What to Eat in Mexico City: A Food Guide

Eating is not a side activity in Mexico City. It is one of the main reasons to come. The food runs from a two-peso taco cut off a spinning spit to some of the most celebrated restaurants in the world, and most of the best things you will eat cost almost nothing. This guide covers what to order, when to order it, and how to eat street food safely, so you spend your appetite well.

If you want to eat as you walk, our Roma and Condesa self-guided tour threads through the city's densest modern food scene, and the Centro Histórico tour puts you steps from the markets and taquerías of the old core.

Tacos al pastor: the one you cannot skip

Al pastor is the taco Mexico City is built on. Marinated pork stacked on a vertical spit, called a trompo, roasts as it turns, and the taquero shaves the crisp outer meat straight onto a small corn tortilla, usually flicking a piece of pineapple on top, then finishing it with onion, cilantro, and salsa.

There is real history in that spit. The technique arrived with Lebanese immigrants who brought spit-roasted shawarma to Mexico in the early twentieth century. Over the following decades cooks swapped lamb for pork, added an adobo marinade, and moved the dish to corn tortillas, and al pastor as we know it took shape in Mexico City by the mid-century. So the most Mexican taco in the city is also a migration story, which is fitting for a place remade by wave after wave of newcomers. Our companion on Roma and Condesa as neighborhoods built by outsiders tells that larger version of the same story.

Order two to start. They are small. You will order more.

Morning: tamales and churros

The city runs on tamales for breakfast. From roughly six to ten in the morning, vendors set up big steaming pots outside Metro entrances and market gates. Corn masa is stuffed, wrapped in a corn husk or banana leaf, and steamed. Ask for chicken in mole, pork in salsa verde, or rajas con queso (poblano strips with cheese). A very local move is the guajolota, a tamal tucked inside a bread roll, a carb-on-carb breakfast that makes complete sense once you are walking all day at altitude.

For the sweet version, churros are crisp fried dough dusted in cinnamon sugar, best dipped in thick hot chocolate. They are a perfect mid-morning or late-night stop between tour stops.

Mole and the deeper plates

When you want to sit down, order mole. It is not one sauce but a whole family of them, complex blends that can fold together chilies, spices, nuts, seeds, and sometimes chocolate into something dark and layered. Mole poblano is the famous one. It is the dish that shows off the cooking tradition behind the street food, and it pairs naturally with a rest during a long walking day.

The markets

To understand how the city eats, walk a market:

• Mercado La Merced, near the Centro Histórico, is the largest of the old-quarter markets with a vast food section. It is a full-sensory place and a good midday stop on a Centro morning.
• Mercado de San Juan is where many of the city's restaurants buy ingredients, and its stalls sell everything from imported cheeses and jamón to more adventurous specialty meats and seafood.

Markets are also where a lot of the honest cooking happens: comida corrida counters and fondas serving a fixed midday meal for a handful of pesos.

Roma and Condesa: the modern scene

For dinner, Roma and Condesa hold much of the city's contemporary restaurant scene, from casual to ambitious, along tree-lined walkable streets that are safe to wander in the evening. This is the natural place to end a day, which is exactly why our one day in Mexico City itinerary routes dinner here. Walk the neighborhood first with the Roma and Condesa tour, then pick a table.

Street-food safety, honestly

Street food in Mexico City is generally safe if you choose well, and it would be a shame to miss it out of caution. The rules are simple:

• Go where the crowd is. A busy stall means high turnover, and high turnover means fresh food. An empty cart at an odd hour is the one to skip.
• Watch the cooking. Food cooked to order over real heat, in front of you, is the safest kind. Tacos off a working trompo or a hot comal qualify.
• Trust your gut, literally. If a stall does not look clean or something feels off, move on. There is another taquería within a block, always.
• Ease into it. Give your system a day if you are new to the city, and drink bottled or filtered water.

Follow those, and you can eat your way across the city with confidence.

Eat while you walk

The best food days in Mexico City are also walking days: a tamal outside the Metro, tacos in the Centro, churros in the afternoon, dinner in Roma. Pair a route with your appetite using the best self-guided walking tours in Mexico City guide, plan the whole day with the Mexico City travel guide, or browse every route at Mexico City walking tours.