Best Cocktail Bars
in Mexico City

Mexico City has earned its place among the world's elite cocktail capitals. The city that gave the world mezcal, tequila, and the cantina tradition now runs one of the most creative bar scenes on earth. Roma Norte, Colonia Juárez, and the Centro Histórico are home to bars that sit at the top of the World's 50 Best list, neighborhood mezcalerías that require no reservation and cost almost nothing, and natural wine bars that feel plucked from Paris's 11th arrondissement.

We spent three weeks drinking across CDMX, from midday vermouth at a century-old cantina to midnight mezcal in a basement bar that takes exactly 3 reservations per night. These are the 10 cocktail bars that genuinely justify the trip.

Mexico City's cocktail culture differs from its American and European counterparts in one crucial way: it is rooted in ingredient rather than technique. The best bars here start with a single-village mezcal, a local botanical, or a fermented corn spirit and build the drink around it. The result is cocktails that taste unmistakably of this place, at this moment.

The 10 Best Cocktail Bars in Mexico City

No. 01 · World's Best Bar 2023

Hanky Panky

Colonia Juárez · $$$$

Hidden Gem Cocktail Reservations Required $$$$ · Tues–Sat · 7pm–1am

The most celebrated bar in Latin America and, for 2023, the most celebrated bar in the world. Hanky Panky operates out of a single unmarked room in Colonia Juárez and takes fewer than 30 reservations a night. The seasonal tasting menu format — 4 cocktails, each paired to a concept — is unlike anything else in the city. The mezcal riff on a Clover Club, made with locally foraged herb fat-washed into the base spirit, is the best drink we had in Mexico. Book 6 to 8 weeks ahead. Confirmations are by phone only.

No. 02 · World's 50 Best Bars

Licorería Limantour

Roma Norte · $$$

Cocktail Walk-In World Ranked $$$ · Mon–Sat · 5pm–2am

Limantour is the bar that put Mexico City on the global cocktail map. Now with two locations in Roma Norte, it remains the city's most consistent high-end drinking experience. The menu changes quarterly and focuses on Mexican spirits and producers — about 40% of drinks are mezcal-forward. The bar team is exceptionally fluent in English and happy to guide first-timers. The terrace on Álvaro Obregón fills quickly after 8pm on Fridays. Walk-ins welcome at the bar counter most nights.

For visitors approaching Mexico City's bar scene for the first time, our Mexico City cocktail bars guide covers the full landscape across all 9 neighborhoods. Limantour and Hanky Panky represent the world-class ceiling; what follows is no less compelling.

No. 03

Baltra Bar

Roma Norte · $$

Neighbourhood Cocktail Walk-In Only $$ · Tues–Sun · 6pm–1:30am

Baltra is what every neighborhood cocktail bar aspires to be. It occupies a tight colonial-era space on a residential street in Roma Norte with 18 counter seats and zero fanfare. The menu is 12 drinks, rotated monthly. Prices are honest. The crowd is a mix of regulars who have been coming for years and travelers who found it on a list and are now regulars themselves. The Oaxacan Negroni — espadin mezcal, Cocchi Torino, home-made maize-infused Campari — costs 180 pesos and earns every centavo.

No. 04

Xaman Bar

Roma Norte · $$

Mezcal Specialist Hidden Gem Walk-In Only $$ · Wed–Mon · 5pm–2am

Xaman stockpiles more than 80 mezcal expressions from villages across Oaxaca, Michoacán, and Durango that you will not find at any other bar in the city. The owners built relationships with the palenqueros directly. Half the list is unavailable commercially outside Mexico. You can order cocktails or drink your mezcal neat from clay copitas, which is how the staff will encourage you to approach anything from a small-batch producer. Order the house flight — three expressions, three regions, three agave species — as your starting point.

The best way to understand the mezcal bars of Roma Norte is to walk them. Our Mexico City bar guide maps the neighborhood clusters and lists the 14 bars within a 20-minute walk of each other that make up the district's core drinking circuit.

No. 05

Zinco Jazz Club

Centro Histórico · $$$

Jazz Cocktail Live Music $$$ · Wed–Sat · 9pm–3am

Zinco occupies the vault of a 1930s bank building beneath Centro Histórico. The Art Deco bones are intact: curved ceilings, brass fittings, original marble. Live jazz from 10:30pm Wednesday through Saturday draws a discerning crowd that arrives dressed. The cocktail list runs toward classics — the Manhattan here is among the best in CDMX — but the bartenders are accomplished enough to improvise freely. Do not arrive before 10pm. The room does not come alive until close to midnight.

