20 January 2026
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Like the great stone monuments of Teotihuacan an hour outside of Mexico City and the tiered Aztec temple now in ruins in the city’s downtown, the sloping sand-colored pyramid in the neighborhood of Polanco is a monolith emblematic of its environment. In this central, tree-lined stretch of town, that means it stands for luxury and the finer things in life.
Polanco, Mexico City’s ritziest colonia, is the hub of the city’s most expensive retailers and its haute cuisine – the country’s only Two MICHELIN Star restaurants, Pujol and Quintonil, are here on side-by-side blocks. The pyramid is one of its most prominent landmarks, the flagship location of the high-end Palacio de Hierro department store.
But amid its grand avenues, named for famous leaders and thinkers, quiet side streets lead to creative cocktail bars and artful design shops. Stroll through it at leisure and the neighborhood’s richer details come into view: parks abuzz with running clubs, world-class museums and a signature style of lavish architecture.
“Polanco has been quite successful because of its human scale – you can walk around, you have buildings that are not as tall as you might have in other places in the city. It almost has that European feel to it,” says Fernando Sordo Madaleno, a partner at Sordo Madaleno, the architecture firm behind many of the neighborhood’s showpieces, including the 1995 Palacio de Hierro pyramid.
Polanco was planned in the mid-20th century as one of the capital’s first upscale residential enclaves, a more suburban kind of living five miles from Mexico City’s chaotic center. Its population built in the Colonial Californiano style, with ornate white stucco mansions that reflected a desire to align themselves with the international elite.
On a recent Thursday, in an especially lush corner of the neighborhood, the matchbox-size dining room of Er Rre un Bistró was crowded with lunchtime diners lingering over steak frites and a signature puffy potato bread heaped with caviar cream cheese.
Lorea Olávarri, the chef and owner, opened the restaurant in 2023 after leaving a career in fashion.
“Before I met the neighbors, truthfully, Polanco and all the people who come here in my mind were very aspirational,” Olávarri says in an interview at a table tucked in the back. “When I arrived, I found a different kind of Polanco, where there are many people who need things that are more cool, more intimate.”
A tour with a local
A rainy afternoon tour of Olávarri’s go-to neighborhood spots begins with a stop at Cucurucho, where she picks up a flat white before shifts in the kitchen.
“In Polanco, I recommend just walking through the residential part. The parks here are very beautiful. I’d walk a little closer to the area where Er Rre is to find small cafes,” she says.
A few blocks away in Laguna Cyprien, a home and beauty shop, Olávarri takes turns sampling scents spread out across a stone counter. The cool, minimalist store is where she stocks all the soaps and lotions she uses in her restaurant and at home.
“I love it because it’s Mexican and everything is made in a super natural way, with zero chemicals. And it's very sustainable and responsible, you can come back for refills,” she says as she searches out a favorite sandalwood bottle.
Two locals-only lunch spots get shoutouts as the tour continues: Tortas Royalty, a legendary sandwich shop that dates to 1959, and La Banca, a street stall on the corner of Avenida Presidente Masaryk and Calle Schiller, where Olávarri swears by the gordita, a stuffed corn tortilla.
At our final stop, Ticuchi, a moody cocktail bar from Pujol chef Enrique Olvera, a bartender has set out gossamer glassware with highlights from the menu, which changes four times a year: a mezcal margarita with a tangy kaffir leaf distillate, a tequila milk punch made with pineapple and cuentixtle, the grated peel of mamey.
Typically, Olávarri drinks straight tequila, but today, she’s partial to a chamomile and mezcal number that gets its hint of sweetness from a white vermouth.
The space, dark and exotic, with a circular skylight that looks like the opening to a cenote, is perfect for a date or a martini over gossip with a girlfriend, she says.
“It’s for a group of two or three or four people maximum – a petit comité – because it invites you to speak softly. It’s a sexy place,” Olávarri says.
What to do
Start a visit to Polanco in its trophy park, Parque Lincoln, with a coffee in hand from Cucurucho or Niddo. The greenspace, which runs along the southern edge of the neighborhood opposite some of its most impressive mansions, is well-kept and lush, with a historic collection of statues and a pond where kids race rented remote-controlled boats.
Shopping is concentrated on Avenida Presidente Masaryk, Polanco’s stately main boulevard, where brands like Louis Vuitton and Cartier operate out of glamorous showrooms. The neighborhood’s malls, including Antara and the Palacio de Hierro, are also worth a visit if you’re looking for big name labels.
A growing number of boutiques in the neighborhood offer the most distinctive purchases, like Ikal, a concept store with local fashions and home goods, Xinu, a stylish perfumery, and Lust, a streetwear and sneaker store.
Two private museums in the neighborhood’s north, in a former industrial zone called Nuevo Polanco, or New Polanco, are required stops.
The Museo Soumaya is one of Mexico City’s most iconic structures, made from 16,000 mirrored steel tiles arranged in an abstract twist. Nearby, the Museo Jumex, designed by Pritzker Prize-winner David Chipperfield, has one of the country’s most important contemporary collections and routinely hosts global art A-listers when they exhibit in town.
Where to eat
Pujol has been a Polanco institution for 25 years, a time in which Olvera popularized the concept of Mexican fine dining on the world stage. A recent rethinking of the restaurant in line with the anniversary led to a more relaxed prix fixe style that shifts to a new region of the country every few months. (The famous mole madre, made from the same reheated batch for 10 years and counting, still arrives as the climax.)
Quintonil, from Chef Jorge Vallejo, is equally exquisite, in a more formal, intimate setting. Dishes like a smoked Baja California trout in an insect adobo come out in intricate, delicate platings.
For a traditional sobremesa, or overlong lunch, Sordo Madaleno, the architect, who lived for years in one of Polanco’s premier park-view towers, likes Entremar, from Chef Gabriela Cámara. The white tablecloth restaurant is the sister to Contramar, Cámara’s Bib Gourmand establishment in the trendy Condesa neighborhood, with the same menu headlined by precious tuna tostadas and a whole grilled fish painted in red and green salsas.
For tacos, he recommends Siembra Tortillería (Bib Gourmand).
“The food is incredible, but what I love most is the story behind it," Sordo Madaleno says. “Everything centers on the sustainable and responsible cultivation of native maize – fair trade for farmers, respect for the land and a commitment to keeping Mexico’s culinary traditions alive.”
Where to stay
Casa Polanco, in the heart of the neighborhood, is Mexico City’s best hotel, with MICHELIN Inspectors awarding it the only Two-Key distinction in the city. The 19-room boutique is elegant and understated, split between one of Polanco’s classic midcentury mansions and a modern building next door.
Small touches throughout evoke the home of a distinguished local, like the bar cart stocked with top shelf tequilas in the library and the fine art on the walls from the owner’s private collection. The elaborate pink stone ornamentation around the front doorway, a signature of the Colonial Californiano architectural style, is like a work of art itself.
“Around Parque Lincoln they're preserving the houses in this style. It’s what really gives Polanco its personality,” Regina Cardenas, Casa Polanco’s public relations manager, says over breakfast in the hotel's sunny atrium.
Two Polanco properties from Pug Seal, a growing local collection of whimsically-styled hotels, are also set in restored 1940s mansions.
Pug Seal Anatole France (One MICHELIN Key) is located on a residential street not far from the Antara shopping mall, and Pug Seal Allan Poe (One MICHELIN Key) is just off Avenida Presidente Masaryk, by some of the neighborhood’s sceniest dining.
For a more sleekly-styled stay, consider Hotel Habita, set in a chic frosted glass cube.
Address book
Restaurants
Pujol
Tennyson 133, Polanco, Polanco IV Secc, Miguel Hidalgo, 11570 Ciudad de México, CDMX
Quintonil
Av. Isaac Newton 55, Polanco, Polanco IV Secc, Miguel Hidalgo, 11560 Ciudad de México, CDMX
Er Rre un Bistró
Polanco 8, Polanco, Polanco V Secc, Miguel Hidalgo, 11560 Ciudad de México, CDMX
Tortas Royalty
Av. Horacio 227, Polanco, Polanco V Secc, Miguel Hidalgo, 11565 Ciudad de México, CDMX
La Banca
Schiller 405, Polanco, Polanco V Secc, Miguel Hidalgo, 11560 Ciudad de México, CDMX
Ticuchi
Petrarca 254, Polanco, Polanco V Secc, Miguel Hidalgo, 11560 Ciudad de México, CDMX
Entremar
Hegel 307, Polanco, Polanco V Secc, Miguel Hidalgo, 11560 Ciudad de México, CDMX
Siembra Tortillería
Av. Isaac Newton 256, Polanco, Polanco V Secc, Miguel Hidalgo, 11550 Ciudad de México, CDMX
Cafes
Cucurucho
Campos Elíseos 105, Polanco, Polanco V Secc, Miguel Hidalgo, 11560 Ciudad de México, CDMX
Niddo
Anatole France 129, Polanco, Polanco III Secc, Miguel Hidalgo, 11550 Ciudad de México, CDMX
Shopping
Laguna Cyprien
Lamartine 339, Polanco, Polanco V Secc, Miguel Hidalgo, 11560 Ciudad de México, CDMX
Antara
Av. Ejército Nacional Mexicano 843-B, Granada, Miguel Hidalgo, 11520 Ciudad de México, CDMX
El Palacio de Hierro
Av Moliere 222, Polanco, Polanco II Secc, Miguel Hidalgo, 11530 Ciudad de México, CDMX
Ikal
Av. Pdte. Masaryk 340A, Polanco, Polanco IV Secc, Miguel Hidalgo, 11550 Ciudad de México, CDMX
Xinu
Alejandro Dumas 161, Polanco, Polanco IV Secc, Miguel Hidalgo, 11560 Ciudad de México, CDMX
Lust
Av. Pdte. Masaryk 326, Polanco, Polanco IV Secc, Miguel Hidalgo, 11510 Ciudad de México, CDMX
Museums
Museo Soumaya
Blvd. Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Granada, Miguel Hidalgo, 11529 Ciudad de México, CDMX
Museo Jumex
Blvd. Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra 303, Granada, Miguel Hidalgo, 11520 Ciudad de México, CDMX
Hotels
Casa Polanco
Luis G. Urbina 84, Polanco, Polanco III Secc, Miguel Hidalgo, 11560 Ciudad de México, CDMX
Pug Seal Anatole France
Anatole France 307, Polanco, Polanco Reforma, Miguel Hidalgo, 11540 Ciudad de México, CDMX
Pug Seal Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe 90, Polanco, REFORMA, Miguel Hidalgo, 11550 Ciudad de México, CDMX
Hotel Habita
Presidente Masaryk 201 Miguel Hidalgo, Av. Pdte. Masaryk 201, Polanco, Miguel Hidalgo, 11560 Ciudad de México, CDMX
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Photography by: ©Daniela Ramos
