Here are all the food recommendations I have from my 2 years of living in Mexico, all local favoritos. Scroll to the end for a Google Maps pins view.
If I don’t make a special mention of it, all restaurants and most places in Mexico accept credit cards, only a very small handful are cash only.
You probably won’t find these recommendations from your New York Times articles or Wall Street Journal, but I promise you, Sally is very picky, if Sally likes it, you will too.
1. Tortas Al Fuego (Mexican Food)
Oh man, this is literally what I call Casa de Juana (my Mexican name is Juana jajaja), I practically live in this restaurant. I’d eat here by myself at least 3 times a week, on top of that, my Mexican friends and I would meet here at least once or twice a week for food then go dancing. This is our church.
My meals from here look like:
Drink 🍹 : Agua de pina sin hielo y sin azucar (freshly blended pineapple juice without ice and without sugar)
Soup 🍲 : Sopa de tortilla (tortilla soup, highly recommend omg)
Main Course 🌮 : I choose one of the following most of the time – alambre de pollo con queso (chicken alambre with cheese), and this seafood soup meal thing which I forgot the name of.
Other food worth trying from here:
Tacos al pastor, you’d see the giant al pastor upon entering the restaurant.
Torta de pulpo, which is toasted torta with octopus.
Coctel de camaron, shrimp cocktail.
Agua de fresa, agua de sandía, watermelon juice or strawberry juice.
And just anything else to be honest.
A whole meal in total would cost about $150 pesos as of 2023
2. Los Especiales (just tacos) 🌮
In my opinion, one of the must visit spots if you’re in the zocalo (centro) area. Such a local spot, you might see a long line outside, but it’s definitely worth the experience and the food is great!!
If you cannot speak Spanish, I mean, well I don’t even want to write a guide on how to get these tacos, because the true beauty lies in the struggle and chaos hahaha. The tacos are amazing here, so just go there, line up, use your fingers to let them know how many you want, receive some plastic number (they give you these poker chips, gonna make you feel like a true gambler), point at the tacos you want, and get ready to only pay in cash. For 5 tacos and a drink it’s about $60 pesos! Enjoy! 😉
3. Mog Bistro (Japanese/Asian Food)
I know what you’re thinking, I didn’t come to Mexico city to eat Asian food 😤!! But hear me out. This restaurant has much better food quality than my favorite expensive Japanese restaurants in California, this isn’t just some replacement restaurant for my Asian food cravings, it’s actually just amazing great quality food for decent prices. The vibe here is izakaya like 🏮.
My meals from here look like:
Drink 🍹 : Agua de gengibre sin hielo y sin azucar (ginger tea without ice and without sugar)
Appetitzer 🍣 : Cono de Salmon (salmon hand roll) or a chicken thigh skewer.
Main Course 🍜 : LAKSA (OMG THE LAKSA IS SO GOOD, it’s almost as good as the ones I’ve had in Singapore!!)
Dessert 🍰 : Mil crepe de matcha, the matcha mil crepe cake is a MUST try, it’s usually a hot commodity in the USA, you do not see it everywhere in the streets (unless you’re in NYC), but they ALWAYS have it available in this restaurant.
All that food would probably cost you around $300 pesos
4. Amatista Tostadas (Mexican food)
Do not miss out on this one!! You should visit Coyoacán, which is a small cute town right in la ciudad de México, I’ve had a lot of tostadas in my life, the atún sellado (seared tuna) and mole pollo (mole chicken) tostadas from here are the best I’ve ever had in my life lmao and it’s dirt cheap! Every time I eat the tuna tostada here feels like the first time ~ 🤤 I butterflies in my stomach just reminiscing about it.
What I normally order:
Drink 🍹 : agua del dia, their fresh daily drink is always good.
Food 🌮 : Tostada de atun fresco (seared tuna, get 2 of these), tostada de mole colete (chicken mole), tostada de pulpo a la gallega (octupus), and honestly everything else, try the pork, I don’t eat pork but everyone I went with liked the pork too.
Each tostada costs about $40-60 pesos.
5. Cancino (Italian food) 🍝
Again, the Mexicans can cook everything, the vibe here is romantic, fun and a great place for couples or friends. I’ve taken my friends here too. They make fresh pizzas from scratch.
Drink 🍹 : they got good wine, I enjoy the sangria from here.
Food 🍝 : Pizza, margherita one or a meat one. Rigatoni con salmon. Omg so good.
Dessert 🍮 : brownie with ice cream!!
- MO+F: Japanese food! My church. A sister restaurant of Mog Bistro (resturatnt number 3 mentioned earlier).
- Chilpa: hippe brunch spot that serves Mexican food, great atmosphere, go here if you like chilaquiles.
- Joe Gelato: apparently the best ice cream spot, rated by Sally!
- El Pescadito Roma: seafood tacos! Cheap, fast and filling.
- Comedor de los Milagros: a fun pretty food court where I usually get my meals too. You would sit first and you can order anything from one menu that encapsulates all the restaurants in the food court. I would recommend Colombian food or lima food here!
- Mercado Medellin: Juice! My secret of looking young forever lies here. I get my daily green smoothie from this market. If you’re nearby, I’d recommend visiting here and getting a juice. They sell flowers, all kinds of nuts. It can be overwhelming but it’s my little well kept secret.
- Mercado San Juan: Now this market is overwhelming, they sell tiger meat, insects and all kinds of good stuff here, but don’t eat them.
I had some of my best raw oysters from here, find the seafood stand!
- Panadería Rosetta: freshly baked bread, famous, pretty good.
- Caldo de Gallina: I like chicken soup hehe 🍲
- Contramar: well, it’s popular, you can usually try showing up at lunch time to get a last minute spot, or if you reserve in advance. The price point should be acceptable for you Americans but would I eat there again? Probably not. But if you’re swinging by for the first time in cdmx? Give it a try.
Google Maps Pins
Click here for a custom Google Maps pins of all the restaurants mentioned above:
Access to my maps:
Sally's Travel Map 
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