Restaurants in Mexico City

Mexico City has a great number of cosmopolitan restaurants. They are modern, full of life and serve a wide variety of food. First, I want to warn you to be careful what you eat in Mexico City. We use many spices (not necessarily hot) that your digestive system may not be accustomed to having. We also have less developed refrigerated delivery and storage systems.

That said, eat anything you want at the Four Seasons (great breakfast buffet.) Everywhere else, use some caution. Careful about the amount of grease you eat (think chips, fries, pork, etc.) I recommend against eating any kind of uncooked green salad. So what can you eat?

Aguila y Sol at 42 Moliére, Polanco 5281 8354 is a very popular gourmet Mexican restaurant with great food, a fun atmosphere, and exotic fruit margaritas. Popular with locals. Look for an apple in all the art there, and then ask them why.

The renowned Patricia Quintana has a restaurant - Izote at 513 Presidente Masaryk 5280 1671 which is less upscale (though first class) that serves more traditional Mexican dishes and is quite popular with locals. I always find the atmosphere a bit subdued for a crowded restaurant with such tasty food.

La Valentina has a nice design and is widely recommended. I consider it to be a tourist trap. Among similar types of restaurants, I prefer Villa María (Polanco district (at the corner of Homero and Galileo, Homero No. 704) 5203 0306. Try the Sopa/Crema de flor de calabaza (squash blossom soup!)

Two of the traditional recommendations with great settings are San Ángel Inn and Hacienda de los Morales. Actually, despite the tourist aspect, they both generally deliver on their promise. A pitcher of margaritas at San Ángel Inn on the patio is a memory to cherish. Note - it can be very formal and a jacket may be required for dinner.

El Péndulo (make sure to see the pendulum) is an interesting bookstore and music store, and a good alternative for coffee at any hour or a good breakfast. It has locations in Condesa (Av. Nuevo Leopn 85), Zona Rosa (Hamburgo 126), Polanco (Alejandro Dumas 81) and 2 others in less touristy areas.. The one in Condesa in across the street from a fun bar and the one in Polanco.

Café Tacuba, the restaurant, not the band, is a downtown (near Bellas Artes) classic. Go for lunch. It is relatively cheap and you may not like the food, but it is Mexico past and present.

Sunday night - try Fonda El Refugio for basic Mexican dishes. Last time I ate here, it was Salma Hayek (and her group) at her table and my group alone in the restaurant. The prices are not high, but they are high for traditional food. Ninety-five percent of restaurants are closed on Sunday. La Tecla (Condesa) is similar and more popular with the Mexico City crowd. Not really fancy, but solid dependable traditional mexican dishes.

L'Olivier Masyryk 49, Polanco 5545 3133 (and any of his other French-oriented restaurants) provide a good experience and some of the most reasonably (not cheap due to ...) priced wine in Mexico City. It is also the place to celebrate with champagne.

La Buena Tierra in Condesa is a good place from breakfast or to have a sandwich and smoothie for lunch. You should also allow a few minutes to walk around this 2 block area and check out the other two dozen restaurants. Near the corner of Tamaulipas and Michoacán streets, there is a good nutella crepe available, several espresso bars, and multiple ethnic spots.

There are two great Argentine steak houses - Cambalache (Insurgentes, Close to the corner with Felix Cuevas, Col. Del Valle) (open on Sunday?) and Rincón Argentino (Masaryk in Polanco) and I choose based on the types of potatoes I want. I recommend that you order meats and potatoes for the table and share some of each. Make sure to choose an Argentine wine.

Try to have lunch (2pm-6pm) at Fishers. It has great seafood with cold beer/cerveza (Pacífico for seafood) and a very busy local setting. Try the seafood tostadas or seviche. I love the busy crowded atmosphere.

Ligaya is a small, elegant, quiet spot in Condesa that has a limited but tasty international atmosphere. Moderately pricey but romanticly small and refined.

Specia has a good international menu and is said to have the best duck in Mexico City. It has a great atmosphere and is as fun as the Polish/Eastern European food is solid. Big at lunch and dinner.

El Mosáico, Michoacán 10 (between Amsterdam and Insurgentes) next door to Specia, is very popular. While I like it & its atmosphere, it reminds me of a fancy deli. There just aren't many of those in Mexico City. Lunch is more popular here.

MP Bistro at 10 Andrés Bello has great duck tacos and a big Sunday lunch. Sort of Asian. It is just behind the Intercontinental (JW Marriott & the W) near the Auditorio Nacional. For late night gourmet, join the crowd at the pricey Au Pied du Cochon at the back entrance to the Presidente. It also has the most expensive wines (actual price - not the markup) in Mexico City.

Bros Oyster Bar (pronounced Bross) at Lope de Vega 226 Polanco 5250 1325 has a pretty wide menu with prime rib, steaks and fish. I would never eat oysters in Mexico City, but they have plenty more. This is a fun business restaurant with good food, a fun atmosphere, and an expense account tab if you order the Pescadero Reserve wine ($50 wholesale in the states X 2.5).

