Best Street Food and Casual Restaurants in Mexico City

People often ask me what destination has impressed me most as a food lover. Mexico City is always near the top of the list.

The Mexican capital is one of the world's great culinary cities, a place where centuries of history, migration, and tradition converge on nearly every street corner. Fine dining restaurants here regularly appear on international rankings, but some of the city's most memorable meals cost only a few dollars.

The food scene in Mexico City is remarkably democratic. A visitor on a modest budget can eat extraordinarily well from market stalls and sidewalk vendors. Those looking for sit-down meals will find countless casual restaurants serving regional specialties, while the city's acclaimed fine dining establishments rival the best in North America.

The New York Times once described the food in Mexico City as "upsettingly good," a phrase that felt surprisingly accurate after a week spent eating my way across the city. From tacos carved directly from spinning spits to ancient Indigenous dishes that predate the arrival of Europeans, every meal seemed to tell part of Mexico's story.

This first installment focuses on the foods and casual restaurants that make Mexico City such a paradise for travelers who love to eat.

Al Pastor

Al Pastor

If there is one food that defines modern Mexico City, it is al pastor. The sight is unmistakable: a towering cone of marinated pork rotating slowly beside an open flame, its exterior caramelizing as it cooks. When a customer approaches, the taquero expertly shaves thin slices directly onto warm tortillas, often finishing the taco with pineapple, cilantro, onion, and salsa.

Although many people consider al pastor quintessentially Mexican, its origins trace back to Lebanese immigrants who arrived in Mexico during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. They brought with them the tradition of cooking meat vertically on a spit, a technique that eventually evolved into one of Mexico's most beloved foods.

In Mexico City, al pastor is everywhere. Follow the aroma of roasting pork and spices and you will likely find a stand serving tacos for less than the cost of a coffee.

Green Chorizo

Other street food dishes I ate while in CDMX included green chorizo, which I sampled in Mercado de Jamaica, a traditional public market that has been operating since 1950. The word "chorizo" is Spanish for "sausage," which I have eaten many times. The green variety however, was new to me. To achieve the green color, meat is mixed with herbs and chilis.

The mixture is then sautéed ...

... prior to being placed on warm, corn tortillas and topped with salsa, onions and cilantro. This taco was so flavorful, I was tempted to have another, but there were too many other stops on our street food tour.

Tlacoyos

Tlacoyo Stand

While al pastor represents modern Mexico City, tlacoyos offer a taste of something much older. These thick masa cakes date back to pre-Hispanic times and have been eaten in central Mexico for centuries. Traditionally shaped into ovals and stuffed with ingredients such as beans, cheese, or fava beans, they remain one of the most enduring examples of Indigenous Mexican cuisine.

The version I tried was stuffed with beans, cheese, and pork cracklings before being cooked until lightly crisp on the outside while remaining soft and steaming within. It was simple, filling, and deeply satisfying—the kind of food that demonstrates why traditional Mexican cooking has endured for generations.

Quesadillas

Quesadilla Stand

One of the pleasures of eating in Mexico City is discovering how different familiar dishes can be from their American counterparts. At a bustling market stall, cooks pressed fresh blue-corn tortillas before filling them with ingredients ranging from cactus paddles and mushrooms to squash blossoms and queso fresco.

Frijoles y Zucchini Blossoms

I chose several varieties, including a mushroom quesadilla, one filled with squash blossoms, and another featuring black beans, cactus, and cheese. Each highlighted ingredients that have long been staples of Mexican cuisine yet remain relatively uncommon north of the border.

Hongos Quesadilla

The result was a reminder that Mexican food is far more diverse than many visitors expect.

Insects

Flying Ants, Crickets and Chiniquil

One of the most fascinating culinary traditions in Mexico predates European contact entirely.

Long before cattle, pigs, and sheep arrived with Spanish colonizers, Indigenous communities relied on insects as an important source of protein.

Scorpions and Beetles

Today, chapulines (grasshoppers), flying ants, beetles, worms, and other insects remain a part of Mexican cuisine and can be found in markets, restaurants, and street stalls throughout the country.

For adventurous eaters, trying these foods offers more than novelty. It provides a direct connection to culinary traditions that have survived for centuries — traditions that Mexico City's finest restaurants have not abandoned, either. At Pujol, one of the world's most celebrated restaurants, the complimentary bar snack at Handshake Speakeasy features edible insects alongside seasoned almonds, and chicatana flying ants — harvested only after the first seasonal rains — appear as a mayonnaise coating on one of the most memorable bites of the tasting menu. The same ingredients that appear on a market stall for a few pesos appear, transformed, in a two-Michelin-starred dining room. That continuity is part of what makes Mexico City's food culture so coherent and so extraordinary.

