Mexico City Trip Report December 2022

Mr_Happy · January 6, 2023, 3:54am

I was in Coyoacán, a neighborhood south of Centro Histórico in CDMX, to visit the Frida Kahlo Museum (very cool place, definitely recommend a visit) and had some tostadas from Tostadas Coyoacán in the Mercado Coyoacán which is near the museum.

Aguachile Tostada
This was ok. There were a lot of shrimp and a bright and spicy green aguachile sauce, with red onion, cucumber, and some slices of avocado. The sauce was quite nice and zingy but I thought the shrimp were a little on the tough side.

Chicken Mole Tostada
I liked this tostada more, it was very good. It had some beans spread on the crispy tostada, then some room temperature shredded chicken in a red mole, and then some crema and some queso fresco or Cotija cheese.

Tostadas Coyoacán

Mercado Coyoacán

Frida’s house

After the museum, I walked around Coyoacán a bit and had a few al pastor tacos from the El Tizoncito branch there. El Tizoncito has claimed to have invented al pastor - the marinated pork roasted on a spinning spit/trompo, but this claim is much disputed. Anyway these were some good tacos but not too distinguishable from the others I had.

tacos al pastor

comes with some limes, tortilla chips, and beans

exterior

FindingFoodFluency · January 7, 2023, 3:53am

I was at Contramar a couple of years ago; thought it was darn good, too!
Since I rarely saw eggplant on the menu in Mexico – ok, rarely at standard issue taquerias – I chose the eggplant tostada. Excellent stuff, as was the octopus.
Had no idea about the fig tart, so next time. And you’re right, it was good service, although I’ve found service levels in Mexico to be quite good overall.

For ceviche, I’d also recommend Agua y Sal, in Polanco.

Saregama · January 7, 2023, 8:54am

Thanks for taking us along — fun read and delicious food!

Mr_Happy · January 9, 2023, 9:39am

Thanks for the recs, will keep them in mind for next time! And yes the fig tart is a must try at Contramar.

Mr_Happy · January 9, 2023, 9:41am

Later that day, I had a couple of very nice drinks at Brujas, a women-run bar in la Casa de las Brujas (the House of the Witches), a building in Roma Norte named because its roof resembles a witch’s hat.

Yerbera
Havana Club 7 infused with caramel (45ml), Armonizados Vermouth (30ml) and Kalakas Red Mixe endemic chili pepper liquor (15ml)

Naja
_Beefeater infusted with squash blossoms (30ml), Carpano Bianco (45ml), Nixta (15ml) and Fernet (5ml)

Mr_Happy · January 9, 2023, 9:53am

For a late dinner I walked to Em in Roma Norte, a restaurant from chef Lucho Martinez. I got in a little late and they only had a few things left on the menu available a la carte.

Dinner started with a dashi with cactus. A nice light dashi which was a nice start.

Tostada Veracruz
Fish with olive (forgot to write down what fish), topped with slices of avocado. A very pretty presentation. And also delicious.

Almejas Mantequilla
Clams from Ensenada in a cream sauce. With a grilled/charred bread. This was so good! Excellent bread in particular, which was grilled and with a crumb that had a very nice texture.

Pesca Dia
The catch of the day, which was a piece of striped bass. Also delicious! Perfectly cooked fish with a crispy skin. The dots on the right were of a pineapple sauce. This came with a side of a garlic “foam” which was light and very garlicky.

And then some desserts. First was a cucumber jelly and some other jelly (no picture) that was refreshing and fruity.

And a bunch of little bites.

mamey tart

Clockwise from left:
alegría - a popped amaranth candy
a passionfruit gel thing
miso caramel

ice cream brownie

All were good, I liked the mamey tart the best.

The total was $1693 MXN / ~$88 USD with a glass of wine and an espresso, including tax and before tip. Great meal! Really well executed dishes with maybe a bit of Japanese influence.

Leely2 · January 11, 2023, 2:42am

This is a fantastic report. Thank you–I’m definitely hungry now.

