I don't know to be honest of the city has changed in these past eight yaers. I've changed a bit, but in a weird way, that trip to Mexico City was the start of a new way of traveling for me. It was the first time I did two tasting menus on one trip - Sud777 and Pujol. The trip to Pujol was momentous, the first tiem I went to a restaurant that was on Chef's Table, and really the launching pad of a good few dozens of tasting menus since then. Well, this trip eight years later carried that on - with me going to Quintonil, a place that had been my white whale to some degree. Also checked out Baldio (serves both a-la-carte and a tasting menu), and of course a metric ton of street / street-ish tacos. And a few other things. No need for a full day by day play, but a quick rambling list of takeaways will suffice.
= Mexico City has so many museums, and nearly all of them are very, very good. Now, this isn't a novel observation, and I had been to a lot of them in the past. In fact, the grand-daddy of CDMX museums I didn't go to this time because I've been twice, adn that's the National Museum of Archaeology, which is phenomenal. No, instead I went to a ton of art museums, only two of which I had gone before, and had a great time.
= The holdovers were the Museo Mural Diego Rivera, which is near the Zocalo, and is a museum that basically is mostly one main room where a giant, stunning, sharp mural by Diego Rivera lines the walls. Weirdly, I remembered the mural being bigger than it was when I last went (2018) but still, it was quite imposing and you can study it and the 80-odd faces for a while. The other holdover was the Museo Soumaya, a brilliantly designed, curvy six story building on the north edge of Polanco. I went last year and while they hadn't really changed much, they finished some renovations on the Mexican Art floor, which was awesome. The best part is the top floor which is a large sculpture exhibit of mostly Rodin's and his students and followers. The Soumaya to me remains the best art museum in teh city.
= The new ones were as follows - the National Museum of Art, the Museum of Popular Art and the Modern Art Museum. All three are fairly light (not a bad thing) with 5-6 exhibits but really well curated. All three also feature only Mexican art. Now, the first two both had art that date before the founding of Mexico (the National Museum specifically had most of a floor be art from the time when CDMX was "New Spain", but still - no European masters to be seen.
= The Museum of Popular Art is a must-do, as it effectively is a history/folk art museum. Popular art meaning it is more old handicrafts, ceramics, sculptures. They had some amazing rooms - like one area with just a series of stunning Tree of Life sculptures, each as mesmerizing as the next. Then a room with a bunch of Oaxacan-style animal statues. Then an area with some truly creative devil and other creature masks. It was a great one hour. The last one being the Modern Art museum was fun - housed a ton of Frida Kahlo's and Diego Rivera's - and a quick jaunt and sits perfectly on the edge of the massive Chapultepec Park, where anyway I was venturing to visit the Chapultepec Castle. There's also a good dozen well rated museums I didn't see and some of those that I've never seen. Mexico City is, and I mean this, up there with New York and London in terms of museum quality & quantity.
= Mexico City has far more World Cup fever than anything in America. Not surprised, I guess, but it was refreshing. Some of the main promenades have 2026 World Cup signage all over. The Museo Jumex (small curated art museum that sits right next to the Soumaya) turned all its exhibits into soccer themes, which was lovely. On one block of the Reforma Avenue, there are large placards of great players over all the past world cups. In the Zocalo, there is preparation for a fan-fest / live viewing area, which sadly clsoed most of the Zocalo to pedestrians but will lead to some amazing scenes come a month. There has been right criticism that you can wander around the US and have no idea we are hosting the World Cup in a month - but not so in Mexico.
= Tacos. Tacos. Tacos. During the weekend, my meals were one of two things: upmarket tasting menus, or street tacos, and mostly Tacos Nene for the latter, a lovely brick and mortar spot that feels like a street spot the way it is designed. Also the way the tacos are just awesome, but probably a tad healthier (read: less fat) than the true street ones. Admittedly, their pastor is not the best, but their suadero is somethign else and their salsas are on point, adn it just feels like home.
= I initially was planning on trying out some new cocktail spots, particularly thinking this could be my opportunity to try Handshake Speakeasy, a spot that is often ranked as one of the best bars in the world. Google Maps live tracker did show that there could have been opportunity, but instead I just settled in at my personal favorite cocktail spot in the world - Licorecia Limantour, and let me tell you this, they absolutely have retained that spot. The drinks are awesome - all fairly strong, all well poured, all inventive. Their coming up on their 15th year of business, so their menu at the moment is a selection of 30 of their favorite / memorable cocktails over the years. I think I tried about 10 over the three days, and they were all super memorable - specifically one called the Lassi, which had this weird but amazing cardamom and anise flavor and little slice of mango halva/gel on top. Love it, almost as much as the place itself - they always play great music with a live DJ, the crowd is majority locals (or at least people speaking Spanish) which is nice. Top spot.
= For the first time on my trips, I went to ad EDM spot in CDMX, called Funk, which was excellent. The music was a tad on the slow side, but great beats, good selection of DJs, great lights and honestly amazing ventilation. You just felt at peace and at home. Judging by the language being spoken, also heavily locals. The drinks were fairly expensive, but healthy pours. They also had this weird but cool thing where they poured club soda and mixers by affixing like a soup dispenser type thing on top of the club soda 2L bottle, which was cool. All in all, Funk was a great spot, and will rank fairly high on my EDM club list. The other potential spot was Yuyu Cine, which seems fairly similar in terms of rating and types of acts. For next time, I guess.
= I'll do a separate post on Quintonil, but needless to say it was awesome. It is expensive (equal to the leading Lima spots) but I think fairly so given this is the game we're playing. Anyway, far more affordable, and quite good is Baldio, a newer spot in Condesa. Baldio has an a-la-carte menu, but judging by what the chefs were preparing it seems most got the 7-course tasting menu, which clocks in at $110. Even add a pairing and you're looking at $180. The food was excellent, showing a great variety in Mexican cooking - for instance, my favorite dish might have been a zucchini, squash, pumpkin tostada with larva (Quintonil served a good amount of bugs as well) and two sauces. Or it was a sweet corn tamal like thing with a peach compote. Or it was their amazing pork. Anyway, not as many courses as Quintonil, and admittedly not as good but for a more affordable tasting menu in CDMX, Baldio was perfect.
= My go to beer bar spot is El Deposito, which remains excellent for a crazy bottle selection and a great vibe. Well, I found a competing spot that is probably better (I'm going to rank it above), which is Drunkendog, which has a nearly as good bottle selection, but also 25 beers on tap, 20 of which were from Mexico, including five stouts and five IPAs. The only issue with Drunkendog is that it is in Condesa, while most of my normal CDMX stuff (office, hotel, restaurants) is in Polanco. If Drunkendog was in Polanco, it would overtake El Deposito as my post work go-to - sad to say.
= I'll finish by saying this - I enjoyed the hell out of this weekend and kept thinking a lot of whether I need to move Mexico City up my cities rankings. It's already high coming in at 19th, ahead of places like London, Paris, Bangkok. But I honestly think I'm underrating it. That said, I also come here enough because of work, I wonder if I can rank it just as a tourist spot, or is it becoming like a Chicago, where I'll be coming here ~2-3 times a year for work. Anyway, Mexico City is awesome. It is safer than you would think (there is a ton of police aroudn, especially at night, which seems to have made its impact). The weather is quite good - and the altitude and being in a valley means the humidity is quite low. The people are lovely. Yes, the traffic is bad, but in all honesty no worse than New York or London. Currently. of the Latin American mega-cities from a tourist perspective, I have CDMX behind Lima (13th), Rio (11th) and Santiago (4th). It's not Santiago, but I do wonder if its not closer to Lima or Rio than I had thought.
