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Shaded by a giant palapa roof, this open-air restaurant is an inviting spot for lunch or an early dinner (it closes at 7 pm). Though you'll find the same Yucatecan dishes (pollo pibil, sopa de lima) here as elsewhere, the preparation is excellent. Best of all is the poc chuc—little bites of pork marinated in sour orange, garlic, and chiles and grilled over charcoal. There is also a Mérida location if you don't want to make the trip to the original one.
Calle 29 191, Ticul, Yucatán, 97863, Mexico
Known For
- Tasty poc chuc
- Huge portions at reasonable prices
- Authentic, local atmosphere
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Located on Calle 47, which was pedestrianized in 2023 as its status as Mérida's restaurant row became more official, this colorful restaurant specializes in grilled fish and meat dishes, though the cocktail menu of mezcal and tequila favorites is a draw as well. The scene is lively but not excessively so, making this a perfect option for a special-occasion celebration.
Calle 47 458, Mérida, Yucatán, 97000, Mexico
Known For
- Grilled entrées
- Generous cocktails
- Festive atmosphere
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This casual spot north of Parque Santa Ana has a French flair, with vintage posters and antique signs, and its French owner, Eric Sureau, is on the premises most days, assuring that the quiches, crêpes, and salads all leave the kitchen comme il faut. There are tables in the lovely and shady yard in the back. In addition Sureau has a small but excellently curated selection of wines and some of the best cheeses in the city if you want to buy the essentials for a little gathering around the pool at your rental or hotel.
Calle 41 386B, Mérida, Yucatán, 97000, Mexico
Known For
- Well-curated wine selection
- Excellent cheeses
- French favorites
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This restored colonial gem a couple of blocks north of the main square deserves a place on any list of Mexico's best pizza restaurants. Lots of reds and yellows brighten the interior, and the outdoor patio overlooking Parque de la Candelaria becomes prime real estate on beautiful evenings. With 30 years in the restaurant business, most of them spent back in Italy, the owners here know pizza. They whip up 11 varieties, as well as sweet and salted focaccia and enormous calzones. A selection of Italian wines rounds out the offerings. Casa Italia opens at 7 each evening—come early if you want to snag a patio table.
Calle 35 202J, Valladolid, Yucatán, 97780, Mexico
Known For
- Impressive variety of quality pizza
- Good wine selection
- Fun vibe on outdoor patio
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: Closed Sun. and Mon. No lunch.
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Follow your nose to this dessert café, where the aromas of French pastries and rich cocoa waft into Campeche's narrow streets. Tucked inside a stone-walled colonial building are small wooden tables and a collection of antiques, like a vintage cash register still used for ringing up transactions. Drink recipes originated from the owner's research into Mayan traditions and her time spent with local families; prepared with the purest form of organic cocoa, they're infused with mint, chile, and more. Not a chocolate lover? You’ll enjoy all-natural fruit juices made with jicama and piña. Crepes and cookies make nice accompaniments. A small gift shop sells locally made products and blocks of dark chocolate.
Calle 59 30, Campeche City, Campeche, 24000, Mexico
Known For
- Pretty courtyard
- Relaxed atmosphere
- Cocoa-infused everything
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: Closed Sun.
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Recommended Fodor’s Video
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The homemade ice cream and sorbet at El Colón have been keeping locals cool since 1907. Served in a pyramid-shape scoop, the tropical fruit flavors (like chico zapote, a brown fruit native to Mexico that tastes a little like cinnamon and comes from a tree used in chewing-gum production) are particularly refreshing. The shop also sells cookies and fresh candies—the meringues are exceptional. There are five locations throughout the city, and while the one on the Plaza Grande is the oldest, the one on Paseo de Montejo is the most popular, especially on warm evenings.
Calle 56 474A, Mérida, Yucatán, 97000, Mexico
Known For
- Tropical fruit flavors
- Sidewalk seating
- Local institution
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You'll know that a fun evening lies ahead even before you are seated at your table at this outdoor restaurant, where the pizzas and empanadas are cooked in a wood oven and several different pasta dishes are offered each day. A food truck serves as the main kitchen, kids (and adults) can make their own s'mores around a fire, and strings of taverna lights glow overhead. Well-behaved dogs are welcome, too, adding to the feeling that you have joined a casual gathering of friends at the beach.
Calles 46 and 49, Yucatán, Mexico
Known For
- Pizzas from a wood oven
- Fun atmosphere
- Make your own s'mores
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: Closed Mon. and Tues.
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This lively family-owned eatery on Parque Santa Lucía has outdoor seating that's the perfect place to eat on cool evenings, as well as plenty of tables in an air-conditioned dining room for days when the heat doesn't break. The menu is made up of filling salads, thin-crust pizzas, and pasta dishes. Happy hour runs weekdays from 7 to 9 pm (there's usually some kind of deal on the excellent wine list, too). There is also a larger location, simply La Tratto, a little to the north of the historic center on Prolongación Paseo de Montejo.