Mr_Happy · January 13, 2023, 4:10am

For a lunch, I had a birria plate from the Birria Estilo Jalisco stand on Colima in Roma Norte near my hotel. Great birria! The chef took some beef birria from a plastic covered steam tray, chopped it up - a mix of fatty and leaner parts, placed it in a bowl, added some sauce/gravy, and a few ladles of consommé, and raw onions by request. Very tender beef. The consommé was very nice, mellow and flavorful. It came with a stack of tortillas also steamed in the tray, to which a couple more were added after I finished them. There were limes, onions with spicy habaneros and some very spicy marinated dried chilies to add also. Some really great birria.

Birria Estilo Jalisco is steps away from Panaderia Rosetta, so I had another pastry from there for dessert - a cinnamon roll. Very nice, lots of layers with cinnamon and sugar glazed. Beats Cinnabon for sure.

Mr_Happy · January 13, 2023, 4:44am

Some more street food for dinner #1, I don’t know the name of the stand but it was on the intersection of Colima and Merida in Roma Norte near where Jenni’s Quesadillas sets up. I had a couple deep fried quesadillas which were quite good. I had one stuffed with cheese and chicharron/fried pork skin and one stuffed with cheese and huitlacoche/black corn fungus. They were topped with lettuce, crema, and some crumbly cheese.

And then dessert at the Roma Norte branch of Churrería el Moro, a churrería chain founded in 1935 in Centro Histórico and has many locations around CDMX. I had a couple churros with cinnamon, and a cup of Mexican style hot chocolate to dunk them in. The freshly made churros were a winner, crispy on the outside and warm and a little soft on the inside.

Finally for dinner #2 I got a couple of pretty good al pastor tacos with cheese from Taqueria Alvaro Obregón, which is a bit down the street on Av. Álvaro Obregón. It looks like they put the cheese side down directly on the grill which gave the cheese some crispy spots.

Mr_Happy · January 14, 2023, 3:09am

For a late lunch/snack the next day after wandering around the National Museum of Anthropology (very cool) and the Bosque de Chapultepec (a beautiful park), I went to El Turix in the Polanco neighborhood which is north of the park. This kind of hole-in-the-wall taqueria seemed to me a little incongruous in the upscale Polanco neighborhood with its swanky bars, restaurants, and shops. El Turix specializes in Yucatecan cuisine, namely cochinita pibil, which is a slow cooked pork dish marinated in achiote paste. I had a couple panuchos, which consist of a base of crispy fried corn masa stuffed with black beans, topped with some of the cochinita pibil scooped straight out of the tray by hand and also some pickled red onions. I also applied some of the spicy habanero salsa at the counter and some lime juice.

These were great! The pibil topping was very flavorful and tender and also quite saucy. The pickled onions added some nice acidity along with the heat of the habanero salsa, and the panucho base was quite crispy.

Taquero making tacos. The panucho shells are frying in the container on the right.

Delicious cochinita pibil panuchos

Exterior - there’s no seating inside but there is a small bar and a bench outside.

Not food - Museum of Anthropology

Not food - Avenida Paseo de la Reforma in Chapultepec Park

maxcatsilver · January 14, 2023, 12:09pm

Another hole in the wall not far from Turix (Also on Ave. Emilio Castelar) that I really liked was Quesadillas Maria Isabel. Especially the Quesdailla de flor de calabaza with queso.

Mr_Happy · January 14, 2023, 10:17pm

Thanks for the rec!

Ziggy · January 15, 2023, 2:29pm

Thanks for this. Going in March for the first time.

Mr_Happy · January 20, 2023, 8:32pm

I need to catch up on reports!

For dinner, I scored a late reservation to Pujol, the flagship fine dining restaurant from chef Enriqué Olvera, for their “menu barra de tacos” or “taco omakase” menu which was $2995 MXN / ~$160 USD including tax but not including tip or drinks.

Outside:

The interior is very sleek and modern. The taco omakase was served at the bar area.

You get to keep your napkin as a souvenir.

Dinner started with some snacks.

