Dance clubs, live music, rooftop bars, speakeasies, LGBTQ+ venues, listening bars and late-night dives in Mexico City.
Dance clubs, live music, rooftop bars, speakeasies, LGBTQ+ nightlife, listening bars and late-night dives across Mexico City, with where to go and what is worth the late night.
Patrick Miller in Mexico City is the Roma Norte Italo-disco dance club on Merida Street, the two-decade-plus Friday-night institution where dance-off circles, 80s synthpop, robotic lights and a glitter ball draw a mixed crowd from across the city.
M.N. Roy in Mexico City sits in a renovated terraced house on Calle Merida in Roma Norte, a temple to electronic music with timber and basalt walls by Picault and Godefroy, programming nu-disco, deep house and techno on a strict-door weekends-only schedule.
Departamento in Mexico City is the first-floor walk-up on Avenida Alvaro Obregon in Roma Norte, a converted apartment that runs as the city's most music-first electronic room, peaking after midnight with minimal techno and deep house on a high-end rig.
Bar Oriente in Mexico City on Calle Durango in Roma Norte runs a vanguardist electronic-music club with a full VOID Acoustics rig, hosting national and international DJs and live acts alongside private karaoke rooms for groups.
Salon Pata Negra in Mexico City on Tamaulipas in Condesa is the upstairs floor of the Spanish-style bar at the corner of Juan Escutia, where salsa, cumbia and reggaeton run live and recorded across a small dance floor most nights of the week.
Mama Rumba in Mexico City on Calle Queretaro in Roma Norte is the city's long-running Cuban salsa club, with a live band most weekends, salsa classes on the floor and a crowd of dancers from across the metropolitan area.
Salon Los Angeles in Mexico City opened in 1937 on Calle Lerdo in Colonia Guerrero and is the city's oldest dance hall, with live bands playing danzon, salsa, cumbia, swing and cha-cha-cha most afternoons and evenings of the week.
Salon Tenampa in Mexico City sits on Plaza Garibaldi at number 12, the 1925 mariachi cantina founded by Juan I. Hernandez where Mariachi Cocula first played and Pedro Infante filmed scenes, with strolling bands still moving table to table nightly.
Pasaguero in Mexico City on Calle Motolinia in Centro Historico is the narrow indie bar and music venue that programs rock, salsa, hip-hop and trap on a small stage from around 21:00, with mezcal and craft beer at the bar.
Caradura in Mexico City on Avenida Nuevo Leon in Condesa is the underground rock room with black curtains and red lights, programming local outfits and visiting international acts like Phantogram and Denver on a small stage almost every night.
Foro Indie Rocks! in Mexico City on Calle Zacatecas in Roma Norte opened in 2011 as the venue arm of the Indie Rocks! magazine, programming emerging Mexican and international indie acts in a 600-capacity room near Metro Hospital General.
Multiforo Cultural Alicia in Mexico City on Avenida Cuauhtemoc in Roma Norte is the long-running countercultural rock space founded by Ignacio Pineda, the alternative source for the city's ska, surf and rockabilly scenes with four bands a night minimum.
Pulqueria Los Insurgentes in Mexico City on Avenida Insurgentes Sur in Roma Norte is the four-floor pulqueria where flavoured pulques run alongside jazz on Wednesdays, salsa weekends and a rooftop terrace stage for emerging local bands.
Toledo Rooftop in Mexico City sits on Avenida Chapultepec in Juarez with one of the city's clearest panoramas of the Reforma skyline, programming curated house DJs, guest-chef Mediterranean-Asian menus and late-week sessions through 02:00.
Terraza Catedral in Mexico City sits on the sixth floor of Hostel Mundo Joven Catedral on Republica de Guatemala, with sightlines onto the Zocalo and the Cathedral towers, programming Mexican bar snacks, DJ sets and jazz nights nightly.
Cityzen in Mexico City sits on the 38th floor of the Sofitel Reforma on Paseo de la Reforma facing the Angel de la Independencia, with the city's highest cocktail terrace, a contemporary kitchen and DJ-led weekends.
La Terraza del Hotel Majestic in Mexico City crowns the 1937 Best Western on Avenida Francisco I. Madero in Centro Historico, with the closest balcony view of the Zocalo, the Cathedral and the Palacio Nacional, plus traditional Mexican plates and cocktails.
Balcon del Zocalo in Mexico City sits on the Zocalo Central Hotel on Avenida 5 de Mayo, a glass-walled terrace facing the Cathedral and the Palacio Nacional with contemporary Mexican plates by chef Pepe Salinas and an extensive mezcal list.
Handshake Speakeasy in Mexico City sits on Calle Amberes in Juarez behind an unmarked door 13, ranked No. 2 on the 2025 Worlds 50 Best Bars and Best Bar in North America, with a Gatsby ground floor and a louder basement, all run by Walter Meyenberg's culinary-cocktail team.
