A gastronomic tour of Mexico City

Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City — Mexico City has experienced a ‘culinary explosion’

(Image credit: Roy Johnson/Alamy Stock Photo)

“Mexico City’s global reputation has been on an upswing for some time”, and among its greatest glories is its food scene, says Gary Shteyngart in Condé Nast Traveller. It has some of the world’s best restaurants – it is on a culinary par with Paris or Bangkok – and in recent years the city’s chefs, such as Enrique Olvera (whose Pujol has featured on the World’s Best Restaurants list for nearly a decade) have been “recognised on the world stage”. But their sophisticated modern gastronomy has deep local roots, and any food tour should take in a wide range of the city’s eateries.

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You might start at Tacos El Güero, a “brightly lit hole-in-the-wall” where “half the neighbourhood” waits in line each night for the city’s best tacos de suadero, made with divinely juicy, slow-cooked beef brisket. There’s also fabulous street food around the Mercado de San Juan, including quesadillas made with corn fungus. The city’s cantinas – part bar, part diner – are another indispensable institution. Among the best are Cantina Tío Pepe – which is little changed since it was patronised by William Burroughs in the 1950s – and El Centenario, also “true literary territory”. And the city has breakfast joints with few equals. Try Fonda Margarita, a “family friendly dive beneath a corrugated roof” that serves chicharrón en salsa verde “as soft as a newborn’s ear”; and El Cardenal, for the omelette-style cactus leaves and fried ant larvae.

The city’s “culinary explosion” started two decades ago at Contramar, a seafood restaurant that’s still going strong. A more recent arrival, La Docena, also offers fabulous seafood, including a good chilpachole (spicy crab stew). At Em, many of the dishes “celebrate the Mexican staple of corn” to “revelatory” effect. But if there’s anywhere that epitomises the current strength of the city’s food scene – its “playful experimentation” with tradition – it is Meroma, where even the simplest chicken dish is brought uniquely to life with “spicy herbs from Tepotzotlán”.