i’ve been a couple of times since then! feel free to ask me questions.
Note: Pujol takes an advance reservation, so plan ahead!
and don’t be afraid of street tacos and other street food - they are the best! and cheap as HELL. as long as you make sure there are a lot of people frequenting a stand, you can feel safe to eat there. i got sick once on a trip there, but that was because i foolishly ate from a stand that had no other customers.
if you like lamb, you should try this place:
although i also found a couple of street stands doing barbacoa and they were delicious.
a pic of ant larva tacos I had at Hidalguense - superb. they tasted mostly like slightly softer sweet, buttery corn kernels:
Thanks. We’re to be in Mexico City for four nights in August and have reservations both at Pujol and at Quintonil. Anything else we should try the other two nights, and for our lunches, or should we eat at street stands? When you say the markets have incredible food, which do you recommend — for a combination of general experience and food?
Mercado Medellin, mentioned above, and also Mercado Coyoacan, outside of the city proper, but very near to the Frida Kahlo Casa Azul (which I thoroughly recommend a visit to.) Mercado de San Juan is split into two different buildings, and the one we went to had all the prepared foods (the other has produce). they’re about a block apart. Warning, though - you’ll find some “odd” meats for sale - very exotic stuff. Also, Mercado Merced. I think those are the only ones I’ve been to.
on the nights you are eating your special meals, I would eat street tacos for lunch - nothing too heavy so that you’re good and hungry for dinner. the other nights - you really should try Contramar for seafood. it’s spectacular. actually, they’re open for lunch too, that’s when we went. They’re only open for dinner until 8:30 on Friday & Sat., the rest of the time they close at 6:30.
Thanks. I may ask you more questions as I think of them.
Unfortunately, August was the only time we could go. We’ll also be in Puerto Vallarta for a couple of days. Any recommendations there? There’s a thread on that town, if you want to post there:
All of my Dad’s fam lives in Mex City. Been a while since I was there.
My family, Syrian jews, do not venture far from their neighborhood
enclave, depending. But I would love some great Mexican food that includes pork, the other white meat
Our schedule is:
Friday afternoon: Arrive; dinner at Quintonil.
Saturday: Museo Nacional de Antropología; lunch at Contramar (thanks to your rec).
Sunday: Frida Kahlo House/Museum; Mercado de Coyoacán; walk the nbd.
Monday: Teotihuacán (early morning through afternoon); dinner at Pujol.
Tuesday: Leave for Puerto Vallarta
So, the questions:
a) The Anthropology Museum looks on the map to be walking distance from Contramar, but the restaurant strongly advised against walking it. We had hoped to spend two–three hours in the morning at the museum, pop over to Contramar, then return to the museum for another hour or so. Is that reasonable, or nuts?
b) We are free Saturday evening and also Sunday from late afternoon onward. Tentatively we thought we’d explore the Centro Histórico in general, and the Zócalo in particular on both evenings. What eating do you suggest there?
c) This may be unfair, but back in your 2017 o.p. you had said you’d be able to recommends names of specific street stands. Any suggestions of places near the places we are going to be, especially in/near Mercado de Coyoacán (or the Kahlo Museum) the Centro Histórico, or Mercado Medellín (we should be able to get there by 4 on Sunday, if there’s strong reason to)?
d) Are there evening food tours or guides that it might be worth using? There’s a tacos after dark tour I’ve looked at but it’s pretty expensive at USD150ish per person.
e) Finally (for now): museums, etc., open 10ish. Are there breakfast places near the Anthro Museum on Saturday or the Kahlo house on Sunday that you suggest? We thought of trying to get into Fonda Margarita before the Kahlo museum, but that might involve too much hopping around from place to place and attempting to pack too much into too short a time.
Please feel free to ignore any (or all) of these questions, if they seem too cumbersome to answer. I partly wrote the post for my own benefit, anyway – to organize the trip for myself. If anybody else has suggestions or criticisms, go ahead. (The HO software is already chiding me for replying too much to @mariacarmen and suggesting I try talking to other people.)
