10 of Mexico City's Hottest New Restaurants

Plus, a new hotel in Palm Beach and TSA propaganda

Once arguably one of the best underrated cities in the world, Mexico City is anything but under the radar these days. Since the pandemic, the second-biggest city in the Americas is an “it” destination thanks to its magical combination of history, architecture, food, nightlife, and cool neighborhoods.

For years, the typical visitor to Mexico City hit up the same circuit of restaurants—Contramar, Maximo Bistro, Lardo, Quintonil, Pujol, etc. But so many restaurants have opened in the last two years that I devoted my recent week visiting the city to trying ten of the most-talked-about new restaurants. Concentrated for the most part in Condesa and Roma, here they are in the order I experienced them.

Martinez

Puebla 90, Roma Nte

This intimate and youthful spot is across the street from its sister restaurant, Ultramarinos (more on that one later). The menu here is eclectic international, with ca-n’t-miss dishes including the tangy Green Goddess salad or the decadent leek engulfed in burrata, hazelnuts, and a date glaze. Contributing to the bistro-like feeling that chef Lucho Martinez wanted to create are comforting options like a savory chicken pot pie or steak frites. Whereas Mexico City was once filled with sprawling restaurants with elaborate service, Martinez is part of the trend of intimate ones with only a couple dozen tables.

Mari Gold

Calle Gob.Protasio Tagle 66A, San Miguel Chapultepec

While nearly every restaurant I tried this week was in a well-designed space, Mari Gold’s was probably the coolest. It’s set in a narrow hallway in a concrete house in the quiet neighborhood of San Miguel Chapultepec, a neighborhood sandwiched between Condesa and Chapultepec Park. Partway down the hallway, the restaurant opens into a stark white atrium with a helical staircase. If you can, snag the sole table at the back of the restaurant set in an open-air courtyard. The menu here is Indian-Mexican fusion, with popular favorites including the sabudana vada (tapioca and potato fritters topped with an herb chutney and jalapeno sauce) and the chicken wings in a spicy vindaloo sauce. I did not love the nido de queso (cheese nest) dessert, made of lemon-pistachio ice cream, Ocosingo cheese, and walnuts. Each part tasted nice on its own but altogether didn’t work.

Arda

San Luis 155, Roma Nte

This sexy space carved out of the sideyard of an old mansion is a classic case of somewhere you’d want to go if you were living in Mexico City but not if you were visiting. The menu is essentially that of a classic nice restaurant you’d find in Houston, D.C., etc with lots of grilled options and comfort foods like gnocchi and croquetas. The crowd was entirely Mexican, and it’s somewhere I would go if I lived here and wanted a night at a place that felt like home, but it’s not a place if you have limited time in the city and are trying to experience something you can’t have at home. I will say, though, that the vanilla tarta vasca with strawberries and a berry sorbet was one of the best desserts I had all week. I’d happily dine at another restaurant and then come here for dessert.

Caracol de Mar

Campeche 340, Colonia Condesa

It is with sadness that I must say this was the worst meal I had this week. It’s the latest offering from the Contramar Group, which is behind one of the most legendary restaurants in Mexico City, Contramar, a spot I loved so much that I did my birthday there a few years in a row. The space is elegant, with giant windows that open to the verdant streets of Condesa and unique artwork. While the food looked fantastic, nearly every dish we tried either lacked flavor or just tasted off. The one exception, no surprise, was the tuna tostada, although this version was more soy-forward than the one at Contramar. Dishes we tried included the risotto con mole verde (tasted like a pea risotto), the eggplant tamale (flavorless), the mussels tamale (just not great), and the buñuelo for dessert (insubstantial). To make sure I wasn’t completely missing the mark, close Mexican friends went and tried it a couple of days ago and reported back the same experience.

