Check Out This Delicious Mexico City Itinerary for Foodies

Where is the best food in Mexico? This question is impossible to answer. What makes Mexico City my top recommendation as foodie destination in Mexico is that you can find food from every corner of the country in this city and experience a culinary “road trip” as you eat your way around the city.

I recently returned from a press trip to Mexico City with Cross Border Xpress (CBX), the Tourism Board of Mexico City, and AeroMexico, where I experienced some of the scrumptious food this amazing city has to offer. Our 2.5 day itinerary was filled with delicious treats and foodie adventures, from food tours and fine dining to street food and a farm-to-table experience. If you love Mexican food and are planning a trip to Mexico City soon, this Mexico City itinerary for foodies might be helpful for you.

Day 1: Food Tour in Colonia Roma

We flew out of Tijuana (so easy with CBX and much cheaper than flying from the US) in the morning and arrived in Mexico City in the afternoon. We hit the ground running and joined a walking food tour around Colonia Roma with Sabores Mexico Food Tours.

This 4-hour food tour with Alma was the perfect way to dive into the food scene of the city. Colonia Roma is such a cool neighborhood. Here, you will find tree-lined avenues that invite you to stroll under the trees and dozens of unique restaurants on every corner.

Alma shared with us a little of the history of the neighborhood and showed us some of the stunning art deco houses, but most importantly, the best places to eat in Colonia Roma.

The 5 restaurants and 1 coffee shop we visited were unique and different, yet they all had something in common: an owner who followed their passion for sharing good food with the people in their community. Many of them came to Mexico City with nothing and started with a little food stall or restaurant offering a comida corrida – a simple, home-style set menu that changes every day or a small selection of specialties from their home region.

The competition between small eateries and food stalls in Mexico City is fierce, so they had to stand out and provide delicious food every single day. Some of the restaurants we tried have been open for several decades, so you know they passed the test of time and the discerning taste of the local community.

This food tour was a fantastic way to dive into the Mexico City food scene and a perfect way to walk and eat our way through the beautiful neighborhood of Colonia Roma. I highly recommend it.

With full bellies and a fabulous first impression of Mexico City, we made it to our hotel Galeria Plaza Reforma and after a quick night cap, we called it an early night.

Day 2: Boat Tour & Organic Farm To Table Adventure in Xochimilco

After a delicious breakfast buffet at our hotel, we drove about 45 minutes to Xochimilco. Xochimilco is an area south of Mexico City that consists of over 47 square miles of canals and floating islands. These floating farms are called chinampas and were man-made in 919 A.D.. They became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987 because of their cultural importance as one of the most efficient and sustainable ways of cultivation.

When I first saw this on the itinerary, I wasn’t really looking forward to it, as it’s known as a party boat destination. Locals and tourists go there to rent boats, drink, and party as they float down the canals. Not really my cup of tea.

But then I found out that we were doing an eco-tour with Rutopia instead. This tour included a visit to a floating farm, picking our own veggies for lunch, and learning about the famous Axolotl amphibian. That definitely was more my jam.

We got onto one of the colorful wooden gondolas and started drifting down the main canal. As it was a weekday, it was a lot less busy than on weekends or holidays.

There was also a small festival going on. Boats were tied together in a huge flotilla surrounding the floating stage in the middle. We saw a row of girls dressed in traditional, colorful costumes participating in a beauty pageant and people clapping to Ranchero music in the background.

Vendors on boats were floating by selling mouthwatering snacks, delicious drinks, and stunning handicrafts. It reminded me a little of the floating markets in Thailand. A kaleidoscope of colors, smells, and sounds.

We passed the celebration and continued down the canal into a more quiet part of the canal system. The party boats were replaced with boats carrying locals and their goods to and from their floating farms.

It was so quiet and peaceful. We saw quite a bit of wildlife as well, including pelicans, herons, egrets, and ducks. It was almost surreal to think that we were technically still inside the city limits of a city with almost 9 million people.

After a while, we docked at a farm and met a local farming family. We learned about how the chinampas were built and how they have been farming on them for over 1100 years. They grow organic fruits and vegetables and we got to pick our own veggies for our lunch.

This farm is also one of the first places, where the famous Axolotl amphibian was successfully rehabilitated in the wild. Isn’t this just the most adorable creature?

Then, the family prepared a fantastic traditional lunch for us with the veggies we had just harvested. It doesn’t get fresher than that. We had rice, beans, a beautiful salad, and amaranth fritters. Everything was simple yet so delicious. The ingredients spoke for themselves and were the star of the lunch.

As a foodie, I love seeing where the local food comes from and the traditional ways of farming and preparation of the ingredients. If you love nature and have an interest in where your food comes from, I highly recommend this tour.

After our boating adventure, we drove back to the city. Due to rush hour traffic, it took a little while, but we got to see some iconic spots of the city along the way, such as the stunning University of Mexico City. After that, we had a little free time. We came across a Bavarian Beer Garden inside a BMW Motorcycle repair shop. I guess you can take the girl out of Bavaria, but you can’t take Bavaria out of the girl

Dinner that night was at Cardenal Restaurant San Angel, a restaurant that opened in 1969 and combines traditional Mexican dishes with a French bistro atmosphere. The historic building adds to the restaurant’s charm, and the service was on point. My favorite dish was a thin black bean soup with vermicelli noodles. It was so unique and flavorful. I will have to try to recreate this dish at home!

