Where You Should Eat in Mexico City According to Pro Chefs

Condé Nast Traveler

Condé Nast Traveler joins chefs Saqib Keval and Norma Listman as they explore some of the best places to eat in Mexico City, from neighborhood gems like Comal Oculto to seafood favorite Campobaja, and authentic Mexican spirits at Tlecān. Discover where pro chefs eat in Mexico City, what makes local Mexican food so unique, and how these spots preserve community, culture, and incredible flavors.

Transcript

00:00I know you're all going to come to this restaurant.

00:02Don't blow up our spot.

00:03I know we're actually blowing up our spot.

00:05No, I do want to share the love.

00:07Yeah, OK, we're not going to gatekeep.

00:09We're not gatekeeping, no.

00:10Because it's really good.

00:17Hola, this is Norma.

00:18I'm Saki.

00:19From Masala y Maíz in Mexico City.

00:21And this is Where the Chefs Eat.

00:30If you've never been to Comal Oculto, you have to come.

00:39It's an unmissable spot.

00:41Really delicious, straightforward Mexican food.

00:45Super good ingredients, great ethics.

00:47And it's a style of food that I feel like people,

00:50when they come to visit the city, they miss it.

00:52In a city that is getting flooded by outsiders opening restaurants,

00:58it's really cool to support a neighborhood spot

01:02that is done by people from this neighborhood.

01:06Barbara is one of the co-owners of Comal Oculto,

01:09and we are so excited.

01:11¿Qué comemos?

01:12Pues miren, yo, como siempre,

01:14les recomiendo la estrella de la casa,

01:16que es la gordita especial.

01:18Mi favorita.

01:19Eso yo les recomiendo.

01:21Las flautas, las enfricoladas.

01:22Eso, mis favoritas, sí.

01:24Las enfricoladas no las hemos probado, son nuevas.

01:26Son nuevas, increíble.

01:28¡Ah!

01:37Muchas gracias.

01:38Gracias, Chef.

01:39It's so yummy.

01:40Damn, they're really talented.

01:44Mmmmm.

01:45Look, when you eat in Mexico,

01:48put a little bit of salsa on at a time.

01:50I always make the mistake,

01:51and it's a classic gringo mistake,

01:54to put a lot of salsa on without tasting it first.

01:57there's an issue in mexico city because of the intense gentrification that's happening

02:02that some places in certain neighborhoods they're removing the chile from salsas the spice the spice

02:10so then the salsas don't have the heat anymore so it makes you very happy to eat food that does

02:15have that heat i know you're a red guy why do you like red over green i think it reminds me

02:22more of desi food and i grew up eating so much red salsa i'm gonna argue with that

02:27because wouldn't a green salsa remind you of a green chutney true damn in chile i love green

02:36because of the level of acidity that the tomatillos give to a dish especially when you're eating

02:42mexican street food that it's more greasy it helps you balance and cut the fat

02:48yes i'm so sorry you can't have this i know that looks real good but this yeah this is the

03:02flautas that i've been dreaming about and waiting for it to eat again yes and this is a gordita

03:06a gordita is like a thick tortilla that's stuffed with something i can't talk my mouth is watering

03:11and this is comfy pork shack chamorro and barbara said to mix this two salsas we have the black

03:22habanero green the molcajete and a classic salsa matcha and i'm having the flautas ahogadas

03:30crispy tortillas one of them is stuffed with chicken and some quesillo and the other one is

03:35with some potatoes and classic classic flautas and then my salsas are divorciadas the mole and the

03:41salsa verde and i'm very excited provecho provecho chef

03:45this food is delicious we can't even talk i think the biggest compliment of the chef

03:55is when people are having a conversation and then the food arrives to the table

04:00and nobody speaks we're at the next stop campo baja our favorite seafood restaurant in mexico city

04:13we have a deep love for this spot because one of our first introductions to it was doing the 2017

04:20earthquake when chef alex and his team opened the restaurant as like a hub a hub yeah to gather

04:28donations for all the people affected by the earthquake hey hello chef i'm so excited

04:35wow wow it's a plate of chips

04:41in this one we have Abulon, Abulon, Almeja Reina, Almeja Chocolate de La Paz, Osteón Mar Azul

04:48and Cayo Margarita, we put them as long as possible so they can try it from zero and a little bit of the foot

04:55the foot that is more chiclosy and more

04:59and a little bit more of flavor this is a ponzo that we have here in the house and a little bit of the

05:03Baja California between the beginning of 1900s came

05:09many Chinese for the construction of the ferrocarril to Cali and then in the 40s after the

05:18the second world war of Japanese, Korean, Japanese, Japanese for the fishing

05:23interesting so the use of soya, the use of curries, the use of certain species is very traditional

05:31aparte of the chilangos, we love the maris

05:34okay i want an oyster i want an oyster too Norma and i met cooking in the bay area in California

05:45and we used to spend so much time eating oysters together and it was like one of our favorite

05:53favorite trips out and so getting good oysters always feels like a treat it's super briny but sweet

05:59at the same time poof what man he's spoiling us what a luxury

06:11i'm spoiling you man i think we got two lessons from this one shellfish is very good and two i married

06:20very well i'm so happy so

06:39you're dancing it's so good you know what i love i love tuna and avocado it's like cream and cream

06:46perfect avocado perfectly sliced tuna really fatty super fresh and the ponzo untare yeah just plus i

