A Guide to Eating and Drinking in Mexico City

  Market Snacks

As home to an estimated 15,000 restaurants, Mexico City is never going to be short of places to eat out. And with plenty of attractive budget options, Mexico City more than delivers for the cash-strapped and hungry backpacker.

As with much of Central and South America (a real mishmash of European and indigenous cultures), Mexico City has Spanish and Italian eateries in abundance. Just to the south of the Alameda, there’s even a tiny Chinatown on Calle Dolores.

Traditional Mexican cuisine, though, is thankfully good, hearty and rarely expensive. Throughout the city’s many different districts and neighborhoods, taquerias and torterias serve those two cornerstones of the country’s cuisine: the taco and the tortilla.

Locals traditionally take long, somnolent lunches – particularly during the summer months. The midday meal (which, incidentally, is often more attractively priced than evening menus) can start at any time from 14:00 and last anything from two hours up until nightfall.

The ‘comida corrida’ is another way of keeping the costs down. On offer everywhere (other than the posher neighborhood Polanco, to the west of the city center) these set menus are an excellent way of getting a good, solid meal for really very little.

More upmarket restaurants abound in the Zona Rosa (to the southwest), with a particular cluster of places on and around Avenida Chapultepec and towards Paseo de la Reforma. A little to the south, there are plenty of options scattered across the Condesa quarter.

As for what to drink: mezcal and tequila should obviously be given a go. But as well as these harder-hitting tipples, Mexico boasts a range of excellent beers perfect for long hot summer evenings, including Pacifico and Negra Modelo.

Budget travelers can also make for the host of street vendors that fill the city’s markets. An excellent choice for the hardy and the brave, a meal here can sometimes come with a mild case of food-poisoning, especially if you haven’t been in the country long.

To the southeast of the Zocalo, the lively Mercado de la Merced has the widest range of stalls from which to pick out a few tasty morsels. But it’s closely followed by the market near the faintly insalubrious Plaza Garibaldi, over to the north of the Alameda.

This is undoubtedly the most colorful place to eat out in the city. Serenaded by mariachi bands and surrounded by a host of dive bars and pulquerias, you’re perfectly positioned to see what nightlife in Mexico City is all about.

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