Voraz

Aguascalientes 93, Roma Sur

This was one of the most-hyped spots I had on my list, and it lived up to my high expectations. The space is very cool, with nail-polish mint green accents. The gordita stuffed with fried oysters, mizuna, and mayo was incredibly rich (just note that the accompanying sauce is habanero!) and the guacamole was creamy and fun. The Taco McAllen is like an elevated Taco Bell that perhaps because I don’t love Taco Bell was a slight miss for me, but the Taco Planchada with pork confit was a delight. Make sure to heap generous portions of Voraz’s salsa macha on all your dishes, as it’s a mild version with a more nutty and oily taste profile. For a main, the Arrachera Mixteca (skirt steak) is a can’t miss, and is served over a coffee and chile sauce with cute little cambray onions. The chocolate cupcake for dessert was nice although not particularly memorable, although the honey crunch chunks were a fun trip down memory lane as they tasted like Golden Grahams.

Hugo

Av. Veracruz 38, Roma Nte

If there was one place I tried that I would happily become a regular at, it was Hugo. This petit wine bar around the corner from Lardo nails everything from the atmosphere to the menu. There are a lot of fun and interesting natural wines, and I’m still dreaming about the stracciatella, fennel, and bean salad. Sharp, yet soothing and fresh, it was like late spring in a bite. The roasted chicken in a leek royale was an indulgent and filling main. Next time I’ll try the radicchio salad, as that’s a favorite of my friends. My sole criticism would have been to list on the menu that the chocolate cake is filled with nuts (surprise nuts in desserts are an irritating twist for me).

Gaba Restaurante

Avenida Mazatlan 190, Colonia Condesa

This was maybe the fussiest of the restaurants I tried, but fun and adventurous. The grape, coriander, and creme fraiche bowl was pretty and unique, and the ‘Nduja toast was a slightly spicy pleasure. The crudo was not only flavorful but was garnished with a Chaya leaf that whipped me back to Little Foot and The Land Before Time. If you order the tomatillo curry, you must soak up every last drop of the sauce with your bread. And the chocolate tart with peanuts and caramel is like a Snickers in cake form.

Ultramarinos Demar

Merida 21, Roma Nte

If there’s one new restaurant that has people talking the most, it’s Ultramarinos and it’s because of the wildly high—as in expensive New York—prices. It makes me blanch just thinking about a drawn-out Mexican lunch or dinner where people just keep ordering more and more and more. This is the aforementioned Lucho Martinez’s newest spot, after Em and Martinez. Housed in a historic Art Deco edifice, the Chloé Mason Gray-designed space is a nod to the aquatic with seafoam-green tiling. One thing I’ll note about the prices is that the portions are huge and you should split most things. The salads are some of the heaviest I’ve had, and by the time I got to the fideo seco (which was anything but seco and had an almost curry-like sauce) I was stuffed from the aguachile, crudo, and salad. Save room for dessert—the lemon soft serve is spot on. Oh, and the cocktails are dangerously good.

Propio

Av. Álvaro Obregón 182, Roma Nte

In terms of style and experience, Propio was most similar to traditional restaurants with a sprawling space and a flurry of waiters constantly milling about. The front hall of the restaurant is beautiful, with plants pressed up against windows of fluted frosted glass giving the impression of East Asian painted screens. The menu is contemporary Mexican, mixing traditional items like pork tacos with mole negro and a giant kale salad with yuzu dressing. It’s a simple one, but the strawberries and cream dessert here is the perfect end to a hefty meal. If I was ranking the desserts over the weeklong restaurant binge, it was number one.

No Name (Sin Nombre)

The corner of Sinaloa and Veracruz, Roma Nte

This restaurant with no name, no listing, and no website has become the hangout spot of choice for a certain swathe of Mexico’s creative and business class. Tables at this corner spot a couple of buildings down from Hugo are secured through its owner, although if you walk by when it’s open and ask to snag a table for a future night that’s your best bet. Start with the seafood salad and then you can’t go wrong with any of the pastas or whatever the fish of the day is. For dessert, the tres leches is becoming one of those signature desserts, on par with the strawberry meringue at Contramar.

Other restaurants I had on my list but did not have time for are: Fugas, Sarde, Darosa (and sister pizzeria Liona), Masala y Maiz, Er Re, Lorea, Comal Oculto, Fierro Cantina, 11 mil, and Ciena.