Day 3: Frida Kahlo Art & Food Tour

Sometimes, when you travel, unexpected things happen and you just have to make the best of it. On our last full day in Mexico City, we were supposed to follow in Frida Kahlo’s footsteps and learn more about the famous artist, her life, her art, and her favorite foods on this fabulous tour with ViveFrida. However, there was a strike affecting many museums in the city, so our tour organizers had to pivot at the last minute. They did a fantastic job, considering the short notice and we still had a fabulous day.

We started our tour at the main square of Mexico City, called Zócalo. At first, the main square looks exactly like many main squares in capital cities: A basilica, the president’s palace, and other government buildings around an empty square. But then you turn around the corner, and all of a sudden, you lay your eyes on a full-size Aztec pyramid. That definitely is something special.

Unfortunately, our next stops, the Convento de San Juan Bautista, Jardín de los Coyotes, and the León Trotsky’s House Museum, were closed that day due to the strike.

But we were lucky and the two (in my eyes) most important stops on the itinerary were still on: Lunch and the Blue House.

Our lunch consisted of a multi-course meal with Frida’s favorite foods. Frida loved to cook and entertain and learned most of her cooking skills from her husband’s first wife. Some of her favorite dishes were moles, fried grasshoppers, and other traditional Mexican dishes, washed down with a generous helping of Mezcal. It was delicious!

After our lunch, we walked through the quaint Coyoacán neighborhood to the famous Casa Azul, the private residence of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. The museum leads you through various aspects of Frida Kahlo’s life and you get a much better understanding of who she really was. It is heartbreaking to learn about her health struggles throughout her life and the devastation she felt when she could not bear children. But it also shows her resilience and strength, her passion for art, fashion and food, and her love for Diego.

Explore the Local Street Food

Of course, I can’t write a Mexico City Itinerary for Foodies without mentioning Street Food. This city is the Street Food Capital of North America and if you want to explore the food scene of this city, you have to eat your way through the booths and stalls of small vendors.

I wish we had done a dedicated street food tour, but I tried to sample as much in between our scheduled itinerary as I could. Luckily, most of those treats are just a bite or two, so there is always room for a little sample.

Usually, each food stall has a specialty and they don’t have a large menu. They do one thing and they do it well. While in San Diego, many taco shops have a little bit of everything, these food stalls are very niche. There is one stall that sells only Al Pastor tacos, another one sells Chilaquiles, and the next one has a big bubbling pot of stewed meats, including my favorite: Suadero.

My favorite spot I tried street food was in the Coyoacan neighborhood. Just off the main square is a street where you will find one street food stall after the other. Bring cash and be prepared to practice your Spanish (or download Google Translate). Just follow your nose and try what looks good to you. Don’t forget the golden rule of Street Food: Only eat at stalls that have a long line of locals.

Next time I am in the city, I will definitely join a dedicated street food tour, though, and I can’t wait!

Tips for Traveling to Mexico City

How to Get There

Getting to Mexico City from San Diego is super easy. Of course, you can fly out of San Diego, but I highly recommend flying out of Tijuana, using Cross Border Xpress.

Not only is it a lot cheaper but also so much easier. You simply park your car, show your CBX ticket and boarding pass, walk over the covered bridge into Mexico, go through immigration and then you are in the Tijuana Airport and can check your bag. It usually takes me about 25 minutes from parking to my gate, including checking a bag. And the best part? You are done with immigration and don’t have to wait in long lines at your destination.

We flew AeroMexico and you can definitely feel the difference between this airline and other, more budget-focused airlines. The seats were more comfortable and definitely wider than on other airlines, and you also had decent legroom. There was free onboard entertainment and refreshments.

Where to Stay

We stayed at the Galeria Plaza Reforma right in the heart of the city. The stunning Angel of Independence Column was just one block away, and the hotel is located in the corners of the neighborhoods Colonia Roma Norte and Juarez, and the fabulous Zona Rosa, the colorful LGBTQIA+ neighborhood of Mexico City, was all just a short walk away.

Mexico City is usually just one big traffic jam, so I highly recommend staying as centrally as possible. That way, you don’t waste your precious time stuck in traffic when you could be eating delicious treats.

The Galeria Plaza Reforma is a 4 star hotel and was perfect for our quick trip to Mexico City. The rooms were spacious and spotless and had everything you needed. Unfortunately, our Mexico City itinerary was so jam-packed that I didn’t have time to check out the rooftop pool. But those pictures look absolutely dreamy, don’t you think?

I hope this Mexico City itinerary for foodies helped you get inspired for your Mexico City foodie adventure. If you have been to Mexico City, please share your favorite spots to eat, so I can put them on my list for my next trip!

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Our trip was hosted by Cross Border Xpress, Secretaría de Turismo de la Ciudad de México, and Aeromexico.

Last Updated on April 17, 2024 by Maria Haase

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