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El Zorzal
Run by Buenos Aires expats, this is the best of many options for Argentine fare, with imported cuts, as well as fresh pasta and generous salads. The parrillada (around $460 ), a mixed grill served on a chopping board, feeds at least two. The small, unpretentious dining room is adorned with photos of Argentine songbird Carlos 'El Zorzal' Gardel.
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Entre Vero
Enjoying a fabulous location overlooking the park, this restaurant has maintained a high reputation. Palate-pleasing touches include starter strips of warm pita bread with a tangy chili-based sauce and the excellent Mexican and international wines available by the glass. Try dishes like the tuna steaks, grilled vegetable platter or Neapolitan style thin-crust pizzas.
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Fonda El Refugio
The Fonda was founded 50 years ago by the late Judith Martínez Ortega, whose folkloric collection of copper pots, colorful paintings and whimsical ceramic ornaments still decorate the dining rooms. Fortunately, she also collected recipes, which her family continues to create flawlessly today. Favorites include mole poblano (breast of chicken drenched in a rich chocolate-based sauce) and albondigas chipotle (meatballs laced with spicy chili).
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Fonda Margarita
Possibly the capital's premier hangover-recovery spot - witness the line down the street on Saturday mornings - the humble eatery under a tin roof whips up big batches of comfort food for the day ahead. Soulful fare like pork back in chile guajillo sauce is doled out of giant clay dishes. Don't miss the huevos refritos (eggs scrambled with refried black beans). The fonda is beside Plaza Tlacoquemécatl, six blocks east of Av Insurgentes.
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Fonda San Ángel
On weekends you can sit under the sun brollies on the vast terrace and multitrip to the ample brunch, with all kinds of egg dishes, pastries and fresh-squeezed juices, plus great quesadillas. The menu includes some unusual dishes like chicken filled with goat cheese. There's a fine Mexican wine list varying from around $180 to M$630 a bottle.
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Hostería de Santo Domingo
Whipping up classic Mexican fare since 1860, this hugely popular (though not touristy) restaurant has a festive atmosphere, enhanced by chamber music. It's famous for its enormous chiles en nogada (around $180 ; (large green chilies stuffed with meat and fruit, covered with a creamy white walnut sauce and sprinkled with red pomegranate seeds - representing the colors of the Mexican flag), an Independence Day favorite, served here year-round.
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La Casa De Las Enchiladas
Indecisive Librans should avoid this place with its five choices of tortilla, 11 of filling, 10 of sauces, and seven of topping, including cilantro, cheese and sour cream. You can't go far wrong - or leave hungry, whatever three-enchilada plato you choose. The look is scrubbed pine, bright lights and pastel painted walls. There is a second restaurant at Liverpool 169 in Zona Rosa, complete with a children's play area making this a definite family favorite.
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La Casa de las Sirenas
Housed in a 17th-century relic, this restaurant has a series of atmospheric salons on three floors connected by creaky staircases. However, the only real place to dine is the top-floor terrace overlooking the Plaza del Templo Mayor. It's an ideal perch to nibble on mushrooms simmered with chipotle chilies, stuffed chilies laced with walnut sauce, or other Oaxaca-influenced fare - along with a shot of tequila from the downstairs cantina's extensive selection. Service is spotty.
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La Fonda del Hotentote
In the wholesale-paper district, this lunchtime-only comedor (dining room) brings a touch of class to Mexican standards without putting on airs. Standouts include red snapper tamales, nopales in chile guajillo sauce (cactus paddles in a sweet, mild chilli sauce), and pollo tocotlán (chicken steamed in maguey leaves with aromatic herbs). Desserts are equally enticing.
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La Guadalupana
In the heart of Coyoacán, next to what once was Hernán Cortés' home, this cantina is a meeting place for writers, revolutionaries and other intellectuals. It serves a fantastic lengua a la veracruzana (tongue Veracruz-style). For some reason the kitchen closes at , but don't worry: you can order quesadillas and tortas from the mercado down the block.
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La Puerta Del Sol
This quintessential cantina, founded in 1887, still has the double-leaf doors that machos like to push with brio when entering the watering hole. It serves an array of botanas and is famous for its chamorros (marinated pork shank).
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La Rauxa
Here's an interesting twist on the comida corrida concept, featuring uniquely created Catalan-influenced fare by chef/owner Quim Jardí. Instead of a printed menu, Quim describes what's being served, with at least one vegetarian main course option daily. Pleasant terrace seating under a big tree is usually filled by .
