Most foreign visitors arrive in Mexico City and spend their drinking nights in Roma Norte and Condesa - the cocktail-bar neighbourhoods that the World's 50 Best lists have made famous. That is fair. Roma Norte is where the modern Mexican cocktail conversation lives, and bars like Limantour, Hanky Panky and Maison Artemisia are properly excellent. The shortlist below honours that scene.
But the older Mexico City bar scene - the cantinas of Centro Histórico, the mariachi houses of Plaza Garibaldi, the small mezcal rooms scattered around República de Cuba - is more distinctive, less imitable, and (this is the bit nobody tells you) often more worth the night. The right Mexico City visit alternates between the two. So three of the six below are in Roma Norte / Juárez; three are in Centro. Go to one of each, on different nights.
A note on safety: every bar on this list is in an area that is unambiguously safe in the evening, including Plaza Garibaldi - which has a reputation that has not matched reality for at least a decade. Take an Uber door-to-door, do not flash valuables, and you will be fine.
Six rooms, in order
A working editorial ranking. Three modern cocktail rooms, three historic cantinas. Read the notes; the right one depends on the night.
Where they cluster
Mexico City is huge. Plan around the neighbourhood, not the address.
One bar worth your weekend, every Friday.
The bars our editors are recommending in Mexico City, Oaxaca, Bogotá, and the 165 other cities we cover.