Corn

Coal Roasted Corn on the Cob

No ingredient is more important to Mexican food than corn.

Pan Fried with Herbs and Chilis

Its significance extends far beyond nutrition.

Corn Bread

Corn occupies a central place in Mexican history, culture, and identity.

Boiled Corn

Ancient civilizations cultivated it, worshipped it, and built entire cuisines around it.

Corn Grinder

Throughout Mexico City I encountered corn in countless forms: roasted on the cob, simmered into esquites, baked into sweet breads, and transformed into tortillas.

Watching fresh masa being ground, pressed, and cooked by hand was a reminder that even the simplest tortilla is the result of generations of craftsmanship.

Fresh from the griddle, warm and lightly salted, these tortillas needed nothing else.

Conchas

If you have a sweet tooth, it will be satisfied by all of the dessert options you will find in CDMX.

Concha

The most common sweet I encountered throughout CDMX were conchas — traditional Mexican pan dulce shaped like shells and named for the seashell pattern scored into their sugary crust. Similar in texture to brioche, they are softer and more pillowy than a croissant and less dense than a muffin, with a crunchy, slightly crumbly topping that shatters lightly when you bite in. The best ones come warm from a bakery early in the morning, and the best version of warm from a bakery is the cinnamon concha filled with vanilla cream served at the end of dinner at Pujol — which tells you that this humble street pastry has earned its place at every level of Mexican culinary life.

Fruit

Mixed Fruits

If you want to go the healthier route, stop at any of the fresh fruit stands and choose from myriad options. My fruit "bowl" (made of corn husk) was overflowing with papaya, guava, Chinese grenade, star fruit, mamey, chirimoya, kumquat, zapote, persimmon and peach.

Mercado de Jamaica

Many of these culinary discoveries took place inside Mercado de Jamaica, one of Mexico City's most historic public markets.

Dried Goods

Although best known for its flower vendors, the market is also a feast for the senses.

A walk through its aisles reveals piles of dried chiles, colorful candies, spices, fruits, seafood, and prepared foods from across Mexico.

Markets like this offer something more valuable than a meal. They provide a glimpse into everyday life in Mexico City and reveal the ingredients and traditions that shape the city's extraordinary food culture.

Taqueria Los Cocuyos

If you are looking for budget friendly options where you can sit and enjoy your meal, I would recommend two. The first is Taqueria Los Cocuyos, a taco shop that sells multiple varieties of tacos. This place was recommended by three locals as well as Bon Appétit, Eater and many other food critics. Though my travel companion didn't agree, I thought these were the best tacos I had on this trip to CDMX.

Lengua Taco

This restaurant is authentic and no frills. As a Bon Appétit writer described it, the place is filled with "giant meat jacuzzi[s]" brimming with everything from tongue (pictured above) ...

Carne Asada and Carnitas Tacos

... to pork and beef. Some meat is taken straight from the boiling vat and placed in your taco, while other meat, like the carne asada (beef) and carnitas (pork), is grilled quickly for a crispier texture.

Carinito

Cantones Taco

If you are looking for a fusion taco experience, I would recommend Carinito which was my travel companion's favorite taco spot of the trip. We got a chance to try four tacos. First up was the cantones taco filled with pork confit cooked in eight spices and house made pickles, all drizzled with hoisin sauce and sriracha.

Conchinita Taco

Next, we had a conchinita taco filled with pulled pork belly with Yucatecan achiote, aromatic spices, fermented beans, and xnipec.

Issan Taco

Another taco featuring pulled pork belly was the issan taco. Here, the pork was marinated in northeast Thai seasoning and then sprinkled with rice powder, chicharron and fresh mint.

Thai Taco

We finished with the Thai taco made with crispy pork, topped with Jim Jaew sauce, tamarind and basil.

Whether you're eating a taco from a sidewalk stand, sampling centuries-old Indigenous dishes in a market, or sitting down at a neighborhood taquería, the city constantly reminds you that great food does not need to be expensive. Some of my favorite bites in CDMX cost only a few dollars.

This post only begins to describe what Mexico City offers at street level — and street level here is already extraordinary. The upscale restaurants, cocktail bars, and neighborhood dining rooms that complete the picture are covered in the posts that follow, all collected in the complete Mexico City guide. If you are planning a trip and want to know where to start eating, start here: find a tlacoyo stand, order a round of al pastor, and let the city show you the rest. A complete guide to CDMX is linked here.