Seattle-based writer Naomi Tomky explores the world with a hungry eye, digging into the intersection of food, culture, and travel. She is an Association of Food Journalists and Lowell Thomas award-winner, and her cookbook, The Pacific Northwest Seafood Cookbook, was declared one of 2019’s best by the San Francisco Chronicle. Follow her culinary travels and hunger-inducing ramblings on Twitter and Instagram.
Seattle-based writer Naomi Tomky explores the world with a hungry eye, digging into the intersection of food, culture, and travel. She is an Association of Food Journalists and Lowell Thomas award-winner, and her cookbook, The Pacific Northwest Seafood Cookbook, was declared one of 2019’s best by the San Francisco Chronicle. Follow her culinary travels and hunger-inducing ramblings on Twitter and Instagram.
Hi, I'm Naomi!Seattle-based writer Naomi Tomky explores the world with a hungry eye, digging into the intersection of food, culture, and travel. She is an Association of Food Journalists and Lowell Thomas award-winner, and her cookbook, The Pacific Northwest Seafood Cookbook, was declared one of 2019’s best by the San Francisco Chronicle. Follow her culinary travels and hunger-inducing ramblings on Twitter and Instagram.
Hi, I'm Naomi!Seattle-based writer Naomi Tomky explores the world with a hungry eye, digging into the intersection of food, culture, and travel. She is an Association of Food Journalists and Lowell Thomas award-winner, and her cookbook, The Pacific Northwest Seafood Cookbook, was declared one of 2019’s best by the San Francisco Chronicle. Follow her culinary travels and hunger-inducing ramblings on Twitter and Instagram.
Mexico’s diverse culinary regions converge in Mexico City. According to Israel Montero, the Venezuelan chef of Siembra Taquería, that’s why the taco scene here is so good. “Each person has contributed a little of their culture to the food,” he explains.
“Tacos are something very comforting,” says Montero, who decided he wanted to open a taco shop the very first time he tried one. The chef cooked in France, at the Michelin 3-star Restaurant Paul Bocuse and alongside Alain Ducasse at Hôtel Plaza Athénée, then moved to Mexico more than two decades ago. In 2019, he and chef Karina Mejía opened Siembra, a corn mill, tortillería, and taco shop in Mexico City’s Polanco neighborhood. In 2022, they added a restaurant down the street, Siembra Comedor.
As Montero reflected on how to make great tacos, he concluded that the joy of eating them comes from having good tortillas and eating with your hands—and that understanding shaped how he built Siembra. We asked him for a few more details about how to find, order, and eat tacos in Mexico City and for some ideas for what to do between meals.
In Mexico, hot taco tips can be a kind of family heirloom. “Grandparents tell their grandchildren where the good tacos are, and thus the information is passed on,” says Montero. Visitors who don’t have access to that kind of family knowledge should follow his lead and look for particularly crowded spots. He also recommends a few favorites of his own:
Montero has a long list of favorite taco fillings, including the long-cooked pork of carnitas; tongue and head; Mexico City’s classic spit-roasted spiced pork called al pastor; and its sibling, the shawarma-like tacos árabes. He also has a few favorite preparations, such as planchado (griddled) and with costra (with a cheese crust). But Montero notes that the key to finding the best tacos comes not from ordering the right taco but from trying all the different types of tacos until you find the ones that you like the most.
Most tacos consist of a meat (see above) with cilantro, onion, lime, and salt, and Montero recommends eating them exactly as the taquero serves them (barring any dietary restrictions). He does, however, recommend one customization: “It’s essential to always add salsa; it's a fundamental part of the flavor,” he says. “I'm sorry, but a taco without salsa just isn't the same!”
There’s no such thing as too many tacos, but Mexico City’s food scene offers tons of other dishes that are also worth diving into. In Polanco, the same neighborhood as Siembra, Montero recommends Malix, where a focus on fermentation and chef-driven technique turns Yucatecan classic dishes into trendy fare; and Ticuchi, an agave bar opened by Enrique Olvera, of the famed restaurant Pujol, that features a fantastic mezcal list and creative snacks, such as an octopus taco with hummus and a potato croquette with mushrooms.
Outside of Polanco, Montero suggests Café Janeiro, a cool spot that opens on to a park and has live jazz a few days a week. He also likes the reservations-only speakeasy Hanky Panky, which you enter through a small taco shop.
Montero recommends visiting in spring, when the city has pleasant weather, there’s an explosion of beautiful purple blossoms on the jacaranda trees, and everyone seems to be in a good mood. “On March 20, we all rejoice in its arrival,” he says. He is also a big fan of the fiestas patrias, the weeks around Mexico’s Independence Day, on September 16. “The weather is not so hot, it has already stopped raining, and there is a great variety of delicious food to try,” he says. Montero’s favorite neighborhood is Polanco, in part because it’s quiet and there’s lots of good restaurants (see above, in his favorite places to eat), and in part because of its general atmosphere and attractions. “It is a family-friendly neighborhood, where you can walk, run, and even go to the Chapultepec Park,” he explains.
Chapultepec Park is the city’s giant green space, considered the “lungs” of the city for its filtering effect on the air. It also holds the renowned National Museum of Anthropology and the National History Museum, the latter of which is housed in a castle. Some of the best art museums in the city, including the Tamayo and the Museum of Modern Art also sit in the park, and (because everything comes back to tacos) it even boasts a museum that highlights the cultural significance and uses of corn in Mexico, the Museo Cencalli.
Related: 10 Must-See Mexico City Neighborhoods and How to Visit
Montero’s perfect day would start with a trip to his own restaurant, Siembra Taquería, for a breakfast of barbacoa tacos filled with pit-roasted lamb. From there, he would walk through the Polanco neighborhood to Paseo de la Reforma, Mexico City’s main boulevard, to gaze at the monuments that dot it, including the Angel of Independence. (On Sundays, the street closes to car traffic, and bikes and pedestrians take over.)
After stops at a few favorite museums and restaurants, he would head out of the city into the surrounding area, to spend the afternoon visiting the pyramids at Teotihuacan or the monarch butterfly reserve.
Related: Frida Kahlo Museum Director Hilda Trujillo Soto’s Guide to Mexico City
