Mexico City has thousands of restaurants serving Mexican food, which makes ranking five of them a borderline insane exercise. I did it anyway. My number one is Doña Vero in Roma Sur, where the Oaxacan cooking stopped me mid-bite and made me reconsider what regional cuisine could do outside its home state.
1. Doña Vero | Monterrey 313, Roma Sur, Cuauhtémoc
This is the best Mexican restaurant in the city right now. The Oaxacan menu runs deep: chapulines fried crispy with garlic, tlayudas that hang off the edge of your plate, wild boar meat you won't find elsewhere, chile en nogada that competes with spots charging twice as much. They pour pulque on tap. While every other bar in Roma is chasing the mezcal trend, Doña Vero sticks with pulque, the original agave drink. The craft beer selection covers those who aren't ready for pulque yet. What separates Doña Vero from number two is range. El Regreso does comfort food better, but nobody in the city matches this Oaxacan spread. Open until midnight on Fridays. Most plates land in the $100-200 MXN range.
2. El Regreso | Yosemite 54-B, Nápoles, Benito Juárez
The moles here are the reason I keep coming back to Nápoles. Thick and slow-cooked, the way your grandmother wishes she had time for. Their red mole enchiladas and swiss enchiladas are both excellent (order both, no shame in it). The chicken consommé is the kind of bowl that fixes bad days. The cochinita is tender. What puts El Regreso at number two instead of number one is the narrower scope, but what keeps it above Porton Maya at number three is the price. Everything here falls under $100 MXN. Same 4.5-star rating as the competition, half the cost. That's hard to beat. Open daily 10 am to 7:30 pm.
3. Porton Maya | Calz. Sta. Cruz 78, Portales Norte, Benito Juárez
You want Yucatecan food in the capital? This is the answer. The cochinita pibil is the main event, slow-cooked until it dissolves on contact. The panuchos are properly stuffed and the lime soup has that perfect sour edge. Save room for marquesitas. The habanero sauce on every table is not decorative, so use it with respect. Porton Maya beats Casa Licha at number four because it's open seven days a week and the Yucatecan menu is more complete: motuleños eggs for breakfast, stuffed cheese, suckling pig, cochinita at any hour. Prices run $100-200 MXN. They close at 6 pm, so this is a lunch destination.
4. Casa Licha Pozole | Sur 69-A 513, Justo Sierra, Iztapalapa
Weekend-only. Saturday 9 am to 9 pm, Sunday 9 am to 7 pm. Monday through Friday the doors stay shut. The fact that over 3,000 people have reviewed a restaurant open two days a week tells you everything. Casa Licha specializes in cuisine from Guerrero state. The chalupas are small but the flavor is concentrated. The mixiote melts on your tongue. They make chilate, a cacao-based drink from the Guerrero coast, and it's unlike anything else in the capital. The location in Iztapalapa keeps tourist traffic low, which suits the regulars fine. MX$100-200.
5. Taquería Parrilla Leonesa Centro | Calle de Bolívar 29-A, Centro Histórico, Cuauhtémoc
This is the spot when you want live mariachi with your arrachera, steps from Zócalo. The menu runs broad: tortilla soup, tacos al pastor, ribeye steak, seafood stew, plus a horchata that's one of the better ones I've had downtown. Taquería Leonesa drops to number five not because the food disappoints (the arrachera alone could rank higher) but because the competition above does something more regional, more specific. This is a generalist among specialists. 1,423 reviews at 4.4 stars in Centro Histórico says plenty. Open 8 am to 10 pm most days.
If you only try one place from this list, go to Doña Vero on a Friday night. Order the chapulines and a tlayuda. Wash it down with pulque. That's the meal.
