CDMX runs on masa. Nixtamalized corn from Milpa Alta, chillies from Oaxaca, seafood trucked overnight from Veracruz — eaten standing at 6am comal stands or seated in Roma dining rooms. Three days: markets, mole, mezcal, and 20-peso tacos.
Covered market from 1921, best entered on Malintzin. Tostadas de Coyoacán serves 15 varieties (ceviche, pata, tinga) at 60–90 pesos each; surrounding stalls sell dried chillies by weight and fresh nopales. Open 08:00–18:00 daily.
The Latin American market of CDMX — Cuban, Colombian, Venezuelan and Argentine stalls alongside Mexican produce. Buy queso Oaxaca pulled by hand, Veracruz vanilla pods, and arepas at 50 pesos. Runs 07:00–19:00, quietest midday.
Gabriela Cámara's seafood room since 1998, and the city's defining long lunch. Order the tuna tostadas (chipotle mayo, leek, avocado) and pescado a la talla split red-and-green. Lunch only, 13:00–18:30, no dinner service.
Elena Reygadas's bakery on Colima — the guava-and-cream-cheese rol and cardamom bun are the reason for the pavement queue. Pastries 55–95 pesos, espresso 55. Open 07:00–21:00; the Havre branch has more seating.
Breakfast fonda under a corrugated roof, open 05:30–11:30 only, cash only. Frijoles con huevo cooked overnight in clay, chicharrón en salsa verde, and hot chocolate. Plates 80–120 pesos; taxi drivers and hungover chilangos share the benches.
Family-run since 1957 in Azcapotzalco, where Gerardo Vázquez Lugo revived pre-Hispanic recipes: sopa seca de natas, escamoles in season, and guacamole made tableside with chapulines. A tasting of Mexican wine accompanies.
Enrique Olvera's Tennyson dining room. The mole madre — a mother mole aged past 3,000 days, served as a ring around a fresh mole nuevo with nothing but a tortilla. Taco omakase at the bar is the shorter route in.
Unmarked mezcalería on Luis Moya, dark, loud, and stocked with small-batch tobalá, tepeztate and pechuga bought direct from Oaxacan and Guerrero palenques. Pours 120–260 pesos, served with orange and sal de gusano.
The flower market that also feeds the city — 1,150 stalls, open 24 hours. Tamales oaxaqueños steamed in banana leaf at 35 pesos, atole de guayaba, and the barbacoa de borrego pits at the Congreso de la Unión side from dawn.
A car workshop by day that rolls out the trompo at 20:00 — but the Universidad-and-Petén corner sells pastor into daylight hours on weekends. Tacos 22 pesos, gringas 60. The pineapple is cut mid-air onto the tortilla.
Aristeo Martínez's pulque bar on Aranda, walls covered in neo-Aztec murals. Fermented maguey sap served natural or as curados — pistachio, oat, guava, celery — from clay jugs. Litre 90 pesos, half 50. Open 10:00–21:00.
Álvaro Obregón cocktail bar that put CDMX on the World's 50 Best Bars list. The Margarita Al Pastor — tequila, pineapple, coriander, chilli salt — reads the taquería as a drink. Cocktails 200–280 pesos.