Mexico City: Top places to eat and drink in and around Centro Histórico
You'll find some of Mexico City's oldest and most iconic restaurants in Centro Histórico. From classic dining spots to stunning views, we think these are worth a visit.
Whether you need a break from sightseeing to grab a coffee or a cocktail, or you’re ready to relax with a full meal, Centro is packed with terrific bars, restaurants, and cafés. In fact, there are so many of them, it can be a bit overwhelming.
Here’s what we recommend in and around the 👁️Plaza de la Constitución (Zócalo).
This is an excerpt from our upcoming book, Eternal Spring: Our Guide to Mexico City.
Mexico City: Centro map
Our rating system for restaurants and bars
⭐️ Must-see
Pricing for a meal for one person:
💲 MXN $200 or less (USD $10 or less)
💲💲 MXN $200 to $400 (USD $10 to $20)
💲💲💲 MXN $400+ (USD $20+)
🍸🍴La Azotea ⭐️
💲💲💲Mexican
You’ll climb quite a few steps to reach this rooftop restaurant—it’s on the fourth floor—but it’s worth the effort. (Just don’t make the mistake we made one time and climb up all those stairs only to discover that the restaurant is closed.) If there’s space, ask to sit in the bar-style seating along the outside facing east or north for the best views.
Grab a glass or pitcher of Clericot—a refreshing, red-wine-based cocktail similar to sangria—and take in the views of 🌳Alameda Central, the 🏛️Torre Latinoamerica and the pretty Laboratorio Arte Alameda, a former church that’s now a museum.
If you’re hungry and feeling adventurous, try one of their dishes featuring chapulines (grasshoppers): We did so here on our first-ever trip to Mexico City years ago. For more familiar foods, we’re fans of the arrechera (skirt steak) and the aguachile (a dish similar to ceviche). This is a place we return to again and again.
☕🍴Café El Chavalete
💲Coffee shop/breakfast
The second-floor balcony of this tiny coffee and breakfast place is a great place to start your Centro sightseeing day. Stop in for a hot or cold coffee, latte, tea, matcha, or another beverage. They serve pastries and bread as well as heartier options like baguette sandwiches, eggs, enchiladas, and chilaquiles.
We’re fans of the huevos divorciados, two corn tortillas served side by side, each topped with melted cheese and a fried egg, with green salsa topping one and red salsa topping the other. It’s a Mexico City classic, just like El Cavalete.
☕🍴Café El Popular
💲Breakfast/Mexican
We’ve been to Café El Popular several times for breakfast, but they’re open 24/7 and they serve a full range of meals. Just about anybody should be able to find something they like here—the regular menu is huge, and they often have seasonal specials as well. Don’t be put off if there are people waiting to be seated. There’s a dining area on the second floor, too, and the place is bigger than it looks. Cash only.
If you sit outside, there’s a good chance you’ll be approached by people on the street asking for change or some food, especially if it looks like you’re finished. If you’d prefer to avoid those types of interactions, ask for a table inside. Or do right by karma and buy them a concha, the traditional Mexican sweet roll. In fact, get one for yourself, too. El Popular serves it with a delicious sweet sauce, which is unusual in our experience.
🍸🍴Café De Tacuba ⭐️
💲💲💲Mexican
Café de Tacuba has been in business for well over 100 years, and it’s worth a visit just to admire the art, décor, and architecture. But you won’t be disappointed by the food. Give yourself some time with the menu, since there are lots of classic Mexican dishes to choose from, including different types of enchiladas, tamales, and beef, pork, chicken, and fish meals. They’re open for breakfast as well.
Try to have some change or small bills on hand, since there’s a good chance a mariachi band will be entertaining you and you may want to tip them.
And here’s a fun bit of trivia: Café de Tacuba was the inspiration for the name of our favorite Mexican rock band.
🍸🍴La Casa de las Sirenas
💲💲💲Mexican
The streetside tables at La Casa de las Sirenas have a nice view of the🏛️Catedral Metropolitana. But for an even better viewpoint that takes in more of the Zócalo, get a table on the terrace and relax with a meal. They offer a nice selection of seafood and meat dishes, moles, soups, salads, and more.
If you’re interested in trying Mexican liquors, cocktails, or beers, their destilería has a wide range of options and a staff that can share the details about them.
☕Finca Don Porfirio
💲Coffee shop
Sears has practically disappeared in the United States, but you’ll still find these department stores in Mexico City, where they’re a bit more upscale than the ones you may remember from your childhood. One of the nicer locations is directly across the street from 🏛️Palacio de Bellas Artes. Make your way to the Finca Don Porfirio cafeteria (coffee shop) on the 8th floor for an incredible view of the iconic building.
Take a seat on the balcony, order a coffee, tea, hot chocolate, or frappe, and snap some photos that will almost certainly be among the best from your trip. Mornings and weekdays tend to be the times when it’s less busy—sometimes there’s a wait to get in.
🍸🍴Hilton Reforma
💲💲💲Bar
Hilton Reforma Mexico City was our base here before we bought our apartment, so we’d often grab a drink at the bar after exploring the city. And we still do: Sitting at a bar isn’t as common in Mexico City as it is in the US—and so this is like a little slice of home.
Which is the point, really: You’ll eventually tire of tacos—no, really—and from trying to speak and understand Spanish. And the Hilton bartenders are required to know and speak English, so it’s a nice respite if your Spanish isn’t strong. Order a cocktail, beer, or glass of wine and relax. If you see German or Edgar there, be sure to tell them we said “hi.” They're good people.
