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Klein's
More New York diner than the swanky Polanco norm, Klein's is a popular hang-out for the local Jewish community. Although most of the fare is typically Mexican; enchiladas , pollo y frijoles (chicken with beans), sopa de fideos (soup with noodle-style pasta). You can also get bagels or a plate of kosher salami and eggs.
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Kolobok
Run by a family from Kazan, Russia, this humble place facing the charming Alameda of the Santa María La Ribera neighborhood has excellent layered salads, tasty 'Russian empanadas' and borscht, of course.
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Konditori
This Scandinavian café attracts well-heeled regulars to see and be seen on this, the Pink Zone's main pedestrian thoroughfare. The salads, Danish sandwiches and cakes are good bets; some people make a special trip here for the weekend brunch (around $120 ) accompanied by live jazz.
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La Casa De Juan
This is a place where you want to hang around a while; it has a more European café than restaurant feel, with its small beamed rooms, challenging artwork, board games and wrought-iron balconies overlooking the square. Aside from breakfast, the daily menu changes and will usually include enchiladas, or similar, at a very reasonable price.
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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 Hacienda de los Morales
Often the setting for banquets and receptions, this 400-year-old once-colonial country hacienda is now decidedly urban, making the spacious rooms and pretty gardens all the more appealing. Excellent Mexican and Spanish dishes are served in numerous dining rooms by the experienced staff. Reservations are advisable, as is formal dress for dinner.
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La Lanterna
This smart Italian restaurant has an intimate feel with its low ceilings, dark wood-and-tile decor and shelves lined with fine wines. Businessmen from the nearby Four Seasons Hotel can forge deals over a fiery dish of penne all'arrabbiata (spicy chili and tomato sauce) or get heavy with a fillet of steak with all the trimmings.
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La Pause
An effortlessly cool bookshop, art gallery and restaurant, with plenty of vegetarian options; the salads are excellent, especially the La Pause special with spinach, lettuce, serrano ham and goat cheese. Kick back and peruse the art books over a cup of chai, or join the squirrels and birds in the courtyard garden.
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La Polar
Run by a family from Ocotlán, Jalisco, this boisterous beer hall has essentially one item on the menu: birria, a soulfully spiced goat stew. Their version of this Guadalajara favorite is considered the best in town. Spirits are raised further by mariachis and norteña combos, who work the half-dozen salons here.
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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 Sábia Virtud
Nouvelle cuisine from Puebla is lovingly presented at this cozy spot. Mole is the main thing, prepared in the classic Santa Clara convent style or the restaurant's own verde version. It laces enchiladas, various kinds of stuffed chilies, and champandongo, a sort of tortilla lasagna, which readers of the novel Like Water for Chocolate may recall as a dish the protagonist, Tita, prepares for one of her suitors.
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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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Lampuga
Fresh seafood is the focus of this French-bistro-style restaurant, where a blackboard over the bar announces the daily specials and brown paper tablecloths enable sloppy eaters. Tuna tostadas make great starters, as does the Greek-style octopus; for a main course, have the catch of the day grilled over coals. It may be hard to find a table at lunchtime.
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Les Moustaches
This is one of the city's most sophisticated and formal French restaurants with tables on an elegant patio. Start off with pâté de foie gras, then choose from duck in Grand Marnier sauce, Beef Wellington or lobster thermidor. For dessert, there are tempting crêpes and soufflés.
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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 Bisquets Obregón
The flagship branch of this nationwide chain overflows most mornings; fortunately there are a couple more nearby. Chilangos flock here for the pan chino (Chinese pastries) and café con leche, dispensed from two pitchers, Veracruz style.
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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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María Del Alma
A culinary escape to the Mexican state of Tabasco, María del Alma is a bit removed from the Condesa hubbub. Dining is in a leafy patio among singing birds and a romantically inclined pianist. Enjoy a guanabana margarita as tabasqueño owners Jorge and Fernando describe such regional items as tamales de chipilín. For a main dish, try sea bass steamed in aromatic herbs. The mind-blowing desserts are excellent.
