Food

What to eat

Queretaro eats well, and it does it two ways: honest regional street and market food, and a genuinely good sit-down restaurant scene backed by local wine and cheese.

The regional dishes

• Gorditas de migajas and enchiladas queretanas. Local comfort food, best from a market fonda for a few dollars.
• Barbacoa and carnitas. Weekend staples; queretanos line up for good barbacoa on Sunday mornings.
• Nopales, cheeses and charcuterie. The nearby countryside produces serious artisanal cheeses and cured meats, which show up on menus and tasting boards all over town.
• Local wine. Queretaro is one of Mexico’s main wine regions. Order a glass of a Queretaro tinto or sparkling with dinner; it is a point of pride here.

Where to eat

• Mercado Escobedo and Mercado de la Cruz. Breakfast and lunch at the fondas. Cheapest, most honest food in the city, a few dollars a plate.
• Plaza de Armas and the Andador restaurants. Pretty terraces for an evening meal. You pay a bit more for the setting; a main runs roughly 180 to 350 pesos. Choose for the view, not a bargain.
• The newer bistros off the plazas. Queretaro has a real crop of modern kitchens pairing regional produce with local wine. A proper dinner with wine lands around 500 to 900 pesos a head. Approximate, so check current menus.
• Cheese and wine tasting boards. Available in town or out on the Tequisquiapan route; an easy, delicious way to try the region.

A friend’s tip

Do your cheap eating at the markets by day and save your budget for one good wine-paired dinner. That split is the honest best of Queretaro’s table.