A culinary guide to Mexico City, the new global fine-dining hotspot

Young chefs are putting food culture front and centre in this ancient capital

Mexican chef Elena Reygadas at her Rosetta restaurant in Mexico City. EPA

Arriving in Mexico City is always thrilling, an invitation to adventure. As I drive in from the airport of this frenetic, sprawling megalopolis of more than 20 million inhabitants, the 700-year-old Mexican capital is finally joining the table of global gourmet hotspots. It is attracting travellers from around the globe not just for its stunning pre-Columbian ruins and world-renowned museums, but as a cutting-edge destination for fine dining.

The big buzz in town is the recent launch of the hallowed Michelin Guide in the city. “We have a lot to learn from Mexican cuisine, which has always fascinated international chefs with its strong identity, driven by a very rich history and culture, unique ingredients, and very specific recipes and techniques,” says Gwendal Poullennec, Michelin’s international director.

There is a strong case to make that Mexican cuisine, one of the world’s oldest and most diverse, has long been misunderstood. I am here to look beyond the reductive stereotypes of Mexican cooking – nachos, fajitas and burritos – and discover a far more complex world of creative regional cuisines making use of local ingredients from a nation that has already given the world so many staples – including tomatoes, chillies, chocolate, avocado and corn.

To immediately put my finger on the pulse of Mexico City’s fine dining scene, I make a reservation at the iconic Pujol, created almost 25 years ago by Enrique Olvera. The star chef is almost single-handedly responsible for putting Mexican cuisine on the map. When I arrive five minutes late for my 6pm table, Pujol is already heaving, about 70 diners sitting down in the main dining room, private salon and omakase bar.

Outside, the lush garden terrace is filled with those spilling over from the lunchtime session, finishing desserts, digestives and cigars. The seven-course tasting menu kicks off in style with their signature elotitos – crunchy, charred baby corn dusted with coffee, costeno chilli and powdered chicatana ants, theatrically served in a smoky gourd.

“This is how I want every diner to begin his Pujol experience,” explains chef Olvera. “Firstly, because it is inspired by our traditional street food, and then the smoked corn gives off a magical aroma that immediately puts you in Mexico. Close your eyes, smell the burnt corn and the dish welcomes you to our home.”

Although Olvera oversees 17 gourmet restaurants across Mexico, the US and Spain, he stresses that “up to 30 years ago, Mexican cuisine was produced in cantinas, markets, street food stalls or at home". He adds: "So fine dining is new here and the challenge for local chefs has been to create our own language for people seeking a gourmet experience.” He says that means tasting menus are approached differently from Europe or America, and not only when it comes to ingredients.

“The atmosphere will also be unique, because I cannot relate Mexican fine dining with a solemn, church-like experience that often typifies international three-star Michelin establishments,” says Olvera. “Here in Mexico, we are fun, lively, dress as you want, with loud music.”

It might sound casual, but it is all serious business in the kitchen, with each dish surpassing the next, from a surprising octopus taco with sea urchin and bone marrow to another Olvera classic, Mole Madre. An intense, rich Oaxaca sauce, it is made from a secret recipe, aged for more than a staggering 3,000 days, and served with a simple corn tortilla.

The good news for travellers looking to explore the fine dining scene in Mexico City is that most gourmet restaurants are clustered in the small corner of the city where the luxury hotels are located, concentrated in the adjoining residential neighbourhoods of fashionable Polanco, Condesa and Roma, a quieter world than the jammed streets of the ancient historical centre surrounding the immense Zocalo main square.

Roma is the more boho chic of the three – think New York’s Williamsburg or London’s Notting Hill – and that is where Elena Reygadas, last year’s World’s Best Female Chef, brings to life her very personal take on Mexican cuisine in Rosetta, a wonderfully romantic 1900s mansion. I am delighted to discover there is no tasting menu, but an old-fashioned a la carte choice, with dishes changing every week, reflecting chef Reygadas’s focus on seasonal ingredients sourced from small locavore producers.

The dishes are a surprise too. There are some magical Mexican inspirations, such as succulent grilled prawn with a tangy ciruela mole of chillies and tart plums; gnocchi with the heritage pre-Columbian huitlacoche fungus foraged from corn ears; and her daring reinterpretation of the classic corn tacos, using instead a savoy cabbage leaf stuffed with salty, wild romeritos greens and a creamy pistachio pipian sauce.

The vibe throughout the meal is relaxed, with a comfort zone carved out for overseas diners who perhaps do not always want to be adventurous with every dish. The menu also includes pasta favourites such as pappardelle and chicken livers, ricotta ravioli with broad beans and a tasty vegetable minestrone, perhaps showing the influence of Italian chef Giorgio Locatelli, whom she trained under in London.

The hottest table in town right now is the elegant, understated Quintonil, the only restaurant to receive two Michelin stars alongside Pujol. I arrive for lunch just after chef Jorge Vallejo has returned from the World 50 Best Restaurant’s 2024 awards in Las Vegas where Quintonil has rocketed to No 7.

Vallejo is the antithesis of a celebrity chef. “My position is obviously the chef, but I tend to refer to myself as a cook as that is what I love doing,” he says. “I could never take on opening numerous other restaurants as some of my contemporaries do. I prefer to create dishes, committed to my craft rather than to making money, representing the best of all Mexico – farmers, street food, home cooking and contemporary trends.”

The mood at Quintonil is much closer to classic fine dining, with stellar, enthusiastic staff catering to every need. Chef Jorge calmly marshals his extensive brigade in the open kitchen, occasionally popping out to chat with diners, giving the impression that this is still a local neighbourhood restaurant at heart. “Gastronomy here is more than cooking,” he says. “It is transferring joy to the diner, an emotional experience for the chef because our ingredients are so humble. We don’t have truffles, porcini mushrooms, foie gras or caviar. Instead we make creative use of cactus leaves, edible maguey worms, corn, the humble avocado.”

Like all the fine dining restaurants I visit here, Quintonil certainly gives curious visitors the opportunity to discover a taste of genuine Mexico, symbolised by Vallejo’s signature dish, Entomophagy Festival, a pile of piping-hot tacos surrounded by nine side dishes.

“But be prepared,” says the chef with a smile.“Because this tasting dish is devoted to insects: charred avocado with escamoles; tasty ant eggs that resemble caviar; sea bass grilled in a grasshopper adobe; traditional salsa roja tomato sauce flavoured with wild jumiles insects."

To be clear, this is not to shock people with the actual insect itself, he adds. "That would be too easy. So we use them invisible in sauces where it is the taste that surprises, allowing the foreigner to discover our culture, as Mexicans have been eating insects for centuries. It is the chance to recognise insects as a new nutritional food source of protein, and quite simply to try something that they have never tasted before in their lives.”

That is a comment that perfectly illustrates the ever-growing choice for sophisticated eating out in Mexico City, not only in Polanca and Roma, but hipster Condesa and Frida Khalo’s romantic Coyocan neighbourhood. You can find gastronomic Italian, French and Japanese spots, but having made it this far, do not miss the opportunity to discover the genuine, unique world of Mexican gastronomy.