6 Best Restaurants in La Roma, Mexico City

Chef-owner Elena Reygadas worked for years at London's Michelin-starred Italian restaurant Locando Locatelli before moving back to her hometown in 2011 to open Rosetta in a stunning early 1900s belle epoque mansion. Despite the perfect risottos and handmade pastas in varying shapes, what her cuisine primarily takes from Italy is reliance on local and seasonal ingredients (the olive oil is from Baja California, the burrata cheese made in the town of Atlixco)—but much of the food has a creative Mexican heart. Breads both sweet and savory are baked in-house, and sold from the adjoining bakery, which has two other locations nearby.

Revolving slowly on the 45th floor of the World Trade Center, Bellini maintains a formal, reserved character. While it's definitely known less for its food than the views (romantically twinkling city lights at night and a pair of volcanoes on a clear day), it's still worth the dining experience, especially for its beloved osso buco and French onion soup. Despite the name, most dishes here aren't Italian but rather Mexican and international, with lobster as the specialty. Colonia Nápoles is a lovely residential neighborhood south of La Condesa and La Roma, and across Insurgentes Avenue from Del Valle Centro.

This laid-back restaurant has been serving Hidalgo-style lamb barbacoa to grateful Mexico City residents since the 1990s. Friday through Sunday afternoons only, fresh lamb from owner Moisés Rodríguez’s Hidalgo farm is roasted for 12 hours over mesquite and oak in an underground pit, then served in charred agave leaves. An order of barbacoa comes with everything you need to make tacos you'll remember for days; be sure to order the consommé, flavored with meat drippings, chile, and lime, and wash it all down with a glass of pulque.

Though this is a barbacoa favorite, the mixiotes (pit-barbecued meats)—another Hidalguense specialty—are fantastic as well.

The logo says "tradición desde 1970," but in fact El Parnita is a more recent addition to Roma's lunch scene: a hip, updated take on the simple family-owned fonda. The menu consists of antojitos (snacks like tacos, tostadas, and ceviches), from recipes culled from the family's travels throughout the country, such as rellenito, a chipotle chile stuffed with cheese and beans in a sauce of piloncillo (unrefined brown sugar) from Zacatecas; and tacos viajeros, homemade tortillas piled with pork loin and leg long cooked in citrus, from Michoacán. While it's a hugely popular spot for trendy types, local workers and families come too, enjoying it for the affordable neighborhood restaurant it is at its core.

This popular veteran of the city's modern Mexican culinary scene is still a mainstay for reasonably priced, consistently well-prepared dishes like huitlacoche risotto with corn and poblano chiles, and grilled prawns with a sweet-spicy tamarind-guajillo reduction. The space is refined, relaxed, and ideal for conversation, and there are a few tables on the sidewalk overlooking Plaza Villa de Madrid and Fuente de Cibeles.