🍸🍴Primer Cuadro ⭐️
💲💲💲Steak restaurant and bar
Thanks to its terrific views of the Zócalo, the terrific 👁️Terraza Gran Hotel is often full and unable to accommodate walk-ins. But you can get the same views—and excellent food and drinks—at Primer Cuadro next door. You’ll probably save some money, too.
The trick is finding it. Look for the row of jewelry stores in the covered overhang of the ground floor of the building that houses the Gran Hotel on the west side of the Zócalo. There, in front of the stores, you’ll see menu-carrying hawkers trying to convince passersby to follow them through those stores and into an elevator that will take them up to the top floor to eat. This may seem off-putting—our natural inclination is to ignore those types of offers—but this one is well worth it. So much so that we’ve gone back multiple times.
Primer Cuadro bills itself as a steak restaurant and bar, but it has lots of Mexican and seafood options, guacamole and other shareable snacks, good salads, and desserts. There are fun cocktails, mezcals and tequilas, beers, and wine. And there’s often live entertainment. Stephanie was serenaded by a lounge singer-like entertainer on one visit.
Go for the view. But don’t be surprised when you stay for some food, too. You won’t regret it.
🍸🍴Tacos de Canasta El Flaco
💲Taco stand
Here is everything you need to know about this taco stand. We took our son Mark here on his first trip to Mexico City. He took one bite of his taco and said, “Dad, remember a long time ago when you told me that some of the best food I’d ever eat would be on the street? Is this what you were talking about?” It was. And it’s that good.
The tiny street-front stand offers a few types of tacos, plus soft drinks and aquas frescas (flavored waters). Stop by and see if you love it as much as Mark does.
🍴Taquería el Califa de León
💲Taco stand
Taqueria el Califa de León is a traditional, longstanding, family-run taco stand that was awarded a Michelin star. Here’s our detailed review.
🍸🍴Taquería Los Cocuyos ⭐️
💲Tacos
If you’ve watched any travel video about Mexico City you’ve probably seen this famous taco stand. It’s been in business since 1980, with its famous pot of meat bubbling away in liquid fatty goodness alongside the street. You can get all kinds of meat tacos here, from brisket and marinated pork to brains, tripe, eye, and tongue.
It’s impossible to overstate how good the tacos are here. It’s almost a religious experience, and it’s a place we return to again and again. That said, it’s changed since our first visit in 2021. For a long time, a street-side stand was the whole taqueria, you ordered at the counter, and ate standing or sitting on little plastic buckets. Now they’ve expanded into a full restaurant, so you can sit at a table inside and order from a larger menu that includes, for the first time, spit-grilled tacos al pastor too. The place may be bigger, and the vibe isn’t the same, but the tacos are still world-class. Do not miss Los Cocuyos.
🍸🍴Terraza Cha Cha Chá
💲💲💲Mexican
If you’ve made your way across Reforma to the west of Alameda to the area near the 👁️Monumento a la Revolución, take a break from sightseeing and stop in at Terraza Cha Cha Chá. They serve snacks, tacos with homemade corn tortillas, full meals, and drinks, including mezcalitas and an excellent signature margarita.
The food is fantastic, and the place is even more impressive when you take in the vista view of the monument. If you go in the evening, you can catch the colorful lights highlighting the exterior of the monument. You can make a reservation at Terraza Cha Cha Chá, but you can’t choose a specific table or location. If you’re lucky, you’ll score a window seat.
🍸🍴Terraza Gran Hotel ⭐️
💲💲💲Restaurant/bar
You may recognize the 👁️Gran Hotel Ciudad de México from the opening scene of the James Bond movie Spectre. When you enter the hotel, you can’t miss the spectacular stained-glass ceiling, and you will be understandably distracted.
But after you’ve snapped a few photos and gasped in awe, see if you can head up to the terrace. (If you want to be sure you get a table, it’s a good idea to book a reservation, but they often have tables available, especially during off hours.) There’s a check-in stand by the elevators in the east side of the lobby.
The terrace serves good, generously sized cocktails, plus snacks, full meals, and brunch. But the main draw is the amazing view of the Zócalo, with its cathedrals, palace, and other historic buildings. 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.
We try to time our visits so we can take pictures of the plaza in daylight, at dusk, and in the dark, and it’s fascinating to watch it change as the hours tick by. It's an iconic Mexico City experience.
🍸🍴La Terraza de Domingo Santo
💲💲💲Restaurant/bar
Exploring the Centro area can mean you’re surrounded by a lot of people—the multitud, as they say here—and their energy most of the time. This can be overwhelming. When you’re ready to recharge in a more peaceful place, head a few blocks north of the Zócalo to the smaller and quieter 👁️Plaza de Domingo Santo. There, you’ll find La Terraza de Domingo Santo, upstairs in the boutique Santo Domingo Hotel. The entrance is just to the west of the plaza, at República de Cuba 96.
Here, you can enjoy a drink, snack, or meal along with the views of the Plaza de Santo Domingo. They serve a terrific breakfast and brunch as well, and it’s an elegant way to start a day of sightseeing in the area. But we prefer to end our day there, with a drink that turns into more drinks and then snacks. Where does the time go?
We’d love to get your feedback as we build out our guidebook. Please ❤️ if you like what you see here or 💬 with any thoughts or suggestions.
Centro Histórico sights
Centro Histórico in Mexico City is a top center for history and culture. Here are our favorite things to see and do in this vibrant district:
