Teotihuacán Restaurants

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You will be able to visit and try excellent Mexican food in some of the nearby restaurants.
One of them - El Jaguar where we have had delicious lunch while listening pleasant music. It cost me 250 pesos ($20) and local beer “Corona” for 50 pesos ($4).

You can watch my photo of Teotihuacan on the Google Earth according to the following coordinates 19° 40' 48.62" N 98° 50' 14.51" W or on my Google Earth Panoramio El Jaguar.

All around the arecheological zone you will find a lot of small restaurants, all of them owned by people of the town.
If you are entering Teotihuacán by car some guys will stop you and recommend you one of them (they are usually identified by a number). If you are going to eat there follow their recomendation, they have some kind of control so that every place has the same amount of customers, anyway there is not a big difference between one place or another.
They are small places usually run by familys so don`t expect any luxury, in most of the places you will find maize based mexican food and for drinking beer or flavored water.
You will surely find all of this places to be quite cheap, and it will be a great chance to try the gastronomy of my country.

Favorite Dish: My favorite dish is called Tlacoyo, they are maize dough filled with beans or cottage cheese and if you wish you may add some sauce.
If you are going to order a beer do not try the chelada, chelada is a very popular way of drinking the beer in Mexico, adding some salt and some lemon to the jar, but in this place they add too much salt and it doesn`t taste so good, so drink your beer alone and try the chelada somewhere else.

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Near the Pyramides there are many restaurants to chose from around restaurant row. The prices are cheaper here than at La Gruta Restaurant and I heard that these places are also pretty good. As you pass by there are people standing near the street trying to get you into their restaurant. the competition is fierce. Some place have a little carusel for children to play at or different specials to intice you to go to their place.

Favorite Dish: I didnt eat here but I heard the food was good and any of these places.

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We were told about this restaurant that is located in a cave. They said the food is very good, prices were ok, alittle on the high side but worth it. As we approached the restaurant we couldnt even see it. There is a natural cave near the Piramids and if you didnt know there was a restaurant there you wouldnt even see it.
The cave stays naturally cool all the time and after a few pina coladas I started to get a little cold. While we were here it started to pour rain outside but we never even got wet. This restaurant has been around since the early 1900's. It is pretty big and there is also a stage for performers. I am assuming mariachi and folkloric dancing.
You can dine up top close to the entrance to the cave or you can dine at the bottom of the cave like we did. There is a lot of natural light coming in from two huge openings to the cave.
This place was cozy and the service was excellent. The food was very very good.

Favorite Dish: I had the steak fajitas and my sister had the chicken fajitas. They both come with bell peppers rice and beans and corn tortillas. If you want flour tortillas its extra, you have to ask for it as its not give to you as in the States. I had no complaints here. Everything was right on!

El Gruto, which means "the cave", is a wonderful, wonderful restaurant inside a giant cave near the ruins of Teotihuacan. takes to root out from behind the Pyramid of the Sun and follow the signs saying "El Gruto". my friends and I thoroughly enjoyed the meat platas and cactus dish. Occasionally there would be a live band performing on stage as well.

for dessert, try one of their traditional dishes which has been on the menu since the 1950s. though I can't remember the name, this is definitely worth it as well!

I chose this restaurant on the advice of the cab driver who took me to my hotel near the Teotihuacán archeological site. He said La Gruta was right by the site. We agreed that he'd come back to the hotel at 8 p.m. and drive me to La Gruta. The ride lasted about 15 minutes, which surprised me since my hotel was practically beside the site. It turns out the site has many entrances and I must have been close to one and far from the other!

The cab drove to the back of a dark entrance and asked me when he was to return to bring me back to my hotel. It was PITCH BLACK in that parking, I could barely make out a huge hole in the ground with rough steps. Not a soul, not a sound. I sent him down the hole to see if anyone was home for dinner. He came back with a man with a flashlight who told me to hurry down the cave, they were closing at 9 p.m. sharp. I wanted to leave immediately but the thought of what it had already cost me to get there by cab sent me down to Inferno.

The place is grand, impressive, a bit cold. I chose quickly from the menu, their main specialty since that was apparently the fastest thing to throw together for them. Apparently, the grotto restaurant was used by Porfirio Diaz when he was President of Mexico for what seems forever, to entertain foreign guests. Hope he gave them ponchos! There were a few rich Mexican families and a group of American tourists with two very well-behaved children. I felt out of place after easy-going Veracruz and the little holes in the wall I was used to in Mexico City.

Glad I saw the cave but would only go back there with friends, and early!

Favorite Dish: The lamb specialty was okay, I don't remember what came with it, if anything. I don't remember if I had wine, which says a lot about my state of mind.

I was pointing my fork tines to my plate when the waiter lifted it from behind so I grabbed another tortilla from the basket. I asked him for a coffee but he said they were now closed. I mumbled to myself all the way up to the ink-black parking and there was my faithful cab driver, with his own flashlight now... I was glad to be going back to a high-class hotel with Bar, King-size bed, Jacuzzi, Cable TV, and smiling people.

Go to La Gruta early, with rich friends.

There are a few places to eat at the site, but they are a bit expencive. It's better to bring some food, and especially water, if you are on a budget. It's also really nice to sit on top of the pyramid and eat your lunch. If you go on an organised tour they will sometimes give you a lunch box so check if this is included. At the main entrance is a restaurant called Las Pirámides, and you have a great view of the site from the top floor.

I really did not know where to include this tip: either in Restaurants or in Warnings. Anyway...

There are some huts near the Teotihuacán parking lot entrance... I had my lunch there. If you are the kind of person with weak stomach, please go elsewhere... the general conditions of these huts-bars-restaurants are not the better ones, so be careful to order some food from a good and clean place.

I was lucky to be together with mexican friends, so they could pick a better place and order some good meal. I had at least no problem afterwards... hehehe.

Our little tour group stopped here on our way back to Mexico City, the guide said it's one of the village's newest establishments so it tries harder with the good food and good prices. Sounds Chamber-of-Commercey, doesn't it? Very simple surroundings, colorful linens and rustic furnishings. What you imagine a small, local Mexican restaurant would be. It is.

Favorite Dish: This dish of tortilla chips and bean dip sure isn't like any you get back home, the chips are thick and dark with oil and the beans are more flavorful as well. We also had a big crock of various meats with cactus garnish. It was a neverending bowl of meats, beef, pork, and chicken, meant for two people which was fine since that's what we were. The thing is, it wasn't the dish we ordered. Hmmmm, it did happen to be the most expensive item on the menu, that might've had something to do with the "language barrier" and "misunderstanding." Oh never mind, the price difference was, what, $5USD, it wasn't going to break us. And cerveza, of course. Always, the cerveza!

As we left the archeological site via gate 3 (near the palace of Quetzalpapapotl), on that road we stopped after a 5 minute drive. So it was really close to the site. ubfortunately I can't remember the name, but you can't miss it as almost every bus with tourist stopped here.

Favorite Dish: Well they had great Tacos, and the Quesadillos tasted also very good. I had a Margarita to drink, Hmmmmm delicious, Cheers . . .