Cocktails, wine bars and dives: drinking in Mexico City for grown-ups.
Cocktail bars, wine bars, dive bars and gastropubs: drinking in Mexico City for grown-ups.
Licoreria Limantour in Mexico City is the Roma Norte cocktail flagship on Avenida Alvaro Obregon, one of the World's 50 Best Bars regulars since 2014 with the Margarita Al Pastor as its signature.
Signature drink: Margarita Al Pastor
Food: Snacks
Handshake Speakeasy in Mexico City is the Juarez Amberes Street cocktail temple ranked No. 1 on the World's 50 Best Bars 2024 and No. 2 in 2025, an Art Deco speakeasy with reservation-only entry.
Signature drink: Old Fashioned
Food: Bar snacks
Hanky Panky in Mexico City is the Juarez speakeasy on Turin Street ranked among the World's 50 Best Bars, opened in 2016 by Walter Meyenberg with bartender Gina Barbachano, hidden behind an unassuming fonda door with reservation-only entry.
Signature drink: Classic and original cocktails
Food: Snacks
Bosforo in Mexico City is the Centro Historico mezcaleria on Luis Moya, a velvet-curtain candle-lit room with 50-plus Oaxacan artisanal mezcales and the city's most knowledgeable bar staff.
Signature drink: Tobala mezcal flight
Food: Snacks
La Clandestina in Mexico City is the Condesa mezcaleria on Alvaro Obregon, a 15-year-old room with 25 artisanal Oaxacan mezcales arranged like a master-distiller's tasting bar.
Signature drink: Espadin and Tobala flight
Food: Snacks
Salon Tenampa in Mexico City is the 1925 Plaza Garibaldi cantina that gave the plaza its mariachi identity, with three rooms of live music every night and a Jalisco-style antojitos kitchen.
Signature drink: Tequila and pulque
Food: Antojitos and Jalisco dishes
La Opera Bar in Mexico City is the 1895 Centro Historico cantina on 5 de Mayo, the ornate dark-wood-and-velvet room where Pancho Villa shot a bullet hole in the ceiling that still marks the spot.
Signature drink: Tequila reposado
Food: Cantina antojitos
Las Duelistas in Mexico City is the 1902 Centro pulqueria on Aranda Street, a colorful muralled room that pours 45 flavors of fermented agave pulque, with seven flavors served on Friday and Saturday.
Signature drink: Curado de pina pulque
Food: Pulqueria antojitos
Rayo Cocktail Bar in Mexico City is the Roma Norte mansion-bar on Salamanca, a North America's 50 Best Bars regular with a Mexico-made cocktail program built around the agave-goddess Mayahuel legend.
Signature drink: Mexican spirit cocktails
Food: Snacks
Fifty Mils in Mexico City is the Four Seasons Mexico City hotel cocktail bar in Polanco, a World's 50 Best Bars regular under the Four Seasons garden courtyard with seasonal-fruit-driven mixology.
Signature drink: Pineapple Cobbler
Food: Snacks
Baltra Bar in Mexico City is the Condesa speakeasy on Iztaccihuatl by Limantour's Benjamin Padron, a Darwin-and-Galapagos-themed cocktail bar with an annually rotating menu inspired by science.
Signature drink: Darwin-themed cocktails
Food: Bar snacks
Tlecan in Mexico City is the Roma Norte pre-Hispanic agave-spirit bar on Alvaro Obregon, North America's 50 Best Bars 2025 No. 3, focused on rare Mexican distillates from female producers.
Signature drink: Mexican fermented beverages and agave distillates
Food: Endemic ingredient snacks
La No. 10 in Mexico City is the Juarez cantina on Marsella, a long-running working-class bar with traditional cantina botanas and a long-block lunchtime trade.
Signature drink: Tequila and pulque
Food: Cantina botanas
Peak food season in Mexico City is year-round.
Local dining hours: lunch around 12:30, dinner from 19:30.
service is typically included; small extra is welcome but not expected.
Ask the next local you meet what they would order. Mexico City rewards trust.