Terraza Catedral — Restaurant in Mexico City

First things first - there are several places near Zocalo with terrace-style eating and drinking. In order to reach this one, enter through the main hostel entrance (#4) and tell them you want to go upstairs. If there's room, you'll be directed to the elevator.

It is so worth it. The views from up there are lovely, the music was fun, and the cocktails were creative. We had a couple variations of margaritas, and also one (Belandra) presented with a sprig of smoldering rosemary that added a perfect element to the smokiness of the mezcal.

In this sort of place, we didn't expect a lot from the food; it's often an afterthought. We were wrong. The first time we visited, we split a plate of Tacos de Arrachera: while there are tacos everywhere in CDMX, these stood out. The steak was flavorful, obviously marinated for a lengthy time and cooked to perfection. The shells were fresh, the toppings a perfect complement.

We checked out a different terrace restaurant a few days later, one where the servers shouted from the space for us to come up and eat. We sat down in an otherwise empty restaurant (bad sign) and looked at the menus - and saw the prices were almost double what we'd seen at Terraza Catedral. So we pulled a rare move - got up and walked out with servers shouting after us to come back. No habla español :)

A short walk later we were back at Terraza Catedral, cocktails in front of us. This time we ordered the molcajete plate. It's the priciest dish on the menu, but there's so much delicious food in one bowl that two of us barely made it through, and only then because we didn't eat all of our vegetables. Mind you, "priciest" was still less expensive than most of the plates at countless other restaurants nearby. The traditional volcanic rock mortar comes to the table smoking hot and filled with strips of perfectly spiced and prepared pork, chicken, beef, cheese, cactus, and onion, as well as a large stack of fresh tortillas. It was easily our favorite meal in the city. The total bill for that monster plate, plus two cocktails each, was under $1000MXN.

Service is good - there's a lot of people working there, and some of them shift the duties around. Each time we were there, multiple people came to the table to check on us, refresh our drinks, whatever. Everybody was friendly throughout.

If I can offer one suggestion, it would be to consider changing the menu format. I understand the need to use a QR code in an environment where paper menus can get caught in the breeze and blown off the roof in an instant, but right now that code opens a pdf file - which on a typical phone, is a pain to read. A simple responsive web-based menu would help!

We get back to Mexico, we'll be back at Tereza...

I wanted to love this place but the service was terrible. I don’t want to make assumptions but being the only Asian there and not speaking Spanish, I felt I was the only person that didn’t get served. My friend and I ordered drinks and food which the waitress recommended. My friend’s chilaquiles looked amazing but my food never arrived. After waiting about 15 min and no one to check on us, I ask about my food, truly attempting to understand. Come to realize they never put in my order. No apology and even attempted to come up with the excuse that what I ordered was too much. Like wut… I was planning on taking my food to go for whatever I had leftover if I wanted. So I change my order to tacos… which another 15 minutes passes and nothing. So I finally reach out and tell them I don’t want the order and please give us our check. They don’t attempt to resolve it and my friend and I split the check with credit cards. The waitress only asks her how much to tip… never asks me and makes the assumption. I truly was so excited about this place and considering I travel for work and come to this city frequently, I would have highly recommended this spot and visited often. Not anymore… definitely not coming back nor recommending this to any of my other coworkers that travel to Mexico City often. I guess if you speak Spanish or you’re not Asian… feel free...

This place is known for its rooftop view near the cathedral, which is why we decided to visit. However, it would not make our list a second time for various reasons.

Starting with the service, although many places are not quick, we were ignored until we actively flagged down someone to help us. Furthermore, we: asked multiple times for the same thing; the glasses provided were dirty and not cleaned; and the bill included items we did not order.

Additionally, the price was quite excessive, even considering this is a touristy area. For two people with two (normal, not premium) drinks each and two portions of fried boneless chicken pieces, it cost nearly 80 USD.

All of this together yields an experience that doesn't beckon for a return. Bad service, dirty dishes and an overpriced experience have left us without any...