Things to do in Mexico City
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Journeys Beyond the Surface
Offers personalized walking tours on aspects of the DF experience, with a get-off-the-beaten track attitude. Enhanced by expert commentary, tours may cover pre-Hispanic architecture, the muralist movement, or life in low-income neighborhoods, depending on participants’ interests.
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Fonda Margarita
Possibly the capital’s premier hangover- recovery spot – witness the line down the street on Saturday mornings – this humble eatery under a tin roof whips up batches of comfort food for the day ahead. Soulful fare like pork back in chile salsa verde is doled out of giant clay dishes. The fonda is beside Plaza Tlacoquemécatl, six blocks east of Avenida Insurgentes.
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Café El Popular
So popular was this tiny round-the-clock café that another more amply proportioned branch was opened next door to catch the considerable overflow. Fresh pastries and good combination breakfasts are the main attractions. Café con leche (coffee with milk) is served chino style (ie you specify the strength).
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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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Zócalo
The heart of Mexico City is the Plaza de la Constitución, more widely known as the Zócalo, meaning ‘base.’ City residents gave it this nickname in the 19th century, when plans for a major monument to independence went unrealized, leaving only the pedestal. Measuring more than 220m from north to south and 240m from east to west, the Zócalo is one of the world’s largest city squares.
The ceremonial center of Aztec Tenochtitlán, known as the Teocalli, lay immediately northeast of the Zócalo. In the 1520s Cortés paved the plaza with stones from the ruined Teocalli and other Aztec buildings. The Inquisition performed its first auto-da-fe here in 1574. In the 18th…
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El Cardenal
Possibly the finest place in town for a traditional meal, El Cardenal occupies three floors of a Parisian-style mansion with a pianist sweetly playing in the background. Breakfast is a must, served with a tray of just-baked sweet rolls and a pitcher of frothy, semi-sweet chocolate. For lunch, go for the oven-roasted veal breast, Oaxaca-style chiles rellenos (chili stuffed with meat or cheese, usually fried with egg batter), or in summer, escamoles (ant larvae, a much-coveted specialty).
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Palacio de Bellas Artes
Dominating the east end of the Alameda is this splendid white-marble palace, a concert hall and arts center commissioned by President Porfirio Díaz. Construction began in 1905 under Italian architect Adamo Boari, who favored neoclassical and art nouveau styles. Complications arose as the heavy marble shell sank into the spongy subsoil, and then the Mexican Revolution intervened. Architect Federico Mariscal eventually finished the interior in the 1930s, utilizing the more modern art deco style.
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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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Antigua Hacienda de Tlalpan
The setting is sublime; an 18th-century hacienda tastefully resurrected into one of the city’s quintessential colonial-style restaurants. The dining rooms are set around lovely gardens, complete with showy peacocks and a small pond with swans. The menu reads like a novel, with a vast choice including some delectable soups: pumpkin flower, cold avocado, lobster bisque and black bean. Follow this with a fish or spicy meat dish like roast pork loin in a chili sauce.
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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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La Lona Verde
This humble and friendly establishment does some very tasty seafood dishes. Start off with fried shrimp quesadillas or mixiote de mariscos (a flavorful shellfish broth), then have a fish fillet al ajillo (laced with a garlic and chili sauce). Being an Oaxacan-run establishment, they also make tlayudas, those great big crispy tortillas with a variety of toppings.
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Love
Socialites line up for Love, upstairs from the fusion restaurant Ixchel, in a typically ornate Colonia Roma mansion. You’re unlikely to get in without reservations, and even then it’ll depend on your looks. Once inside the velvet-draped lounge, order an apple martini and party like it’s 1983 – the DJ will help you remember what that was like.
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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 Botica
Like an old apothecary, La Botica dispenses its elixirs from squat bottles lined up on the shelf. Available varieties are suitably scribbled on pieces of cardboard – try the cuesh, distilled from a wild maguey in Oaxaca. La Botica has opened other branches with similar hours at Campeche 396 in Condesa, and Orizaba 161 in Colonia Roma.
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Bistrot Mosaico
A slice of Paris just west of Av Insurgentes, this unpretentious bistro is the successful creation of French restaurateur François Avernin. It’s trendy for a reason: the service is stellar, the salads fresh and varied, and the wines well chosen. Picnickers can stock up on pâté and escargots at the deli counter.
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Taquitos Frontera
One of a few late-night taquerías along Roma’s main drag, this is a humble alternative with cheerful staff, a smoky open grill and leather tables and chairs. In addition to the main attraction, there are great sides like frijoles charros (cowboy beans) and cebollitas (grilled green onions).
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Mercado De Xochimilco
South of the plaza, the bustling Mercado de Xochimilco covers two vast buildings: the one nearer the Jardín Juárez has colorful flower displays and an eating annex for tamales and other prepared foods, while the one nearer the train station sells mostly produce and household goods, with a few pottery stalls.
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Churrería El Moro
A fine respite from the Eje Central crowds, El Moro manufactures long, slender deep-fried churros (doughnut-like fritters), just made to be dipped in thick hot chocolate. It’s a popular late-night spot, perfect for winding down after hours.
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Super Soya
A whole-foods shop where you can find all the normal healthy fare, including various nutty breads and biscuits, soy products, natural vitamins and minerals, sugarless sweets and invigorating power snacks for keeping up your pavement-pounding momentum.
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Azul y Oro
Chef Ricardo Muñoz searches high and low in Mexico for traditional recipes that he re-invents to perfection. Fruits of his research include crispy ravioli stuffed with duck and the most scrumptious sopa de tortilla (tortilla soup).
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La Bodeguita del Medio
The walls are scribbled with verses and messages at this animated branch of the famous Havana joint. Have a mojito, a Cuban concoction of rum and mint leaves, and enjoy the excellent son cubano combos that perform here.
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Café la Blanca
White-coated waiters and orange upholstery set the tone for this 1960s relic offering hearty breakfasts and daily lunch specials. Sit at the U-shaped counter or grab a table by the window for people-watching over a cappuccino.
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Palacio Nacional
Home to the offices of the president of Mexico, the Federal Treasury and dramatic murals by Diego Rivera, this palace fills the entire east side of the Zócalo.
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Canals
Xochimilco (Náhuatl for 'Place where Flowers Grow') was an early target of Aztec hegemony, probably due to its inhabitants' farming skills. The Xochimilcas piled up vegetation and mud in the shallow waters of Lake Xochimilco, a southern offshoot of Lago de Texcoco, to make fertile gardens called chinampas, which later became an economic base of the Aztec empire. As the chinampas proliferated, much of the lake was transformed into a series of canals.
Approximately 180km of these waterways remain today and provide a favorite weekend destination for defeños. The chinampas are still under cultivation, mainly for garden plants and flowers such as poinsettias and marigolds.…
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Castillo de Chapultepec
A visible reminder of Mexico’s bygone aristocracy, the ‘castle’ that stands atop Chapultepec Hill was begun in 1785 but not completed until after independence, when it became the national military academy. When Emperor Maximilian and Empress Carlota arrived in 1864, they refurbished it as their residence. The castle became home to Mexico’s presidents until 1939, when President Lázaro Cárdenas converted it into the Museo Nacional de Historia (National History Museum). Historical exhibits chronicle the period from the rise of colonial Nueva España to the Mexican Revolution. In addition to displaying such iconic objects as the sword wielded by José María Morelos in…
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