Mexican Food Guide

Prices are for ordinary stands, markets and mid-range restaurants. Expect double in the Cancún Hotel Zone, Tulum, Los Cabos and Polanco.

A taquería usually specialises, so the sign tells you what to order. Al pastor stands work after dark with the trompo (spit) turning out front; ask for it “con todo” for onion, coriander and pineapple. Suadero, longaniza (sausage) and tripa come from the same steel comal, where meats cook in their own fat. Carnitas are a late-morning food, sold by weight or by the taco with a choice of cuts: maciza (lean), cuerito (skin) or surtida (mixed). Barbacoa is lamb pit-cooked overnight in maguey leaves and eaten on weekend mornings with its consommé, especially in Hidalgo and the State of Mexico. Tacos de canasta (“basket tacos”) are steamed in a cloth-lined basket and sold off bicycles for a few pesos each. Tacos de guisado offer stews in clay pots: chicharrón in green salsa, rajas with cream, tinga.

On the coasts, tacos switch to fish and shrimp, and in the north to grilled beef (arrachera, carne asada) on flour tortillas. An “orden” usually means three to five tacos. Salsas are self-service and often far hotter than the meat, so try a drop first.

Oaxaca is the country’s food capital for many visitors, famous for its seven moles: negro, rojo, coloradito, amarillo, verde, chichilo and manchamanteles. In Oaxaca City, Mercado 20 de Noviembre has the Pasillo de Humo, a smoky aisle where you pick raw tasajo (thin beef), cecina (chile-rubbed pork) and chorizo, have it grilled on the spot and eat it with tortillas, guacamole and grilled spring onions. Next door, Mercado Benito Juárez sells chapulines (toasted grasshoppers with chile and lime), quesillo (string cheese), chocolate for hot chocolate ground on site, and pan de yema.

Evening tlayuda stands line streets around the centre and Jalatlaco. Tejate, a cold maize and cacao drink, is sold in markets and in Tlacolula’s Sunday market, 30 km east, where barbacoa de borrego is the breakfast. Cooking classes that start with a market visit run 1,500 to 2,500 pesos (about US$80 to $135) per person and are one of the best things to do in the city.

The Yucatán kitchen has Maya roots and Caribbean influences: achiote, sour orange, habanero and pit cooking (pib). In Mérida, eat cochinita pibil tacos in the morning (it often sells out by noon), panuchos and salbutes in the evening, sopa de lima, papadzules (egg-stuffed tortillas in pumpkin-seed sauce), poc chuc (grilled citrus pork) and marquesitas, rolled crisp crepes with Edam cheese sold in the plazas at night. Valladolid is known for longaniza and lomitos.

Puebla gave Mexico mole poblano, chiles en nogada (best in August and September around Independence Day), cemitas (sesame-roll sandwiches with milanesa and papalo herb), chalupas and the convent sweets sold on Calle 6 Oriente. Cholula next door is good for a casual lunch after the pyramid.

In Jalisco, Guadalajara serves tortas ahogadas, birria, carne en su jugo (beef and bacon in broth) and tejuino, a fermented corn drink with lime and salt. Tlaquepaque adds birria restaurants and mariachi lunches.

Baja runs on seafood. Ensenada is the home of the battered fish taco and seafood tostadas, the Tijuana side has birria and Caesar salad, and the wineries of the Valle de Guadalupe, 30 minutes north of Ensenada, pair Baja Med cooking with Mexican wine. Further south, La Paz and Todos Santos do chocolate clams and fresh ceviche.

Mexico City is the best place in the country to eat on the street. Breakfast is tamales from a cart with atole (a hot corn drink), or a guajolota, a tamal stuffed inside a bread roll, for 25 to 35 pesos. Mid-morning brings carnitas and quesadillas; after dark the al pastor stands light up, especially in Centro, Roma, Condesa and around the Insurgentes metrobus line.

The big markets are worth a trip on their own. Mercado de La Merced, east of the Zócalo, is the city’s wholesale food market. Mercado de San Juan in Centro sells exotic meat, cheeses and imported produce, and stalls will cook you tacos of whatever you buy. In Roma, Mercado Medellín has food stalls from around Latin America, and Coyoacán’s market is known for its tostadas. At Xochimilco, vendors paddle canoes of elotes, quesadillas and micheladas alongside the trajineras.

Tequila must be made from blue agave in Jalisco and designated areas of four other states. The town of Tequila, an hour west of Guadalajara, has distillery tours (300 to 1,000 pesos with tastings) and blue agave fields that are a UNESCO World Heritage landscape; the Highlands (Los Altos) around Arandas make fruitier tequilas. Order blanco, reposado (rested two months or more) or añejo (a year or more), and sip it neat.

Mezcal can be made from many agave species, roasted in earth pits, which gives the smoky taste. Most comes from Oaxaca, where Santiago Matatlán, 45 minutes from Oaxaca City on the Tlacolula road, calls itself the world capital of mezcal and has dozens of small family distilleries (palenques). Espadín is the standard agave; tobalá, tepeztate and other wild agaves cost more. It comes with orange slices and sal de gusano (worm salt).

Pulque, fermented maguey sap, is thick, slightly sour and low in alcohol, sold plain or curado (blended with fruit or oats) in pulquerías in Mexico City and Hidalgo. Beer is cheap: a bottle of Corona, Victoria or Modelo costs 25 to 45 pesos in a shop. A michelada is beer with lime, salt and spicy sauce. Coffee from Chiapas, Veracruz and Oaxaca is good, and hot chocolate made with water or milk is a breakfast drink in Oaxaca. For where to drink after dark, see our Mexico nightlife guide.

Resort areas on the Caribbean and Los Cabos cost 50 to 100% more, and prices are sometimes quoted in dollars there. Market stalls and street stands are cash only; restaurants in cities take cards. For full daily budgets, see our Mexico costs guide.

Do not drink tap water. Use bottled or purified (purificada) water, which is also what restaurants use for ice and aguas frescas in any decent place; garrafones (20-litre jugs) are the cheap option for longer stays. Raw salads, cut fruit from carts and raw seafood far from the coast are the most common causes of stomach trouble. Choose stalls where cooked food is served hot, money is handled by a different person from the cook, and the salsas look fresh.

Ceviche and aguachile are best eaten near the sea at busy places. If you get traveller’s diarrhoea, oral rehydration salts (suero oral) are sold in every pharmacy, and pharmacists in chains like Farmacias Similares and Farmacias del Ahorro give advice for free.

Say “provecho” to people eating near you when you sit down or leave. Staff will not bring the bill until you ask for “la cuenta, por favor”. Tip 10 to 15% in sit-down restaurants, in cash if you can, and check the bill first: tourist restaurants sometimes add a “propina” or “servicio” line. At street stands tipping is not expected, though rounding up is welcome. You pay at most taco stands after eating: tell the cook what you had.

Vegetarians do well in Mexico City, Oaxaca, Mérida and the beach towns, with many dishes built on beans, cheese, mushrooms, squash blossoms and nopales (cactus paddles). Elsewhere, beans and rice are often cooked with lard (manteca) or chicken stock, so ask “¿sin carne, sin manteca?”. Gluten-free is easy since corn tortillas are the default, but check flour tortillas in the north. Nuts appear in moles and chiles en nogada.