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Mercado De Antojitos
Near Coyoacán's Plaza Hidalgo, this busy spot has all kinds of snacks, including deep-fried quesadillas, pozole, (boiled corn kernels served with a dollop of mayo), tamales and flautas (chicken tacos, rolled long and thin then deep-fried; garnished with lettuce and cream).
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Mercado Medellín
Features an extensive eating area with cheap and filling comidas corridas, as well as several excellent seafood restaurants.
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Mercado San Camilito
The block-long building contains over 70 kitchens serving Jalisco-style pozole (specify maciza if pig noses and ears fail to excite you). Also served are birria , and tepache .
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Meridiem
At the northern end of the lake, the Meridiem has soothing lake and fountain views and a bumper daily buffet ( to ) with plenty of hot and cold choices; the latter generally including dishes like pescado de ajillo (fish with garlic). Lesser appetites can eat relatively inexpensively here by ordering the tacos, which are well prepared and filling.
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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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Mi Fonda
Working-class Chilangos line up here for their share of paella valenciana, made fresh daily and patiently ladled out by women in white bonnets. Jesús from Cantabria oversees the proceedings. Space is limited but you can share a table.
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Mp Bistro
Celebrity chef Mónica Patiño blends Eastern and Western flavors with remarkable success.
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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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Non Solo Panino
The plaza's dancing fountains make a lovely backdrop for Italian sandwiches, with things like mozzarella, pesto and smoked salmon stuffed into fresh baked chapatas - Mexico's version of baguettes. More than just a snack center, 'Non Solo' is a cozy haunt for Roma's artistic set.
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Orígenes Orgánicos
More than just a place to buy soy milk, granola bars and certified-organic produce, this store-café facing one of Condesa's cutest plazas prepares tasty meals with an emphasis on fresh, seasonal, organic ingredients. Besides the veggie crepes, tofu fajitas and so on, there are a dozen salads to choose from.
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Otto
The duck-egg blue and burgundy two-tone paintwork equals a fashionable look at this bistro-style restaurant where white-smocked waiters serve up dishes like risotto with fish and mushrooms, salmon with couscous and pineapple, and crema de (soup of squash flowers with coconut). Breakfast goodies include bagels with salmon and cream cheese.
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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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Parrillada Bariloche
This stall along the southern aisle of an upscale street market grills some of the least-expensive Uruguayan-style steaks and sausages in town, along with excellent side salads.
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Pastelería Ideal
Mexico's most glorious array of wedding cakes is on offer at this old-fashioned bakery: this is the place if you need a 70kg, multistory gâteau for your nuptials. Otherwise, there's a huge variety of breads and pastries with odd names like 'railroads' and 'dark rocks', whose allusions can only be guessed at. Grab a pair of tongs and stack up your steel tray, then get rung up by one of the scores of girls in blue aprons.
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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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Photo Bistro
A French bistro cum photo gallery - how could it miss in Condesa? Indeed on any given evening, a smart set fills the intimate Photo Bistro, one of several fine eateries facing the fountain of tiny Plaza Citlaltépetl. Mexican ingredients enliven some of the artistically presented French fare here: slices of jicama add crunch to the spinach salad, and the salmon carpaccio rests on a bed of honeyed amaranth.
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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.
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Puro Corazón
This new Zócalo option has heart-thumping views of the cathedral from its 6th-floor perch, as well as a less stodgy vibe than its hotel counterparts. They put a novel spin on home-grown ingredients like pulque (fermented maguey beverage) and flor de calabaza (squash blossoms). Watch the flag being raised as you dig into a huitlacoche omelet, or lowered while savoring a shrimp cocktail laced with tequila.
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Raffaello
Elderly bow-tied waiters provide attentive service at this charming Italian restaurant with its cosmopolitan-style enclosed sidewalk terrace and elegant dining room. There's an upper-crust pizza choice, plus all the pasta favorites and a few rogue dishes, such as shrimp curry and goulash.
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Rayuela
Join the line for breakfast on Sunday mornings. Chef Raul's fluffy herb, cheese or mushroom omelets with a fresh tomato sauce are legendary. His mother, charming Socorro, runs the show, and her interest in art is reflected in the decor and paintings (for sale). Eat inside or under the archways on simple tasty dishes like spaghetti with pesto, fondue, crepes and chilaquiles rojos (fried strips of tortilla in a tomato and chili-based sauce, sprinkled with cheese).
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Restaurante Chon
Pre-Hispanic fare is the specialty of this cantina-style restaurant. Sample maguey worms (in season), grasshoppers, wild boar, and other items that have gone from being customary fare on Mexican tables to gourmet delicacies. Fortino Rojas, Chon's adventurous chef, incorporates these primordial ingredients into dishes Moctezuma could never have imagined. How about deer meatballs in huitlacoche sauce, chrysanthemums filled with ant larvae, crocodile steaks laced with pumpkin seed sauce?
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Restaurante Dzib
This deceptively large dining hall must be the ultimate comida corrida joint, serving toothsome three-course lunches. Start with a hearty caldo de habas (bean soup), followed by a plate of rice or spaghetti, then choose from an extensive selection of mains, which change daily (Friday is seafood day). TVs showing the afternoon soap opera are conveniently placed at the front of each room.
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Restaurante Vegetariano
This branch of Vegetariano Madero displays the day's offerings out front.