I am fooling the HO software by replying to myself. I should count as an other.
I may not get to try any of these places, but in case the list is useful to anybody else, here are some places in Centro Histórico that seem interesting:
Dulcería de Celaya, Av. 5 de Mayo 39 (oldest candy shop)
El Cardenal, Calle de la Palma 23 (breakfast)
Bósforo, Luis Moya 31, Colonia Centro (mezcal bar)
Tío Pepe, Av Independencia 26 (cantina)
Pastelería Ideal, 16 de Septiembre No. 18 (pastries)
Churrería El Moro, Eje Central Lázaro Cárdenas 42 (churros)
And Pujol, of course. did i warn above about ordering champagne without checking the price at Pujol? beware - we unwittingly had $45 glasses - three of them! everything else we drank - wine, cocktails, apertifs, etc., were completely reasonably priced.
I adored Frida’s Casa Azul, and Coyoacan is a lovely little town to walk around in. Near Frida’s, if you’re interested, is also Diego’s museum:
thousands of pieces of indigenous objects/art, that he collected himself, from all over Mexico. and the building itself is incredibly beautiful and impressive. We did both in one day and also toured around Coyoacan (and its market). We didn’t need a reservation for Anahuacalli.
And to your specific questions:
a) I mean, it’s probably a half hour walk… i’d be having a couple of glasses of vino at Contramar, so i definitely wouldn’t walk back - maybe take an Uber (Uber is super cheap there)… but actually, i probably wouldn’t want to go back after lunch and wine. that’s just me.
b) Azul - http://azul.rest/azul-historico/ we went for lunch on my last trip to CDMX. popped in, there was a 45 minute wait, left our names and came back. Wonderful food, beautiful space.
near Templo Mayor, This roof-top bar was wonderful, with a great view, near El Zocalo square:
it’s a bar but there is an adjacent restaurant (tho we didn’t eat there.)
c) at this point, I remember the name of one taqueria, El Guero, in Roma Norte, but i don’t have the exact streets anymore… i believe it was on Chihuahua, near Tonala, but if you google El Guero a lot of other ones come up. sorry, if i think of something more exact, i’ll report again. But we ended up there late nights, after the bars, almost every night before turning in.
we did eat tacos in the Coyoacan market, and ceviche tostadas, other such things, but i don’t think they have names, most of them. and i couldn’t tell you where in the market.
I ate from the Medillin market, and also brought home powdered mole mixes from there.
d) sorry, didn’t do any, don’t really know about any.
e) we don’t really eat bfast - tacos (or similar) from whatever closest street corner would literally be the first thing I would put in my mouth just about every day. The BF would get coffee from wherever and bring it back to the room, or make it himself.
Zelaya, from your post below, was highly recommended to us. as I’m not a huge sweets person, I wasn’t really into it. I think we picked up something, and it was good, which i know is not helpful. but it’s an institution.
But this bakery was PACKED, and we saw people carrying boxes all over the city from here:
I’m here now and we did lunch at quintonil. I’ll do a full post later when I’m home but it was fantastic. Service was top notch and the food was incredible. I was slightly disappointed by the final dessert. A bit too far from a dessert for me but that was the only “miss”. We did the tasting and wine pairing.
Last night I met my sil and friends at Azul as I hurried from the airport. She ordered me mole with chicken as the restaurant was closing and some mezcal drink which I didn’t love but I’m not a fan of mezcal. The restaurant is beautiful. I wish I had been here for a full dinner.
Tonight likely staying local ish to our hotel for tacos and drinks.
yes! my friends who moved there last month have been posting pics of all the rain! hope it clears up a bit for you… glad you loved Quintonil, can’t wait to hear the full report. And Azul! i personally felt the mole was maybe slightly better at Azul than at Pujol, but that’s an unpopular opinion. How much longer are you there? maybe you can slip in a lunch at Azul - it’s so pretty…