06:55feel like there's so many versions of Mexico City tuna tostadas but this is this is top this is

07:01pretty good i wish you guys could be tasting this right now

07:06this one has a lot of explanation

07:13no no no no no no okay

07:16this one we have a quesadilla of matcha of langosta

07:20you know very well

07:22this one is the favorite of the chef

07:24it's calamar with salsa of chili guajillo

07:26cacahuate and a little bit of soya jengibre

07:29okay i'm gonna i'm gonna switch because this this is all you

07:59this and i'm gonna have a bite of this too but this to me is one of the most interesting

08:05dishes in Mexico City is a staple of the house now my mouth is watering calamar is

08:12cooked in what would be a guiso guisos and guess two it has soy sauce it has lime the potatoes are

08:20cooked in dashi and it has a confit garlic somewhere in there that i'm gonna spread on the toast

08:27to spread on the toast there it is look at this beauty

08:33and what's amazing like he's got this upbringing right that grew up with all these cultures and

08:38cuisine here that is both mexican and so influenced by so many different asian cultures because of

08:45immigration policies and that is the food that he's cooking here and there's so few places you can have that

08:52done with such technical care oh my god you're a lover of garlic i love excessive amounts of garlic

09:00and this is what he said to do it's like kind of like smash the garlic on the toast

09:06and then this is the calamar and to be fair there's not there's never an excessive amount of garlic

09:16for me i've cooked her things where she's like this because you you don't have to smell you

09:22like this is way too much garlic you have that texture of really fresh calamari perfectly perfectly cooked

09:31but the depth of flavor from the cacahuatado it tastes very distinctly mexican and not mexican

09:37simultaneously all right i'm ready for go i love tortillas arena because they remind me so i mean

09:44they're rotis they're rotis i went on a study abroad program to mexico to know the mexico and got

09:50bettered with lard that's debatable

09:56because i'm also a good husband

10:01lobster machaca cheese perfect roti frijoles refritos

10:10and he said the lobster machaca recipe is from his grandmother that this is a very homie dish

10:16this is something that he would eat at home and the cheese comes from a ranch in baja

10:25so are the tortillas just perfect and it's done with lobster because

10:31seafood because he was living on the ocean was cheaper to get than

10:34meat and so they did machaca the beef machaca with lobster man

10:39this is very good

10:57we have arrived to tlecan our favorite bar in mexico city this is ellie martinez's kingdom she is the queen

11:06of mexican distillates queendom excuse me queendom

11:13my favorite thing about this bar one of my favorite things i love drinking here the knowledge

11:19and the research around mexican spirits is infinite i really appreciate you don't see any commercial

11:28brands around the bar there is deep deep research into direct distillers and preserving traditions

11:37there's a lot of small batch things that you will never be able to taste anywhere else

11:44how are you chef? the queen is here

11:48is a love card to mexico the intention was to have a mezcal area where they could serve

11:55honorable distillation in a honorable way and in all the cocktail card the idea is to have

12:03Mexican ingredients to tell you about the history of Mexican ingredients

12:06how delicious

12:21It is the of pulque

12:22It is the of pulque is one of my favorite

12:27It's obviously a piña colada, but with a twist.

12:31And...

12:32It's spectacular.

12:33All fashion.

12:34Yes.

12:35It's very clear that if you want an all fashion,

12:38whenever you have a Karwinski,

12:40like Karwinski has these notes,

12:44like a roble,

12:46like a resin,

12:47like a wood,

12:48like a bourbon,

12:49you'll find an all fashion.

12:51So, whenever you want an all fashion with mezcal,

12:54you'll find that the Karwinski plant will be an exit.

12:57Provencio.

12:58Adelante.

12:59Salud.

13:00Salud.

13:01Salud.

13:04Mmm.

13:05Whoa.

13:06I grew up drinking pulque.

13:08Pulque is a Mesoamerican drink

13:12that is extracted from a specific type of agave called pulquero.

13:17It's really beautiful.

13:19It's an art form,

13:20and for a long time people didn't want to drink it

13:23because it was considered like a poor people drink,

13:27and it had that stigma.

13:29Colonizers,

13:30when they were trying to bring wine,

13:33and when there was a push to sell spirits in Mexico,

13:36they demonized pulque.

13:39I see in the later years,

13:42a lot of bartenders and chefs doing a huge effort

13:46to promote pulque drinking.

13:48One of the things that we love about working with Eli

13:51is that much like Masala y Maíz,

13:53she puts her team first,

13:55and she focuses on the producers,

13:57on the workers,

13:58and the quality.

14:00But she's also like one of the top bartenders in the world.

14:03She has all the awards.

14:04She's the bartender's bartender.

14:06She's the queen,

14:08the queen of Mexican distillates.

14:10And when you talk to her,

14:12not only does she have this wealth of knowledge,

14:13but this generosity

14:15to put everyone front and center.

14:17Que delicia.

14:23Thank you so much for joining us

14:24to some of our favorite spots in Mexico City.

14:26Good food,

14:27good politics,

14:28good sourcing,

14:29good stories.

14:30That's what we love about eating at these spots.

14:32Comalo Oculto,

14:34Campo Baja,

14:35Tlacán,

14:36you can't miss it.

14:37A lot of soul

14:38and a lot of love

14:39that's put into these places.

14:40I hope the next time you're here,

14:42you visit them.

14:44Salutita.

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