La Tía — Restaurant in Mexico City

A great, no-frills lunch spot in the San Rafael neighborhood that truly has the three Bs (bueno, bonito y barato). La Tía serves up delicious homemade food at an appropriate price. There are many lunch “fonda” spots in the city, and a short walk away from Reforma—where the majority of the fondas are just terrible and overpriced—La Tía is quite popular during the lunch rush. Arriving around 2 pm often means waiting a bit in a queue for a table. Sometimes they open the second floor to accommodate even more customers—it really is that popular.

Lunch consists of four courses: a soup to start, a second course that includes either rice, salad, or pasta, a main dish from a selection of over 10 to 12 rotating daily/weekly options, and coffee or tea to end the meal. A physical menu is available as soon as one enters and takes a seat, or there’s also a virtual menu on their Facebook page. Service at La Tía is generally good, though sometimes, depending on where I’m seated, I can feel a bit forgotten, and it takes a while for staff to acknowledge me.

There are two soup options each day, and all the ones I’ve tried—whether the daily rotating soup or their classic consomé de pollo—are excellent. They also serve a doradita, which is a bean taco dorado, alongside the soup. They offer three regular aguas frescas along with a daily rotating agua fresca option, which is always my favorite—most aren’t overly sweet. I usually order rice for the second course, and for the main course, there are typically 10-12 options, about half priced at $95 and the other half at $105. Most dishes I’ve tried are hearty, well-served, and satisfying.

Paying, however, can take quite a while, and this is the biggest pain point of my experience at La Tía. They do accept credit cards (but not Amex); however, the owner is the only person with a card terminal, and it can be difficult to grab her attention. Despite this, the owner is super friendly and brings a lot of warmth to the restaurant. One thing to note is that if paying by card, the owner doesn’t accept tips via the terminal; cash tips are preferred.

Despite minor hiccups, mostly due to high demand and not enough staff, La Tía is by far my favorite lunch spot (fonda) in the city. No other fonda matches the quality of food, generous portion sizes, and appropriate pricing for a great lunch. La Tia is truly a staple in the San Rafael...

Ok, so this is one of your best options to get some food, it's something like a daily special, there is not many options in the menu but many enough to have something for almost evertone.

the food is good, the service is Soo fast and quite good... They give you a cup of tea or coffee at the end which is super, and the most important the price...is good it's not pricy at all.. I mean the food quality is great in comparison with the price.

You can definitely go there with your girl/boyfriend (not as a 1st date) or with...

Got sick from eating here. I was deceived by the stellar reviews and decided to try this spot only to arrive to an incredibly dirty and disappointing restaurant. There was disgusting trash and filthy food all over the floor in the corner where we sat and during our 45 minute visit no one came to clean it up and it made me feel incredibly disgusted. I should've listened to my intuition and left before ordering but we were super hungry and decided to give them a try anyways. Big...