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La Terraza Del Quetzal
La Terraza opened in late 2007. Sit on the upstairs terrace or in one of the cute dining rooms with their primary color tablecloths and giant prints of fruit and veg. Dishes include a recommended tortilla soup topped with cheese and avocado, tacos with various fillings and a specialty pasta quetzal with cheese, broccoli, mushrooms and chicken.
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La Terraza Del Zócalo
With dining on a broad balcony overlooking the Zócalo toward the national palace, La Terraza makes a promising new alternative to the ho-hum hotel restaurants on the same side of the plaza. Oaxaca-style enchiladas and cecina de Yecapixtla (thinly sliced salted meat from a town in the state of Morelos) highlight a menu of regional classics. Enter at ground level through the jewelry arcade (there are various foreign flags above the entryway) and look for the elevator.
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Lamm
The restaurant of Colonia Roma's Casa Lamm cultural complex occupies a multilevel glass-walled pavilion opening on the center's enclosed gardens. It's an appealingly serene setting for fusion fare a la mexicana . such as tamarind tuna and esmedregal (cobia, a prized game fish) in a tequila cream sauce. After hours, the restaurant morphs into the capital's toniest antro .
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Los Bigotes De Carranza
There are just a few tables here upstairs and down, plus a spotless, open-plan kitchen and a reassuringly brief menu of traditional favorites like chiles rellenos, tacos, chicken dishes and steak. Proudly unpretentious, the decor is as dated as the menu, but has plenty of charm.
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Los Danzantes
The restaurant is an indoor-outdoor space with a slick modern bar backed with cobalt-blue glass in the main dining room and an elegant outdoor terrace. The Swiss-trained chef prepares innovative dishes like squid in beet sauce on creamy rice, surrounded by cabuches (the fruit of the viznaga cactus). Relax your belt a notch further with the chocolate truffle pie. You'll also find mezcal (an alcoholic drink similar to tequila) cocktails available upstairs in the bar; Danzantes now has its own tequila label.
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Los Girasoles
This is one of the best of a wave of restaurants specializing in alta cocina mexicana (Mexican haute cuisine). The menu boasts an encyclopedic range of Mexican fare, from pre-Hispanic (ant larvae), to colonial (turkey in tamarind mole ) to innovative (snapper fillet in rose hip salsa). Your tastebuds will thank you.
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Méson De Los Léones
This family-run restaurant has been attracting punters for decades with its unwaveringly authentic menu and genial atmosphere. The half-tiled dining room has a photo display of happy diners enjoying specialty dishes.
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Nevería Roxy
A throwback to a less-franchised era, the old-fashioned Roxy makes its own ice cream and sherbet onsite, including such tropical flavors as zapote (sapodilla) and guava. Another branch is at Tamaulipas 161, close to metro Patriotismo.
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Pampano
Pampano is one of the latest gourmet restaurants in Polanco (the original is in New York). High ceilings, a magnificent central candelabra and icy white walls with a sculpted, rippled effect create a minimalist dining space. The dishes include black bean soup with fresh cheese, plantains, avocado and strips of tortilla; and seafood specialties like tacos de langosta (lobster) and the exemplary pescado de azteca with huitlacoche in a chili sauce.
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Paxia
The achingly cool reception area here has a giant plasma screen where you can watch the food being prepared. The menú de degustación verde costs around $430 but is a real banquet if you are a serious (very hungry) gourmet, with seven courses, including sopa de alcachofa y pistache pulverizado (creamed artichoke and pistachio soup) and raviolis rellenos de huitlacoche en salsa de tres quesos (ravioli stuffed with truffle-like corn fungus in a three-cheese sauce).
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Péndulo
A small restaurant located within a classy bookshop. Come here for a breakfast omelette Juliette with spinach, tomato and goat cheese in the elegant downstairs café, surrounded by books and cosseted by classical music, which is live on Sunday mornings. More substantial fare includes fresh pasta and fish dishes, plus there is a cut-price children's menu.
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Pozolería Tixtla
East of Roma, in working-class Colonia Algarín, this old-fashioned dining hall attracts plenty of families with hefty appetites. The specialty (they've been perfecting it for almost 40 years) is Guerrero-style green pozole, a soulful variation on the classic pork and hominy broth, garnished with crackling chicharrónand creamy avocado slices.
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Pujol
This smartly minimalist dining room with black-and-white decor is punctuated by the brilliant crimson of red carnations on the tables. The menu reflects a creative approach to classic Mexican and Spanish recipes with a soupcon of French influence - and a sense of humor, as evident in the starter of what looks like a quail egg (topped with caviar) in a Chinese soup spoon, actually created from mango and cauliflower.
