Have you ever seen a whole shop full of decorated or multi-leveled cakes? In Europe, you can’t get one just like that. In Mexico City, on the other hand, there is the Pastelería Ideal. Here you can also find the normal sweet pastries of Mexico, but also large, tall cakes or cakes decorated with pictures or whatever.
When you enter the Pastelería Ideal, there is a busy atmosphere downstairs. Workers are scurrying around and filling up shelves, people are bustling around the tables and shelves with the pastries and there is a general hustle and bustle. Up the stairs on the right, you can’t believe what awaits you. The whole room is filled to the brim with cakes that either go up or have motifs such as Elsa or Coco or circus motifs or are decorated for a wedding or Halloween. Some big and flat (Coco’s was a guitar! :D) and others 3, 4 or even 5 levels high. Really really cool. My own jaw actually dropped for a moment. I mean you don’t see stuff like that every day, do you?
Go or not? Personally, I think you should. I mean it’s a ‘bakery’ in the centre that you can take a quick look at and is kinda part of Mexican culture. Mexicans are just really cheesy about a lot of things and quite sugar fanatical – just like these cakes. Apart from that, the Pastelería Ideal is famous for its cakes. So let’s go 😀

I’m not a foodie – not really – but I still appreciate really good food. And so in this post I would like to introduce you to a few really good restaurants in Mexico City:

Callejeros: centrally located and a little more expensive than other taquerías. But Callejeros also offers something different and new tastewise. Meaning: here you can get tacos with fillings that you don’t necessarily get everywhere. Apart from that, the tacos I tried here were really delicious. And that’s why I think this taqueria is worth a visit. Even if it is a little more expensive.

Ikuri: centrally located and I would say in the upper average area in terms of price. Very, very tasty quesadillas that you can actually watch being made. The tortillas themselves are made purely from corn and are green – which is nothing unusual. Apart from that, there are also things here that you won’t find everywhere

Los Primos: centrally located and actually called Taquería and Torteria, but as there are trillions of them in Mexico City, the ad-on of ‘Los Primos’. I usually go here when I want quesadillas – they have some with potatoes, which I personally found really fantastic and very tasty. Unfortunately, I didn’t try anything else, but my motto is always ‘If one thing is really tasty, the rest is usually not bad or also very tasty’. So go there. Definitely normal Mexican prices here. I paid 65 pesos for my 5 quesadillas, which is 2.94 in euros, and it more than filled me up.

Casa de Tono: this chain certainly doesn’t need advertising – probably none of the restaurants do because everything is already established – but!!!! Contrary to some other chains, which are perhaps well frequented for the wrong reasons, Casa de Tono really deserves its good reputation. Because the pozole here is really fantastic! And if you don’t know what pozole is, it’s soup. But that’s all I’ll say. So just try it and let yourself be surprised 😉 (and yes, for the vegetarians and vegans among you, there’s also a meat-free version 😊)

Sushi Factory: yes it’s a sushi place and no I’m not going to advise you to eat sushi in Mexico. The only reason I’m including this place here is because I’m not a sushi fan, but I still found the place really delicious. At least this one particular vegetarian roll. And I was shown the place by a real sushi fan. Means, if any of you like sushi, you can go there and try it out if you’re in the mood. By the way, I’m not going to talk about prices here because I don’t know anything about sushi prices 😊

Go or not? Well, I think you’re missing out on the first four if you don’t try them, because they serve really delicious Mexican food. You can either go to Sushi Factory or not. (To be fair, it’s quite far out of town in a shopping centre). The Mexican restaurants on the other hand…. Delicious!!! 😊

La Esperanza, La Bohème and El Moro. Well, they’re not all bakeries, but they’re definitely three places that have damn tasty tarts and damn tasty sweet pastries. There are also a few buns, but you can’t expect too much in that respect outside Germany anyway, so these three are pretty close to what you can find as bakery in Mexico 😀

La Esperanza: the bakery I go to when I need a fairly European, not too sweet yet tasty breakfast. Meaning: in addition to lots of sweet pastries, you can also get something more filling and less sweet here. 😊 There is also the Pastelería Madrid for this type of bakery. Also very tasty and with a nice large selection. A bit like Lecaroz in Coyoacán.

