Mexico City eats on a schedule that takes a couple of days to adjust to and is entirely logical once you do. Breakfast is early and substantial, the main meal is between two and four, and dinner — if it happens at all — is small and late.
Morning: tamales and the atole stand
Between six-thirty and nine, tamal carts appear on corners across the city and are gone by ten. Order one verde and one rajas, take an atole, and eat standing up. If you want the full version, a tamal inside a bread roll is a guajolota, and it will keep you going until three.
The comida corrida is the great value of the city
From two o’clock, small fondas serve a set menu: soup, a rice course, a main, agua fresca and something sweet, often for less than the price of a cocktail. This is where the city actually eats and it is consistently excellent.
The best meal you eat in Mexico City will probably cost less than the worst one, and will probably be served on a plastic plate.
Tacos, ordered properly
- Al pastor is an evening food. The trompo needs hours to be right; before six it is not.
- Suadero and longaniza are the morning-after tacos and are best from a stand with a queue.
- Guisado tacos — stews spooned onto tortillas — are lunch, and are how vegetarians eat well here.
- Barbacoa is a weekend thing, ideally Sunday morning, ideally accompanied by consomé.
The neighbourhoods to base yourself in
Roma Norte and Condesa are leafy, walkable and full of good coffee — the easiest first visit. Juárez sits between them and the historic centre. Coyoacán, further south, is quieter, older and has the best market food in the city at Mercado de Coyoacán.
Practicalities
The altitude is two thousand two hundred metres and it will affect your first day and your tolerance for mezcal. Drink bottled water, eat at busy stands where the turnover is high, and carry small notes. Sunday mornings, Paseo de la Reforma closes to cars and the whole city cycles it.
Book the famous restaurants weeks ahead if you want them. But leave most nights open, walk out of wherever you are staying, and follow the smoke.