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…
Settle down and get comfy because this post might be a long one. I also had to wait a day because the thought of food yesterday was NOT good. We absolutely got a touch (is that even possible??) of food poisoning. Still was 10000% worth it and we had a great time but likely a bit of Montezuma’s Revenge!
Landed in Mexico City and headed straight for Azul Condesa. The kitchen was closing shortly so I ordered without seeing the menu. A tender piece of chicken atop a lake of mole. YUM. Sides of guacamole and pineapple rice. This restaurant is adorable.
Day 1 - Coffee and light breakfast at our hotel, Casa Decu - https://www.casadecu.com/ Which was exactly what we needed. Art deco styled.
Did some various sightseeing and made our way to Quintonil for lunch. We loved it. It was unpretentious and delicious. They gave us English menus which was appreciated as my Spanish is no bueno! My favorite courses were the kampachi, charred avocado and the charred mamey. I love how they brought out ingredients that aren’t usually familiar to people and showed it in it’s raw form, explained the process, where it is grown, etc. A very interactive experience. I’m attaching the menu and a few pics. Obviously not a cheap lunch but a 3 hour experience that was incredible.
We went out for tacos and drinks that night but it wasn’t very memorable and went to bed early.
Day 2 - We attacked this day like we were eating in a marathon.
Hotel for coffee then off to Pasillo de Humo for a bean/tortilla/chorizo ensemble, plus more coffee and these light flakey pastries filled with pineapple. MMM!
From there Uber (CRAZY cheap Ubers in Mexico City) to the Saturday Bazaar in San Angel. Which was fun. Tons of vendors and artists.
We ate various tacos and snacks here before heading back up to the hotel to drop off our stuff and then walked to churros at El Moro and then stopped at Mercado Roma for a beer and a bite http://mr.mercadoroma.com/home.
After that, decided to try our luck at Contramar without a reservation. They told us it would be an hour wait so we headed around the corner to Gin Gin for a cocktail which was delightful.
Back to Contramar and got seated right away. This place was popping off. Very busy! We got a variety of ceviche and tacos. Everything was good. Nice service. Very attentive.
Things started to get fuzzy here as now we are many drinks deep. I know we walked to a boozy ice cream place which I didn’t find impressive and then stopped for another drink at Licorería Limantour. My SIL did not like hers at all so we switched. https://limantour.tv/eng/
We tried to go to a salsa place but were really running out of steam. I insisted on al pastor tacos as a nightcap which was INCREDIBLE. I think it was here: http://www.eltizoncito.com.mx/
wow, you did it up right in the time you had, including the Moctezuma’s revenge! (I have to confess I’ve been there, several times. I tend to eat whatever’s in front of me and deal with the consequences later.)
What part of the city were you staying in? We went to El Tizoncito in Coyoacan and were disappointed, but friends of mine who now live there had recommended it highly, but in La Condesa, so it sounds like they’re not consistent from place to place.
Definitely want to try Quintonil now, thanks for reporting back!
Shell was only on the head and the tail for easy eating. It was good but not my favorite course. The grasshoppers on top were only known because they called it out. Otherwise, I would have thought it was another seasoning. It was served with a side of flavorful mole-ish black bean puree. Super tender and amazing fresh.