La Bohème: A very small but nevertheless good bakery in Roma. Here you can get small but delicious mini tarts, which are really tasty!!! and I also mean a bit of bread. Highly recommended!

El Moro: not a bakery, but a churrería. Quite famous and with several locations in Mexico City. The churros here are bathed in cinnamon and sugar and the milkshakes are really incredibly delicious! 😊

The Péndulo is a cafebrería – a café and librería (library) in one – and my absolute favorite café in entire Mexico City.
I was introduced to it by a Mexican who worked in the hostel where I was staying. I told him what I liked and he recommended this café to me.
Guess what? He nailed it. When you walk into a Péndulo, you are immediately surrounded by books. They are all sorted by genre, of course, and invite you to take a look. As you move past the books, you come to tables where friends, business meetings and also solo remote workers are usually sitting. Most of the time at least.
The only drawback: it’s a bit expensive. So be prepared for European prices.
Nevertheless, the atmosphere is simply unbeatable and there are enough power sockets for everyone 😊
Go or not? I personally love it! The Péndulo. It’s a great place to sit and work in a relaxed atmosphere surrounded by books. And it also is quiet enough to relax. So if you want to check out a café, go to Péndulo first 😊

Mexico City is basically a pretty loud, chaotic and crowded city where there is always something going on, you can do everything and you never get tired of getting to know it. Nevertheless, there is a Mexico off the beaten track that hardly anyone or a tourist ever gets to see.
Admittedly it was basically the outbacks of Polanco for me. Nevertheless, I got to know a quiet Mexico City – except for the Tráfico (traffic). It really everywhere is the same 😀
What particularly fascinated me about my little trip was that Mexico City really does have an incredible number of faces, all of which are reflected somewhere in this city. Because I’m absolutely certain that if I were to explore outbacks in other directions, the experience, the vibe and the surroundings would be completely different.
Go or not? I don’t know if I would go looking for it directly, but I found it very interesting and also very refreshing. Simply because it gave me a perspective on the kinda “True” Mexico. At least from the corner I was in 😊

Xochimilco is the neighbourhood in Mexico City that you would never guess is part of Mexico City. Never. For one very simple reason: you go to Xochimilco if you want to take a nice boat trip through canals. Doesn’t sound particularly metropolitan or like Mexico City, does it?
I actually ended up in Xochimilco through friends and completely by chance. I’d read about it somewhere, but I don’t think I was convinced by the pictures and I thought it was too far away and that it was ‘pointless without a group’ – which is true, by the way. Nevertheless, I’m incredibly glad that I went to Xochimilco with this group of friends because…. Dude, it’s beautiful in Xochimilco!
Xochimilco is like a paradise full of beautifully painted boats, each with a different name and each harbouring a different group of people. The boats are pushed or driven by men – I didn’t see a single woman – who stamp a long stick into the ground to push and steer the boat forwards, sideways or to the left. Sounds exhausting and it certainly is. However, I suspect that it gets easier as soon as the boats have picked up speed.
We stopped and took a break in a true natural idyll. And also the drive through the canals…. It’s just really beautiful, incredibly relaxing and you really get away from the Mexico City vibe and feel like you’re in another world. In short, you really calm down.
Go or not? Definitely! This neighbourhood, unlike any other, is basically a tourist attraction in itself and therefore absolutely worth a trip. So get a few people together and head to Xochimilco. It’s really worth it because it’s just super quiet and really beautiful 😊

