El Cardenal — Restaurant in Mexico City

I am sharing as my experience at El Cardenal was two fold- the first experience was amazing, but the second visit absolutely soured the first experience.

My Mexican friend decided to surprise me for breakfast at El Cardenal as a birthday treat. This was my first visit. Beautiful morning stroll at the zocalo and ended up here. There was a 30 minute wait, but it was worth it. We were ushered to the third floor. The waiters were attentive, the breakfast was amazing (I loved the authentic cuisine) and the pan dulce with the “crema” wowed me.

So much so that two days later I opted to visit for lunch, this time solo.

The second experience was extremely disappointing.

There were no wait times, and the lady ushered me to a table next to the entrance. I asked if i could sit upstairs, and she obliged. I took the elevator and was met upstairs by a different lady. Seating was good.

Everything went downhill from there. I waited, and waited (solo diner with a limited command of Spanish but I practice and my Spanglish is good). I watched as waiters bustled from table to table and I was largely ignored. Two families arrived after me, and their food was served while I still waited for someone to take my order.

A waiter arrived finally. My order was eventually taken but it took ages for the food to arrive. It was such a far cry from my first visit with my friend- and I noticed that they would address him and ignore me somewhat. It was an interesting experience.

I asked for la cuenta- and even with the subpar service the waiter was quick to ask me for “propina” “propina” while I was signing the check.

I am a woman of color, and I don’t know whether dining solo has a cultural stigma attached to what I experienced?

I will most likely...

My husband and I had high hopes for this place, but our visit turned out to be quite disappointing. When we arrived on a weekday, the lady at the front door directed us to sit on the first floor, which we later realized was the worst spot. We ended up outside with no view and no atmosphere worth the price we paid. Here's a heads-up: do not settle for the first floor! The other floors are significantly better, and we regret not knowing this sooner.

The food was okay, though we felt it could use a bit more seasoning—just a touch more salt would have gone a long way. One thing we really enjoyed was the bread, but unfortunately, the waiter took it away without asking us, and we hadn’t even finished it yet. That felt really inconsiderate.

What bothered us most was that the waiter brought two bottles of water without clarifying they weren’t complimentary. We didn’t find out until we got the bill that each 500ml bottle was 45 pesos—ridiculously overpriced for water. A heads-up would have been appreciated.

On top of that, the tipping options start at 15%, which feels a bit much considering the experience we had.

What really left a bad taste in our mouths was noticing that other Asian-looking customers, like us, also seemed to be seated on the first floor. Coincidence? Maybe. But it didn’t feel great and made us wonder if there’s some bias at play.

All in all, the experience didn’t live up to the hype or the cost. If you plan to visit, make sure to insist on better seating—or...

The #1 restaurant that you should go in Mexico city for breakfast, lunch (and dinner maybe although I couldn't). This restaurant is an epitome of delicious food and warm service. They have an elaborate way of managing customers waiting for a table and usually the waiting time is less because of their efficiency not because they aren't any less good. For breakfast please please try their hot chocolate, it is pure elixir! Pair that with their delectable pastries available that day- my favourites were pan de chocolate(almond croissant), chocolate concha, pan dulcet and another cream based pastry, don't remember the name. We had chicken chilaquiles with feta and cream and the omelette stuffed with all the goodness of spinach, zucchini flower. Both of them were mind blowing and definitely the best Mexican breakfast we ever had! This restaurant is soooo good that we came back for lunch another day. Even though it was lunch we ordered the hot chocolate and chocolate concha!For lunch, we ordered the grilled chicken stuffed with spinach and goats cheese sauce. The taste was absolutely spot on but the chicken could have been a bit more juicier or cooked a little less. My partner ordered Chile poblano which was out of this world! We also ordered their quesadilla placeras to go. We couldn't eat it hot but could definitely imagine that it would have been the best quesadilla ever if we ate it hot because of...