Sanborns - Casa de los Azulejos - adjacent to Palacio de Belles Artes - typical Denny's food, but oh what history these 400-year-old tiles have. Inexpensive breakfast in the historical downtown area.

Los Danzantes is a good lunch spot. It is located on the main plaza in Coyoacán, which is a great old plaza in what once was a separate city. Even better, walk 2 blocks towards Frida Kahlo's house (same direction as Trotsky's house) and have churros and a cappucino or chocolate caliente at one of several spots.

Le Pain Quotidien (Amsterdam No. 309) offers the great bread here that it offers around the world. For breakfast, have a bowl of organic yogurt with fruit or an omelette (goat cheese?) For lunch, try the ham tart or roast beef along with vegetable soup. I let you decide on what you want for dinner.

My personal 2-day eating plan for restaurants in Mexico City!

Breakfast - Four Seasons buffet Second choice: La Buena Tierra Third choice: El Péndulo

Lunch - Fishers

Dinner - Águila y Sol

Breakfast - churros and a cappucino or chocolate caliente in Coyoacán

Lunch - San Ángel Inn or Hacienda de los Morales (switch with dinner if you can't handle margaritas at mid-day)

Dinner - Rincón Argentino for the ceiling Second choice: Cambalache

Recos from the Four Seasons magazine: Article here

Mexico City's Nueva Cocina Restaurants

Aguila y Sol, Moliere 42, Mon–Sat 1:30-11:30 pm, Sun 1:30-5:30 pm

El Tajin, Miguel Angel de Quevedo 687, Mon–Sun 1–6 pm

Izote, Av Presidente Masaryk 513, 55/5280-1671, 55/5280-1265, Mon–Sat 1 pm–midnight; Sun 1–6 pm

Naos, Palmas 425, Mon–Wed 1:30–11:30 pm, Thurs–Sat 1:30 pm–midnight, Sun 1:30–6 pm

Pujol, Francisco Petrarca 254, Mon–Sat 1:30–5 pm, 7–11:30 pm

TACOS

Raul Zorrilla, the Director of the Mexican Cultural Institutethis list of his 10 favorite taco restauramnts in Mexico City to Zarela Martínez andI copy them to share with you here. Bring the list with you if we are going to try them out!

• Taco campechano from El Villamelon right in front of the Plaza de Toros Mexico between Circuito Interior and Insurgentes. is made with charcoa-griled thin slices of beef , finely chopped and combined with crumbled longaniza and crushed pork cracklings; topped with a cooked pork crackling and arbol chile. sauce.
• The Taco de Morita con Puerco from El Jarocho, Manzanillo 49 corner of Tapachula is so spicy from the smoked morita chiles that most ordinary mortals would not be able to stand it but then Raul is anything but.
• Taco de Costilla de Puerco con Verdolagas Salsa Verde (Pork spare rib with purslane, in season now, and tomatillo sauce is available at Sra. Juanita’s stand at the Medellin Market in Medellin street in Colonia Roma
• Tacos de Rib Eye con salsa molcajeteada (Grilled thinly sliced rib eye steak topped with a roasted tomato, onion. chile, garlic sauce made in a molcajete. The Califa del Leon is located at Calle Alfonso Reyes in the Colonia Condesa
• El Taco de Las Gaoneras de Azcapozalco. 5 gaoneras cada una en su tortilla (gaonera is a 1/4-inch slice of very tender filet of beef quickly cooked on a flat top or griddle. It is then stuffed into a thick handmade corn tortilla and topped with raw tomatillo sauce (see salsa verde cruda in the recipe section.)
• Taco de Carnitas con Chiquita – Carnitas (pork nuggets) with tiny pieces of fatty chiquita (another word for the Oaxacan asiento or sediment that forms on the bottom of the pan when rendering lard and making chicharrones) from El Venadito, Avenida Universidad near the corner of Miguel Angel de Quevedo.
• Taco de Barbacoa del Arroyo, Avenida Insurgentes (salida a Cuernavaca) The lamb barbacoa cooked in maguey leaves until very tender and hauntingly smoky La barbacoa es suave, con sabor a humo y a hoha de maguey. La salsa borracha is made with pulque and in his words “‘es perfecta.”
• Taco de pavo en mole de Los Guajolotes Avenida insurgetes y eje 5. The turkey is cooked in a rotisserie just until juicy, then shredded and mixed with a sweet spicy mole. It is then topped with sour cream.
• Tacos de Langosta del Fisher’s on Calle de Horacio in Polanco. Perfectly cooked lobster is served either in a corn or flour tortilla with an habanero sauce.
• Taco de Papas con Chorizo de Dona Tona , his mother’s cook for more than 20 years, makes the best potatoes with chorizo in the world. She boils the potatoes and peels and cuts them into a fine dice. She fries chorizo in some lard separately and adds it to the potatoes and tops it with a very spicy sauce of various dried chiles, roasted tomatoes, onion and garlic Unlike most potato–chorizo mixtures where everything is mixed together, here all the ingredients stand on their own.