Coyoacán is a beautiful, quiet neighbourhood. If I had to describe it in one word: familiar. Because that’s what it is. Made for small families with some cool cafés for remote working, a great and very cheap bakery (Lecaroz) and an incredibly tasty food market. The only problem is that it’s actually quite far out of town, so it takes about an hour to get there. Meaning you kinda do have to plan a little going there.
The first time I was in Coyoacán, I was there for a public holiday and Coyoacán was packed. There was a fair, lots of stalls and of course even more people. There were clowns performing in the large main square around the pavilion, a few treats as well as souvenirs to mark the occasion and so on. I was struck by Coyoacán’s beauty that day and knew I wanted to come back to see the neighbourhood in peace. That day I also discovered the market, where you can get pretty much anything you want. Tacos, tortas, pozole…. You name it they have it. Just a typical Mexican market. We were there (at the very back in the centre right by an older lady) where it looks like you definitely wouldn’t fit sitting down and it was so incredibly delicious!!!! Big recommendation here from my part!
On my second visit to Coyoacán, I got to know the neighbourhood in a quieter and more relaxed way. I explored the neighbourhood and discovered a school, a bookshop and a few other things. And everything was so peaceful and beautiful and…. Just really incredibly relaxed.
Go or not? Personally, I think Coyoacán is great. It’s a wonderful, relaxed neighbourhood and there’s a Frida Kahlo museum here – which I haven’t been to yet – but you could combine Coyoacán with that, because the neighbourhood is really worth a visit 😊 Apart from that, the following still applies: first touristy things, then the neighbourhood. Nevertheless, Coyoacán would really be worth it 😀

Lively but relaxed, beautiful but not chic, cosmopolitan. For me, Roma is like Little Europe in Mexico City. It has a relatively cosmopolitan vibe with a European touch, is tidy and clean but not over the top, completely plastered with European countries, cities or anything else in the street names and even has a replica of the Cibeles fountain in Madrid on a central roundabout in the middle of the neighbourhood. There is also a Museo de Jamón here, which I know from Madrid and a few other places in Spain. What I’m trying to say is that Europeans have the highest chance of finding something familiar here.
At the same time, it’s quite green, not quiet, but quieter than other neighbourhoods or areas in Mexico City and you also see more non-Mexicans. In Condesa it’s even more blatant and a good bit greener and a bit quieter, but there’s a separate post about Condesa.
Roma was honestly the first neighbourhood I planned to visit (Polanco was unintentionally the first) and I loved it straight away. But I also love the Museo de Jamón. Just the fountain of Cibeles in Madrid…. It’s one of my favourite places ever in Madrid and the replica just doesn’t even come close for me personally. But as I said, I’m also a real fan. So it’s actually quite cool. Especially because there’s also a really tasty burger restaurant (Mataleon) at the roundabout, which made fantastic burgers when I was there. Highly recommended!
Go or not to go? I personally really like Roma. Roma is actually divided into Norte and Sur, but that’s more because Roma is just a relatively large neighbourhood I think. Apart from that, as I’ve already said elsewhere, I would only do the neighbourhoods once you’ve seen everything touristy etc. Then go according to your personal taste or which side of Mexico City you would like to get to know first/better. Personally, I had heard about Roma and Condesa and it sounded like my vibe. That’s why I went there first. And as the neighbourhoods are right next to each other and really very similar, sometimes you don’t even know exactly where you are. 😊

Green, clean, quiet and relaxed. I think that’s how I would describe the neighbourhood Condesa. Together with the neighbourhood Roma, which is right next door, I would say it comes closest to European flair.
Maybe it’s the European flair, although I personally think it’s the relaxed atmosphere, the greenery and the general vibe. I mean that I like the neighbourhood. Because yes: I love Condesa. It’s the neighbourhood I would move to if I ever moved to Mexico City. One hundred per cent. They have a péndulo (favourite café and in another post), el Moro (a famous churrería), two parks – both of which are wonderful to chill out in – and a kind of green ring road. Basically a footpath, inbetween the normal street, which is lined with trees and where you always see joggers and people with their dogs.
Oh, and if you don’t notice how you walk on from Roma to Condesa or vice versa – I felt the same way the first time. They are quite similar neighbourhoods in terms of vibe.
Condesa also is by no means a neighbourhood that you would necessarily visit for tourist purposes. Unless you have a bit of time and want to check out some cool parks or something, because the Péndulo and the Moro have several locations that are easier to reach from the centre – but they’re also not as quiet and beautifully situated.
The big question now is go or not? I think my answer is pretty clear. From a tourist point of view, I would only include all the neighbourhoods once you have seen the more touristy part of Mexico City. Simply because the city is really huge. For neighbourhoods, I would then decide according to personal taste. Or also with regard to which sides of Mexico City you want to get to know. And not speaking neutrally: YAAAAA you absolutely have to go! 😀