First, a campechana scallop with caviar and leche de tigre, served with a crispy blue tostada. Delicious! Raw scallop topped with caviar on top of a creamy sauce. I think the “leche de tigre” was the green stuff? This was served with a blue corn tostada.

A fish chicharron, a fish skin deep fried so that it puffed up like a pork skin chicharron, quite nice and crispy. This was topped with “romeritos” which is a plant also known as seepweed.

Abalone, salsa martajada broth
Tender slices of abalone in kind of a dashi.

Tuna taco, shiso
I neglected to write down notes on this.

Octopus tlacoyo, smoked clam paste
Delicious! Thin slices of perfectly cooked octopus, flavorful roasted/smoked clam base underneath that, and a tortilla-like base underneath. I forget what was in the salsa.

Lobster taco, brussels sprouts, macadamia nut
This was a piece of lobster wrapped inside a Brussels sprout, on top of a macadamia nut purée and a blue corn tortilla. Topped with cilantro flowers. It was served with a chili oil like salsa macha with peanuts.

A “pambazo” with hamachi chorizo topped with kale.

Crab chilpachole, crab empanada
I looked up chilpachole, it’s a seafood stew. And a crab filled empanada and a side of garlic mayo. I was recommended to sip some of the soup between bites of the empanada. So good!

Mole madre 2977 days, mole nuevo made with seasonal fruit
Pujol’s famous mole, which is replenished daily like a perpetual stew and is now over 8 years old. This was topped with a tortilla and a fresh mole. Delicious! The darker mole was more intense and complex, and the fresh fruit mole (not sure what fruit) was lighter and sweeter. I licked the plate.

A nice tangerine sorbet as a palate cleanser.

Caramelized figs, figs leaf ice cream

A delicious meal. The famous Pujol mole lived up to its reputation. Other standouts were the crab empanada, the octopus tlayoco, and the scallop campechana.

Ziggy · February 1, 2023, 11:44pm

Good stuff. I fell asleep and totally missed the opportunity to book Pujol. I’m just not used to booking restaurants 6 months in advance.

“Settled” on Quintonil instead

fooddabbler · February 2, 2023, 12:53am

We did both Quintonil and Pujol (not the taco tasting) in 2019, and enjoyed both --but we might have enjoyed the food at Quintonil a bit more. The service and attention to detail at Pujol was, however, significantly superior. We’d emailed both places ahead of time expressing my wife’s preference for a certain seating arrangement. Both responded saying “yes”. But when we arrived at Q they professed ignorance of the request, and refused to re-arrange the seating, although they could easily have. At the end of our superb dinner there, it turned out to be raining heavily outside. We’d walked there, but now had to visibly fumble with the still-unfamiliar-to-us ride-hailing mechanisms there. The attractive staff stood by with no offers of help. At Pujol, they’d laid out a table for us and were solicitous from start to end.

I really should post my own pictures and impressions but they’ll pale in comparison to the superb stuff above.

Ziggy · February 2, 2023, 10:13pm

One thing still confuses me in regards to Quintonil. I booked a regular dining room table and paid the $800 pp. Curious if I can I still order the tasting menu. Their wording says yes, but at the same time they require a heftier deposit if one books the tasting menu in advance

Mr_Happy · February 3, 2023, 2:44am

Around this time I moved from Roma Norte to La Condesa where I would stay for the rest of my trip. To me, Condesa felt a little similar to Roma Norte, with tree lined streets, European inspired architecture, and lots of restaurants and bars.

For a late snack, I had a couple of al pastor tacos at Taquería El Califa’s Condesa branch. Don’t remember much about these, but they were good.

Also had a nice bowl of chicken soup / caldo de pollo.

The next day I walked around Condesa a bit. For lunch, I had a couple of suadero tacos from Tacos Don Juan in Condesa, which started as a butcher shop (the attached shop is still open) and known for their suadero tacos.

These were very good and they are quite generous with the tender and juicy suadero. I added some of the avocado tomatillo salsa and red chili salsas available on the counter.

