Every city would be blessed to have an array of great locals’ spots like Mexico City’s cantinas. The venues run the gamut in style and clientele, attracting all kinds of customers. Some are century-old gems, giving visitors a peek into the city’s long culinary history. And the food, ranging from free drinking snacks to house specialties worth seeking out, goes well beyond bar bites you might find elsewhere.
In The Eater Guide to Mexico City, Rulo David, a native of the capital, paints a compelling picture of CDMX’s cantina scene. The passage — excerpted below, condensed for clarity, and combined with recommendations for some of the city’s best cantinas from across Eater’s guidebook — will have you on the next flight. — Nick Mancall-Bitel
Carlos Monsiváis, a superstar of Mexican literature, once described cantinas as “wayward sanctuaries in which sad, comic, tragic, melodramatic interactions abound. Every type of person meets there.” The Golden Age of Mexican cinema, in the ’40s and ’50s, portrayed cantinas as the source of everything delinquent and decadent, yet it was here where writers, artists, politicians, and academics came together to confront a changing post-Revolutionary Mexico.
Cantinas are social hubs that offer drinks, food, and chaos in equal parts; they’re not places where you’re likely to be booted for noise or inebriation. They have been, and continue to be, one of the few places where Mexicans of different backgrounds can coexist happily despite our varied social, professional, political, and even sports-team affinities.
Most historians date the cantina’s origins in Mexico to the 1840s, when taverns had to serve occupying forces during the Mexican-American War. President Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada started issuing specific cantina licenses in 1872, and by century’s end there were more than one thousand licensed cantinas in Mexico City alone. Unlike pulquerías, which only served pulque and were considered somewhat seedy, cantinas — as they do today — ranged from divey bars to luxe meeting places, for all classes of people, even though women (and policemen) weren’t admitted until much later.
The first cantina in Mexico City was El Nivel, which had license 0001 until it closed in 2008. La Peninsular and El Gallo de Oro are likely the oldest still in operation, founded, respectively, in 1872 and 1874 and still going strong in the Centro Histórico. Another vintage cantina still in operation is La Ópera, founded in 1876, an elegant establishment with Art Deco decor sourced from Spain, and where it’s presumed that the bullet hole still visible in the ceiling was left by Pancho Villa during the Revolution. Historic cantinas like this allow you to sit where Fidel Castro and Che Guevara once bonded over Marxism (at La Potosina), or where William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac sought inspiration (Tío Pepe was a favorite during their time in the city).
Cantina food — la comida cantinera — is usually a mix of traditional Mexican and Spanish dishes. On the Mexican side, you’ll find caldo de camarón (shrimp broth), chamorro (whole pork shank), milanesa (pork or chicken cutlets), fried fish filets or salt-crusted whole fish, chicharrón (pork rinds) en salsa verde, shrimp cocktail, or beef tartare. On the Spanish side, look for chistorra (semi-cured sausage) in cider or white wine, Galician-style octopus, croquettes, tortilla española, paella, or fabada. Some cantinas also have live music or, failing that, let street musicians roam table to table offering pay-per-song services. There’s no better setting for these musicians than a cantina, as the mariachi repertoire mostly comprises drink-friendly songs about romance, bravery, death, and patriotism.
It’s this interconnection with Mexican daily life that helps explain why cantinas not only have survived the passage of time but continue to be extremely popular, despite the emergence of sports bars, cocktail bars, mezcalerías, and everywhere else people drink. Amid the inevitable gentrification that’s moving at breakneck speed throughout the city, they are sanctuaries. — Rulo David
Some of Mexico City’s Most Beloved Cantinas:
Dr. Balmis 210, colonia Doctores
Unlike most cantinas, where drinks take priority over food, the crowd at this Roma-adjacent favorite comes hungry for the chamorro that falls into shards with the merest nudge of a fork, Spanish chorizo braised in hard cider, and octopus bathed in smoked paprika and olive oil. Still, there are beers, Cuba Libres, or pacharán — a Spanish digestivo — on most tables. Expect a wait during peak midafternoon lunch hours.
Venustiano Carranza 35, Centro Histórico
Most visit El Gallo de Oro (the Golden Chicken), in operation since 1874, for its history, though the cabrito (baby goat) has never left the menu and has many fans. Meat lovers can start here with morcilla (blood sausage) imported from Burgos, Spain, then move on to one of three parrilladas (grilled meat platters). A daily four-course set lunch menu is a bargain.
13 de Septiembre 29, colonia San Miguel Chapultepec
Family gatherings and business meetings might be occurring elsewhere in this sprawling restaurant dating back to 1937, but most of the action is in the cantina section — just follow the noise and look for the gleaming bar. At most hours of the afternoon and evening (it closes most days by 9 p.m.), there are rowdy tables of domino and dice games, or just groups of friends whiling away the day with cheesy potato quesadillas, tongue tacos, and milanesa manchega — a pounded beef or chicken cutlet covered in melted cheese and a rich guajillo chile sauce.
El Mirador de Chapultepec
Avenida Chapultepec 606, colonia San Miguel Chapultepec
El Mirador de Chapultepec has a friendly rivalry going with El Bosque down the street (they have similar menus and atmospheres), but either is a good pick for a hearty, boozy late lunch. El Mirador usually has more old-timers. Order tribilín — a kind of fish and shrimp ceviche with raw beef added — fish al pastor, and whole shrimp grilled with a chile and achiote marinade.
Mesones 20, Centro Histórico
The very loose rule at the 1920s-era cantina is that, for every three drinks, you get a free botana — perhaps spicy snails, beef fritters in salsa verde, tuna-stuffed avocado, or tostadas de pata (cow’s foot). After a few rounds, the snacks come faster than you can drink, though the camaraderie keeps you in the spirit to order more tequila, micheladas, or Cuba Libres.
Jaime Torres Bodet 151, colonia Santa María la Ribera
Though this legendary cantina moved into a new space across the street several years ago, it retains all its old-school charm and popular dishes like caldo de camarón and the fall-apart chamorro (pork shank). It’s said to be the place where famed midcentury actor-singer José Alfredo Jiménez first performed, which is perhaps why there’s always rousing ranchero and mariachi music, either via jukebox or roaming live musicians.
Joaquín Velázquez de León 79, colonia San Rafael
This bare-bones cantina seems to have changed little since opening in the 1930s and is all the better for it. Service is efficient and cheerful, drinks are fairly priced, botanas (the complimentary snacks that typically come with each round of drinks) are extremely generous, and the a la carte menu of cantina classics like albondigas (meatballs) al chipotle, cabrito al horno (roast baby goat), and pulpo a la gallega (Galicia-style octopus) reads like grandma’s home cooking, with no cheffy riffs in sight.