No. 06

Bar La Ópera

Centro Histórico · $$

Historic Cantina Walk-In $$ · Mon–Sat · 1pm–11:30pm

Established in 1876, La Ópera is one of the oldest continuously operating bars in the Americas. The paneled dark-wood interior, the mahogany bar that stretches the length of the room, and the bullet hole attributed to Pancho Villa are all still here. This is not a tourist trap. The tequila and brandy selection is serious, the service is professional, and a Margarita at lunch on a Tuesday with the regulars is one of Mexico City's great rituals. The kitchen turns out traditional Mexican food of real quality. Arrive early or late to avoid the tour groups.

No. 07

Borriquita de Belém

Colonia Doctores · $$

Natural Wine Hidden Gem Walk-In Only $$ · Tues–Sun · 6pm–midnight

The most unexpected bar on this list and arguably the most important. Borriquita de Belém opened in Colonia Doctores — a neighborhood almost no foreign visitor ventures into — and rapidly became the city's leading natural wine bar. The list emphasizes small Mexican producers, including wines from Baja California and Querétaro that are impossible to find outside the country. Cocktails here are built around fortified and fermented wines rather than spirits. The space seats 22. Go on a Thursday when it is quietest.

No. 08

Pare de Sufrir

Roma Norte · $

Mezcalería Walk-In Only No Reservations $ · Mon–Sat · 5pm–1:30am

Twenty-two seats, a single-page menu, and a back bar that changes every two weeks as the owners discover new producers. Pare de Sufrir ("Stop Suffering") has been the neighborhood mezcalería of choice for serious drinkers in Roma Norte for a decade. Drinks are priced at roughly a third of Limantour. The house specialty is a Paloma variation made with a green-maguey espadin that the bar buys exclusively from one village in Oaxaca. Arrive at 6pm before the queues form.

Two More Worth Knowing

No. 09

Cardinal

Colonia Juárez · $$$

Cocktail Date Night $$$ · Tues–Sat · 7pm–2am

Cardinal occupies a converted mid-century apartment in Colonia Juárez two blocks from Hanky Panky, which means it sees spillover from guests who couldn't get a reservation next door. This is not its whole story. The bar team trained at some of the best programs in Mexico and their classics are impeccable. The Martini is made with a Mexican vermouth the bar imports privately. The room seats 35, reservations are available online, and the backlit bar display of unusual agave spirits is worth 20 minutes of examination before ordering.

No. 10

Pulquería Los Insurgentes

Roma Norte · $

Pulque Bar Cultural Walk-In $ · Daily · 1pm–midnight

Not a cocktail bar in the conventional sense, but pulque — the fermented agave sap that predates mezcal by several centuries — deserves a place on any serious drinker's Mexico City itinerary. Los Insurgentes is the most beloved of the city's surviving pulquerías. Order the curado de guayaba (guava-flavored pulque) or the de piñón (pine nut). Prices are extraordinary: a large glass costs less than a coffee at an airport. The bar dates to 1956 and still has the original tile work and photographs of neighborhood figures from six decades of regulars.

Where to Drink in CDMX: Neighborhood by Neighborhood

Roma Norte holds the densest concentration of quality cocktail bars, with 8 of our top 20 picks within a 15-minute walk. The streets around Álvaro Obregón and Orizaba are the epicenter. Arrive after 8pm on a weekend and you will find bar crawls happening organically.

Colonia Juárez is where the world-class bars cluster — Hanky Panky, Cardinal, and a half-dozen others that have opened since 2018 in converted apartments and ground-floor spaces with no signage. This is the city's most self-consciously sophisticated drinking neighborhood.

Centro Histórico rewards daytime and early-evening visits. The great cantinas — La Ópera, La Antigua República, La Opera del Pueblo — open for lunch and close by midnight. The jazz bars, including Zinco, do not get started until 10pm and operate until 3am.

Condesa has quality but also more tourist traffic. The bars on Ámsterdam and Tamaulipas are solid and accessible; they lack the edge of Roma Norte but serve excellent food to go with the drinks.

Practical Information

Mexico City bars generally open later and stay open later than their American or European counterparts. A 9pm arrival at a cocktail bar in Roma Norte is considered early. The serious bars here fill up between 10pm and midnight. Plan accordingly.

Cash is still widely used and many of the smaller mezcalerías and cantinas do not take cards. Bring 500 to 1,000 pesos for a night of drinking and you will not run short. The city's craft cocktail scene is priced at roughly 40 to 60% of New York or London equivalents.

For sports-watching and more casual drinking, Mexico City's sports bars cluster around the Santa Fe and Polanco neighborhoods where the expat community is largest. For rooftop drinking, the bars in Polanco and the Juárez hotel district offer the best views. Our complete guide to the best bars in Mexico City covers all categories and neighborhoods in full.

The cocktail scene here is not finished developing. Three new bars opened in Colonia Juárez in the first quarter of 2026 alone. Return visitors who come back after a two-year absence find a neighborhood transformed. This is a bar city at the beginning of something, not the end of it.