Then I walked just across the street to El Pescadito, a taqueria specializing in seafood tacos with a few locations around CDMX. Here I just had a campechano taco (a mix of fillings) which had fried shrimp and fried fish which I believe was marlin. They had some other stuff that looked interesting as well, like a taco topped with a chile relleno with marlin, but I was a little full after the two large tacos from Tacos Don Juan. They have a large salsa bar area with various salsas, hot sauces, and condiments including a cabbage salad, which I put on top of my taco. This was a very good seafood taco. The shrimp and fish were I think lightly battered, and the fish was quite meaty.

Campechano Taco

For dinner, I had a torta from Tortas al Fuego, which is a small torta stand and restaurant on the edge of Condesa. They had some tables on the sidewalk to sit on. I had the arrachera/grilled steak torta with cheese, which was a delicious sandwich. The beef was quite tender. Inside of the griddled bollilo roll was a bean spread, the beef, avocado, and cheese. Spicy red and tomatillo flavored green salsas were on the table along with limes.

Mr_Happy · February 3, 2023, 2:57am

Not a bad place to settle on!

It does sounds like you can get the tasting menu with the deposit, would be odd if they wouldn’t want to sell more tasting menus I think. Though I guess it is also a little odd that there is an option where you can prepay for the whole thing.

Mr_Happy · February 13, 2023, 9:02am

The next day, I went on a walking food tour of La Condesa. This was through a tour company called Club Tengo Hambre and lasted about 3 hours.

Our first stop was Taqueria La Hortaliza which was featured in Netflix’s Taco Chronicles food documentary, a fact that is advertised by several signs in the shop. They serve tacos guisados, which are tacos with stew or stew-like fillings. I had a lengua taco, which was delicious! Tender lengua/beef tongue, but with still a bit of bounce and snap, in a flavorful I think tomato based sauce, along with some rice. Other options they had included beef that was fried chile relleno style, scrambled eggs with sausage and vegetables, and chicharron in a chili tomato sauce. This was a great taco and one of the top bites of this tour.

Next was a quesadilla from a stand I don’t remember the name of, but was on Zamora Street in Condesa. I had a half of a huitlacoche quesadilla. Huitlacoche is a fungus “corn smut” that grows on corn and to me tastes a bit like mushrooms. All on a freshly made blue corn tortilla. Very good.

Next, a stop at Tacos Don Juan, which I had actually already been to the day before . But this time with a bit more background from our guide. I had another suadero taco here, which was as good as the ones I had before.

Next stop was a taco from Tacos Richard, on the corner of Av. Tamaulipas and Alfonso Reyes. Tacos Richard makes carnitas tacos (fried pork), and the meats are made offsite and then made into tacos and served to customers out of the back of a pickup truck. I had a surtida taco, which is a mix of different pig parts including some of the gelatinous pork skin. This was delicious! Great mix of porky flavors and textures. Another top bite of this tour.

And then, a taco from Molino “El Pujol” a more casual restaurant and also from chef Enrique Olvera of Pujol fame. It’s also a tortilleria that makes its own masa, one can buy packs of freshly made tortillas and other goods from here. We had a vegetarian (actually vegan) taco of avocado in a tortilla with a leaf of hojo santa pressed into it.

We then stopped for pastries at Maque, a café in a former residence. Apparently many restaurants and such in Condesa are located in former residences. I picked a pastry that resembled a sweet cornbread muffin, which was very good, quite moist and sweet and corny.

We ate our pastries in a nearby park and met Mambo the friendly soccer dog.

We then walked east past Avenida de los Insurgentes into Roma Sur and to our penultimate stop - a stand outside the Mercado Medellín that again I forget the name of. I think it was on a corner of Campeche and Medellín. We had tlacoyos from this stand. This was an oval blue corn masa shell stuffed with a fava bean paste, and then topped with some crumbly cheese. Fresh off the griddle and delicious.

Finally our last stop was inside the Mercado Medellín, where we had some coconut water from freshly opened young coconuts. I neglected to take a picture of the stall, but here’s some of the market.

This was a really enjoyable tour of Condesa with a great guide. Also, a good amount of food. They recommended not eating breakfast before it and I would agree, even though I don’t usually eat breakfast anyway.