The Best Healthy Restaurants in Mexico City
If you think Mexico City is all about high-octane mezcal drinking and smog-choked traffic lubricated by spinning al pastor spits with nary a green, leafy salad in sight—that’s only partly true. While you will (and should!) eat your weight in tacos and stay out much later than intended, balance is not hard to find here; you just have to know where to look. The best breaks from one too many anythings can be found in the essentials of Mexican cooking (corn, beans, wild greens, insects, mushrooms, chiles, fresh fruit!), everywhere from white-tableclothed institutions to vendors on the street. Add to the mix a number of new internationally attuned options, and you’ll have loads of energy to spare in a city that gives much more than it takes.
Photo by Marcus Nilsson1/12Contramar
Contramar is, of course, already on your list and everyone else’s, especially at mid-day on a Friday when work stops early and the first of many rounds of tequila hit the circular tables draped in simple whites. Iconic dishes include the tostadas dabbed with chipotle mayonnaise, sheets of seared tuna, and a tangle of fried leeks; the Baja-fresh shrimp aguachile, doused in electric green juice with slivered red onion; and of course the pescado a la talla, split down the middle and brushed with a green and red sauce, grilled until the meat just flakes from the bone. And if there is anywhere in Mexico City to cap a meal with dessert, it’s here, from strawberry meringue to fig tarts to a super rich coconut flan. Calle Durango 200, Roma Norte.
Photo courtesy of Pasillo de Humo2/12Pasillo de Humo
Chef Alam Méndez’s spot in the new Parían Condesa foodhall (also home to the satellite Ensenada cult favorite La Guerrerense) brings Oaxacan flavors to a space that balances casual and chic. The tlayudas are revelatory—chewy-crisp corn disks folded over salted-beef tasajo, Oaxacan cheese, and charred tomatillo salsa. Add the warm salads of fava beans, peas, and purslane; creamy beans laced with hoja santa; and hand-frothed water-based hot chocolate, and you’ve traversed the glories of lively Mexican cooking. The faint perfume of smoke in your hair long after you’ve left the building is just a reminder of the excellent meal you had. Avenida Nuevo Leon 107, Condesa.
Photo by Emily Elyse Miller3/12Jenni's Street Quesadillas
No name, no sign, but a beloved following, Jenni has been holding down this street corner in Roma Norte for years. Jenni’s quesadillas, sopes, gorditas, and pambazos stand out for their denim-blue corn and lots of vegan/vegetarian fillings. Post up, wait for your moment, and ask for a quesadilla de quelites con requeson (wild greens with ricotta) or flor de calabaza con queso (squash blossoms with oaxacan cheese) or setas (wood ear mushrooms, no cheese). Dab on the salsa and pay after you’ve finished inhaling. Northwest corner of Merida/Colima.
Photo courtesy of Rokai4/12Rokai
This is just one of eight in the line-up of Edo-Kobayashi restaurants, the group that infused Mexico City with Japanese culinary vibes, so much so that its cluster of restaurants in Cuauhtémoc often gets dubbed Little Tokyo. Rokai was the first, and it retains much of its original, electric charm, with a tiny sushi bar and just a few tables. The plateware is delicate, the sake list is ambitious, and the pristine seafood from Mexican waters and abroad are served in simple, classic Japanese izakaya preparations. There is nowhere else to get this quality of seafood, this affordably. Make a reservation or swing by on an off-hour. Río Ebro 87, Cuauhtémoc.