Licoreria Limantour in Mexico City on Avenida Alvaro Obregon in Roma Norte is the two-storey art-deco cocktail room overseen by Jose Luis Leon, a fixture on the Worlds 50 Best Bars list since 2014 and No. 32 in 2024, with a new backroom drinks-library called Licoreria.
Hanky Panky in Mexico City on Turin in Juarez is the speakeasy Walter Meyenberg opened in 2016 behind the kitchen of a small Oaxacan fonda, the city's first in the format, with a classic Twelve Wonders of Mixology menu and No. 35 on the 2025 North America 50 Best.
Tlecan in Mexico City on Avenida Alvaro Obregon in Roma Norte is Eli Martinez Bello's agave-spirits room, the name meaning place of fire in Nahuatl, sourcing mezcal, bacanora, sotol, pox and raicilla direct from producers, ranked No. 23 on the 2025 Worlds 50 Best Bars.
Maison Artemisia in Mexico City sits above Loup natural-wine bar on Calle Tonala in Roma Norte, a 2013 cocktail room in a 19th-century townhouse specialising in absinthe, botanical spirits and Mexican distillates with house-bottled Absinthe Maison Artemisia from France.
Felina in Mexico City on Calle Ometusco in Hipodromo Condesa is the tucked-away mid-century room with rum-led cocktails, mid-century furniture and obscure soul on the playlist, with a regular crowd of regulars who treat it like a Condesa living room.
Baltra Bar in Mexico City on Calle Iztaccihuatl at the Amsterdam corner in Hipodromo Condesa is the small Galapagos-themed cocktail room from the Limantour team, ranked on the Worlds 50 Best Bars list in 2023, with exotic-ingredient drinks and a tropical interior.
Marrakech Salon in Mexico City on Republica de Cuba in Centro Historico is the kitsch-retro queer cantina founded by Juan Carlos Bautista and Victor Jaramillo, the venue that pulled the LGBT scene out of Zona Rosa into the Centro with drag, go-go and cabaret nightly after 22:00.
La Purisima in Mexico City on Republica de Cuba in Centro Historico is the neon-lit queer cocktail bar and dance floor with a chic Catholic-statue backdrop, anchoring the Cuba street strip that flipped Centro into an alternative to Zona Rosa.
Kinky Bar in Mexico City on Calle Amberes at the Paseo de la Reforma corner in Zona Rosa is the two-floor gay club in the former Lipstick room, with a cantina-styled main floor, a glass karaoke box and a smoking terrace facing the Angel de la Independencia.
Tom's Leather Bar in Mexico City on Avenida Insurgentes Sur in Hipodromo Condesa is the men-only multi-level cruise bar inspired by the Tom of Finland illustrations, with a dark room, go-go dancers on the tables and adult films on the screens.
Nicho Bears and Bar in Mexico City on Calle Londres at the Florencia corner in Zona Rosa is the BearMex group's flagship bears bar, with photos of burly men down the corridor walls, a small dance floor and Friday bear-karaoke as the long-running fixture.
Tokyo Music Bar in Mexico City on Rio Panuco in Colonia Cuauhtemoc is Edo Kobayashi's Japanese listening bar in the Little Tokyo enclave, with deep emerald walls, bankers lamps, gold stools and a vinyl-and-tube-amp programme of jazz and Japanese pop with whisky-led cocktails.
Bosforo in Mexico City on Calle Luis Moya in Centro is the red-curtain mezcaleria with candles for light, where the owner's playlist of acid jazz and Mesoamerican chants soundtracks a deep agave selection sourced from small producers across Oaxaca and Guerrero.
Le Tachinomi Desu in Mexico City on Rio Panuco in the Little Tokyo block of Cuauhtemoc is Edo Kobayashi's standing-only tachinomi bar, a curated programme of Japanese whisky, sake and natural wine with a tapas menu that changes daily.
Salon Corona in Mexico City on Calle Bolivar in Centro Historico is the 1928 cervecería-cantina between Madero and 16 de Septiembre, with cheap draft Corona in tarros, taco-and-torta plates and the original tile floor still intact through three generations of operators.
La Opera Bar in Mexico City on Avenida 5 de Mayo in Centro Historico is the gilded 1876 cantina with carved wooden booths and a bullet hole in the ceiling that legend pins on Pancho Villa, a working cantina serving Mexican plates and tequila pours every day.
Bar Mancera in Mexico City on Calle Venustiano Carranza in Centro Historico is the 1912 cantina with carved-wood interiors, the largest catalogued Cognac Hennessy stained-glass window and a signed Muhammad Ali glove on display, plus a working art-deco phone booth.
Cantina Tio Pepe in Mexico City on Avenida Independencia in Centro Historico is the 1869 cantina with an original French-imported wooden back bar, ornate ceilings and a politicians-and-locals crowd that has barely changed in a century and a half.
Salon Malafama in Mexico City on Avenida Michoacan in Hipodromo Condesa is the see-and-be-seen pool hall with art exhibits on the walls, sports on the screens, a kitchen of Mexican pub plates and a long list of mezcal and craft beer, cash-only at the bar.
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.