Vegan Mexican Experience
Mexico was indeed a meat lovers paradise, carnita filled road-side taco stands and lots of lovely juicy chicken and beef selections in every restaurant that you go to. Whereas the interiors of Mexico (which are not on the Cancun or Playa Del Carmen stretch) do not offer a lot of vegetarian/vegan food, Mexico City is an altogether different animal.
Given the Mrs does not do any meat at all, finding vegetarian food was a must for us on this trip. Staying at an AirBnB was a definite plus and this meant that breakfast and any meals at the apartment were never an issue. (Sidestory: ever want to experience a city like a true local ? Find the neighborhood grocery store that everyone frequents and you will get a much better feel for your neighbourhood and the true locals vs. the out-of-towners and tourists that frequent the sites and the touristy avenues. See an up-comming post about some excellent links that led us to discover these diverse gems in NYC !)
Back to Mexico City - some basic online searches led us to very nicely curated selection of vegetarian and vegan restaurants in Mexico city (see links at the very end) and we were very pleasantly surprised by wide selection (of cuisines as well as price points) and how accessible vegan food was across the city.
We ate at 3 three unique places, each at a particular price point and in a particular city district:
Forever Vegano ( forevervegano.com ) - This was the fanciest of the vegan restaurants we went to. Situated in Polanco (which is the ultra-posh part of town), this was a tiny eatery with seating for about 25 with most of it indoor and some outdoor and amazing vegan food (the best we have had in Mexico City). Whereas the staff were very attentive and kind, we were a little put off that none of the outside heaters were working on a cold day (plus for the blankets they gave us, which was unusual but fun) and that no one made an attempt to re-seat us inside once spaces opened up. The vegan tacos we had with tofu and home made sauce and their ginger soup made us forget the cold soon enough! Prices were not too bad, maybe a 15% premium over the other vegan places which is not bad considering we were down the street from a Rolls-Royce showroom !
Yummy vegan tacos at Forever Vegano in Polanco
That lunch did not seem too pricey after seeing the 9M peso price tag on the Ghost !
Utopia - A very cute and quirky little vegan restaurant is located in Condesa part of the city. We had spent the morning at Chapultepec Castle which is less than a mile away and decided to walk it over to this restaurant which was a great way to get a feel for this neighborhood. This place could barely seat about 10 people but its quirky furniture, simple menu and laid back attitude won us over. Whereas we had the Range Rover crowd dining with us at Forever Vegano, here we had a mother-daughter, a bike messenger and his friends and other neighborhood people coming over hanging out and having a quick bite. The menu was sparser with the main offering being different types of vegan pizzas (with potato cheese) and various vegetables. Given this was a weekday when we hit up Utopia it was nice taking in a long, simple lunch in a quite neighborhood and watching the street scene.
VeganoMX (https://www.vegamomx.com/) - We had drooled over google reviews and pictures of this restaurant and it was less than a ten minute walk from our apartment, however, early starts to the day and late ends (this place closes at 8) made it impossible for us to hit up this spot until our very last night in the city. We were glad we did! The food was AMAZING, the owners fun to chat with and its here we found out that the 8pm closing time was very "soft" and they were gladly taking in customer even as they walked in close to 9. The pesto pasta and Thai dish we had here were on par with anything we have eaten elsewhere in NYC and the healthy drink options were a great addition to a nice meal.
Coffee KKot Center / Matsu - What made this appealing was that this place was walking distance from Alameda Central which was our base of operations in Mexico City. And here is why you should never trust solely Google Maps ..... after navigating a series of dug up streets we arrive at this place to see workers digging up the street in front and finding out that this place is closed! Luckily, we had passed a sushi place on our way here and that ended up being a backup choice with a nice veggie noodle soup and vegetable tempura for the Mrs. and some spicy sushi rolls for me.
Various articles we found helpful for vegetarian food in Mexico City
https://www.happycow.net/blog/10-best-spots-vegan-food-mexico-city/