Calle 60 471, Mérida, Yucatán, 97000, Mexico
Known For
- Good pizza selection
- Huge salads
- Great wine list
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This bright, sunny café on Mérida's restaurant row is an appealing spot for a cappuccino, latte, or tea, paired with an avocado toast, yogurt and fruit, or a pastry.
Calle 47 465, Mérida, Yucatán, 97000, Mexico
Known For
- Cheerful atmosphere
- Delicious pastries
- Variety of coffees and teas
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: Closed Sun. No dinner
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The menu here is as an encyclopedic take on Yucatecan cuisine, with everything from salbutes to start to manjar blanco (a milk-based delicacy) for dessert. Before sitting down to eat in the courtyard or one of the rooms that open onto it, explore the modest displays on regional food in the colonial-style building and Maya-style houses in the garden. There are also cooking demonstrations, including those using the traditional method for cooking cochinita pibil, buried in a pit in the ground.
Calle 62 466, Mérida, Yucatán, 97000, Mexico
Known For
- Traditional Yucatecan dishes
- An elegant setting in a colonial-style building
- Cooking demonstrations
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This bakery just a few blocks north of Parque Santa Ana is a great place to start your day with a light breakfast of a pastry and a coffee. It has a small garden and plenty of seating if you want to linger for awhile at your laptop. The decor is an inviting updated colonial style with pasta-tile floors and more contemporary touches, such as the steel staircase leading up to the second-story seating. You'll only wish it didn't close so early—at 1 pm during the week and 2 pm on the weekends.
Calle 43 485, Mérida, Yucatán, 97000, Mexico
Known For
- Coffee drinks
- Garden
- Delicious pastries, savory and sweet
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: No dinner
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Wonderful smells waft from this small corner establishment, where scenes of old Italy and the Yucatán adorn bright yellow walls, and patrons pull padded folding chairs up to yellow-tile tables or take their orders to go. Pizza is the name of the game here, but tortas and pastas are also served.
Calle 23 208, Ticul, Yucatán, 97860, Mexico
Known For
- Impressive variety of pizza
- Fun, informal vibe
- The only nighttime dining option in town
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: No lunch
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On any given day, the flavors at this little historic-center gelato shop vary, but you can typically expect between five and ten sorbets and the same number of gelatos. In addition to classics like chocolate and chocolate chip, you'll find options inspired by regional cuisine and produce—perhaps, chocolate with chiles, flan, pineapple with chaya, or lemon with rosemary. If it's not too hot, enjoy your sorbet or gelato in Parque Santa Lucía, just a block away.
Calle 55 467D, Mérida, Yucatán, 97000, Mexico
Known For
- Locally inspired flavors
- Excellent gelato and sorbets
- Cheerful store
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At the town’s most comfortable eatery, tables draped in white linen sit under a wide palapa that's surrounded by plants and with a burbling fountain. In a small hut in the back, the cooks make tortillas by hand, and menu highlights include locally made longaniza (a tasty grilled pork sausage) and excellent sopa de lima. A small shop sells carefully selected and cleverly displayed local folk art.
Calle 27 299, Izamal, Yucatán, 97540, Mexico
Known For
- Longaniza (a local sausage)
- Folk art
- Traditional atmosphere
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Residents of Izamal have strong opinions on which restaurants make the best panuchos, salbutes, papadzules, and other local specialities, but Restaurante Muul is on many short lists. The atmosphere is no-frills, though the location is convenient, right on the main plaza just steps from the ex-convent.
Calle 28 300, Izamal, Yucatán, 97540, Mexico
Known For
- Location on the main plaza
- Local specialties
- Good value
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Grab a seat in this palapa restaurant directly across from the water and watch the day's catch come straight from the docks. The menu features local specialties like ceviche, seafood soup, fish fillet stuffed with shrimp, and breaded seafood rolled into a ball and deep-fried. In season (July–December) you can order lobster and octopus cooked several different ways. With a seashell-strewn floor and plastic tables, it's far from fancy, but you're sure to leave satisfied. Owner Diego Núñez and his family also operate Río Lagartos Adventures and can arrange a variety of tours.
Calle 19 134, Río Lagartos, Yucatán, 97720, Mexico
Known For
- Quality seafood
- Beachy vibe
- Lobster and octopus in season
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Menu highlights at this beautifully designed, upscale restaurant include tuna steak in a black-pepper crust and Angus beef served with rosemary potatoes. A glass wall separates the formal indoor dining room from the less-formal patio seating area, which is surrounded by lush vegetation that helps you forget that you are on a bustling avenue. Although steaks are the specialty, you'll also find plenty of delicious tapas and salads, and the starters alone make Trotter's worth visiting—try the octopus carpaccio or foie gras.
Circuito Colonias, Mérida, Yucatán, 97127, Mexico
Known For
- Contemporary decor
- Steaks
- Excellent starters
Restaurant Details
Rate Includes: No dinner Sun.