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DEPARTMENT OF GRIEVANCES

I love action movies, so I watched the new Taron Egerton/Jason Bateman thriller Carry-On while flying this week. While it started slow, it ended up being thoroughly enjoyable. I do, however, feel like it must have been subsidized somehow by the TSA because it was full-on propaganda for the agency, being anything but subtle about how hard they have it dealing with disgruntled travelers, how tough and important their jobs are, and turning them into potential action heroes. Having just had my presents ripped open after I took them out of my bag so they could be scanned separately and pleaded with the agent not to do so (I can’t say what they were as family read this, but it was PRETTY OBVIOUS and at a prior leg the TSA seemed able to figure out what they were), my sympathy levels aren’t exactly high.

The war on short-term rentals is a frequent topic in this newsletter, and while I’ve long felt the breaking point was near for many destinations, I wasn’t sure they had the stomach to fully take on tech titans. But for the last few months city after city worldwide has been chipping away at the likes of Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com. And now Spain has launched an investigation, claiming Airbnb has failed to remove thousands of illegal listings.

It will be a test of whether or not sunlight is the best disinfectant, but the FTC’s new rule requiring that all fees charged by hotels and concert venues be shown upfront will test that theory. I’ve always found this practice loathsome, particularly around resort/destination/amenity fees in cities like Miami, Los Angeles, and New York. I said it before, and I’ll repeat it now, it’s not a good business if its success is predicated on hiding the true cost. While the rule doesn’t eliminate the ability to charge extra fees, my instinct is that the requirement that they be disclosed upfront will push the costs down.

It’s a story that is constantly repeating itself in art and archaeological history, but it’s still fascinating that we have yet again made all the wrong assumptions about something from the ancient world. The latest relates to Pompeii and what we have assumed for centuries about the figures—that some were families, some lone women. Now, genetic testing has proved that many weren’t related to each other, and that for many, we got the genders completely wrong!

On the one hand, it’s exciting that a non-stop day train connecting Paris and Berlin has launched. On the other, the details of it aren’t particularly great. It’s an eight-hour journey and only has one departure per day. Then there is this simple truth that may surprise Americans unfamiliar with Germany outside of stereotypes. The Deutsche Bahn (Germany’s rail company) is absurdly unreliable, slow, and inefficient. It’s notoriously frequently late, and routes take much longer than they should.

The Inn at Little Washington is a beloved icon and an asset to the D.C. region that people could point to when anybody knocked it for being parochial or a food backwater. I’ve never been—tasting menus aren’t my thing and the price tag ridiculous—but it has three Michelin stars. And now it has a water pairing for its menu, and I hate everything about it. “These waters are so unique. Some are from underground glaciers that are 3,000 years old. They’ve never been in contact with the air. The varieties, tastes, and textures of these waters are absolutely fascinating,” chef Patrick O’Connell told Eater. Prices start at $8 for eight ounces from Texas and rise to $95 for 750 milliliters of Canadian iceberg water. O’Connell puts it in the context of people drinking less alcohol, and I get that alcohol is a big part of profits for a restaurant so people need to be creative. But the whole thing just reeks, whether one looks at it from an environmental perspective or just a let’s-burn-money-in-the-most-unequal-times.

Palm House has finally reopened in Palm Beach. The town has so few hotel options and has become the center of the world, so any movement in the hospitality world is big news. The lovely folks at Quinn PR sent over photos of the new spaces:

Courtesy Palm House

Courtesy Palm House

If you were wondering why it seems like Crazy, Rich Asians is always available to watch when you’re flying, it's because virtually every airline has discovered that it’s the ultimate airplane movie. It’s been popular year after year, and the airlines receive complaints whenever they remove it.

I appreciate the innovation but I honestly can’t help but feel that “dry slope” skiing is one of the sadder things going.

And, finally, my colleague Ned Russell has a very cool piece on a project I’ve been obsessed with ever since I saw it: Marlon Blackwell Architects’ control tower for Columbus Municipal Airport in Indiana. It looks like a futuristic razor, but I think airports would be much more exciting for people if they had this kind of ambition (so long as moving in them remained practical).

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TRAVEL INDUSTRY NEWS

The search for the missing MH370 flight is resuming

Bluey is coming to Disney parks and cruise ships

New York City’s neon signage is an endangered species

British tour operators think they’ll be able to return to Syria as early as next fall

Americans can now visit China for up to 10 days without visas

Programming note: For the first time since May, I will take a weekend off from this newsletter to enjoy time with my family for the holidays. See you in January!