onto the warm corn tortillas moments before you’re eating them.

🍸🍴 Vigneron

💲💲💲Wine bar

As you would expect, this cozy wine bar in Roma Norte serves some nice wines, including a good orange wine. But it stands out for its food, with a small, shareable menu that changes frequently. Everything we’ve tried has been delicious.

They recently added tasting dinners on Tuesdays and Saturdays, and they’ve made some changes to their à la carte offerings as a result. If there’s a roast chicken option on the menu, be sure to try it.