Food

What to eat

This is beef country, and that is most of the story. Chihuahua sits in Mexico’s main cattle-ranching region, and the food to plan around is grilled meat done simply and done well. If you eat one memorable meal here, make it beef.

Carne asada and steak. The northern asado tradition centers on well-marbled cuts over mesquite: arrachera (skirt), rib-eye, and thin cuts grilled fast with salt and served with flour tortillas, grilled spring onions, guacamole and salsa. This is the meal to build an evening around.

Burritos, the northern way. Forget the giant stuffed things sold abroad. Here a burrito is a thin flour tortilla around one good filling, tight and portable. Machaca (dried, shredded beef rehydrated and scrambled with egg, tomato and chile) is the regional classic, and machaca con huevo is the standard breakfast burrito. Deshebrada in red or green chile is the other staple.

Chihuahua cheese (queso menonita). The mild, meltable cheese made by the region’s Mennonite communities around Cuauhtémoc turns up in quesadillas, over asado, and in queso fundido with chorizo. Worth trying on its own or melted.

Discada. A northern one-pan mix of beef, chorizo, bacon, sausage and vegetables cooked on a plow disc, served in tacos. A local party dish you will sometimes find at asaderos and at weekend family gatherings.

Caldillo and menudo. For a change from grilled meat, caldillo duranguense (a beef-and-chile stew) shows up on comida corrida menus, and menudo, the tripe-and-hominy soup, is the classic weekend and hangover breakfast. A comida corrida set lunch runs roughly 90–150 MXN (approximate) at the loncherías.

Sotol, not tequila. The regional spirit is sotol, distilled from a desert plant that grows across the state, closer to mezcal than tequila and increasingly bottled by small Chihuahua producers. Order a copita neat to taste the state in a glass.

Where to eat, and when

• Steakhouses and asadores toward the Zona Dorada are where locals go for the best cuts. A solid steak dinner runs roughly 250–450 MXN per person (approximate), cheaper than the plaza-front tables for better meat. Dinner is the main event, eaten late by northern standards, from around 8pm.
• Mercado de la Reforma and the lonchería counters near the center do quick, honest burritos and machaca for pocket change: figure 60–120 MXN for a filling lunch (approximate). Go mid-morning through lunch when they are busiest and freshest. Machaca con huevo is a breakfast thing; eat it early.
• Pedestrian-street cafes on Calle Libertad are fine for coffee and a morning burrito, less so for a serious meal.

Order this, not that

Order the machaca burrito and a mesquite-grilled steak; skip the polished, plate-decorated restaurants right on Plaza de Armas that price for tourists and grill worse. The rule in this city is that the plainer and the further off the square the food is, the better it tends to be. For the specific neighborhood spots residents actually use, see where locals go. This is squarely a food stop for beef, not for range, so eat to the region’s strength and do not over-plan the rest.