Photo courtesy of Masala y Maiz5/12Masala y Maiz
Chef-partners in the kitchen and in life, Norma Listman and Saqib Keval bring refreshing flavors to play within a Mexican rubric at Café Zena, their kitchen-laboratory-event space-coffee-window in San Miguel Chapultepec. After a nomadic start last year, they found a home in a stylish, stripped-down spot, crafting dishes that reflect their background (hers, Mexican; his, Indian-American). On any given day, that might mean a warm bowl of coarsely ground blue-corn polenta with seasonal fruit, corn esquites plush with coconut milk and a house-ground masala, or grilled prawns with a lightly-sweetened lemongrass agua fresca on the side. A short list of artisanal beer and natural wine round out the abbreviated menu. Calle Gobernador Protasio Pérez de Tagle 66A
Photo by Jake Lindeman6/12Cicatriz
Full disclosure: I own this place! My brother Jake and I opened this all-day-café to fill the holes that we saw in the Mexico City dining scene. The kitchen turns out plates of roasted vegetables, American-style pastries, locally-roasted coffee, cocktails without pretense, and one big-ass salad. It is a true neighborhood spot: Regulars swing by for cortados and chia pudding in the morning, meet for lunch over tomato-braised meatballs, and return for the fried chicken sandwich and natural wine at night. Our affable staff can pin-drop where you should go dancing, drinking, or thrifting while you’re in town. Dinamarca 44, A, Colonia Juarez
Photo by Kimberley Mens.7/12Ojo de Agua
This café changed the healthful, my-body-is-a-temple game in Mexico City at their original outpost in Condesa with a lengthy menu of juices, smoothies, acai bowls, salmon-topped salads, and carefully arranged baskets of organic vegetables for high-end shopping. Come for baked eggs and a mamey-coconut smoothie, adding all the moringa powder your heart desires. Don’t forget to pick out a few perfectly ripe, unblemished, organic avocados (at NYC prices) to take back to the Airbnb. Now with locations in Polanco, Juarez, and, you guessed it, Tulum. Calle Citlaltépetl 23C, Condesa.
Photo by Patty Delgado8/12Casa de Toño
Everyone loves Casa de Toño—your yoga teacher, the mailman, your tía. It’s the democratic pozole depot of the city with multiple locations, open 24 hours, any time you might need a hearty hominy and pork stew. The bowls, in sizes large and larger, are meant to be doctored as you like, so add in a squeeze of salsa, spritz on the lime, and sprinkle the dried chile and dried oregano to meld with the shredded lettuce, radish, and corn tostadas on the side. The sour cream, chicharrón, and avocado, are optional. So you know, maciza is all lean pork, while surtida is a mix of head to foot; order what you will. And, there's a vegetarian version featuring squash blossoms instead of pork. Londres 144. Zona Rosa.
Photo by Christina Holmes9/12Jugos Maratón
There are hundreds of juice stands throughout the city, but this one from the 1970s shows that Mexico has been on the fresh-pressed, multi-ingredient juice game for decades, churning pineapples, melons, tuna fruit (prickly pear), cactus, and guavas into drinkable sustenance. (The above mango coconut smoothie is similar to some of their classic licuados.) The names of their juices (like almost any juice puesto on the street) are as cheeky and fun as the old-school blenders. Try an anti-gripal (anti-flu) with honey and lime, a green juice chock full of alfalfa, or a vampiro—beet, orange, and carrot juice stained the color of blood. Calle López 117. Centro.
Photos courtesy of Helados Cometa10/12Helados Cometa
Julia Ortiz Monasterio, the ice cream diva of Helados Cometa, cooked around NYC before returning home to open a charming ice cream shop in late 2017. It’s the place for traditional ice creams and velvety sorbets in interesting flavors like mamey speckled with cacao nibs; matcha with dried cranberry; avocado; and jícama with ginger. She captures the best in seasonal produce with small batches, held in buttery, shatteringly crisp homemade cones (or a cup; but why?). The patterned tile floor, the bold blue and white paint job, and the cheerful pink totes are exemplary of the good design so common in this city. Colima 162, Roma Norte.
Photo by: Mahaux Charles/AGF/UIG via Getty Images.11/12The Activity: Xochimilco
An hour Uber to the south of the city will drop you at Xochimilco, the labyrinthine network of waterways and canals that used to encompass the entire Valley of Mexico, during the reign of the Aztec Empire. At one of the dozens of docking points, you can hire a guide for under $20 to push you and 20 of your closest friends for a couple of hours on a trajinera, the colorful, named boats (look out for Beyonce!). There are two main sections: One ropes through residential neighborhoods with a decidedly more party-feel, while the other heads to the agriculture zone, still dedicated to farming. Whichever you choose, stock up on beer, snacks, even a portable speaker before hopping on. The more the merrier.
Photo courtesy of Onora12/12The Shop: Onora
The rich handicraft heritage of Mexico is on curated display at this home goods shop in the upscale Polanco district. There are supple wooden bowls with bottoms painted bright shades, textiles that will make you swoon, and hand-woven baskets, all made by national artisans. Jícaras huicholas, dried gourd containers hand-set with thousands of miniscule beads in stunning patterns, are a gorgeous link to hundreds of years of tradition. Even if you’re not checking a bag back home, these containers are small enough to warrant purchasing a few. Lope de Vega 330, Polanco
