Food

What to eat

Zacatecas food is northern and hearty, built for a cold high-altitude climate. The dishes to look for:

• Asado de boda — literally “wedding roast,” pork simmered in a dark, mildly sweet red-chile and chocolate-tinged sauce. This is the regional plate to try first.
• Birria and other slow-braised meats, warming and rich.
• Enchiladas zacatecanas, plates built around dried local chiles.
• Queso and gorditas from the surrounding ranchland, often griddled fresh at market stalls.
• Mezcal — Zacatecas is a mezcal-producing state, and it belongs on the table, drunk neat.

Where to eat it

The market and its fondas. The cheapest, most honest food is in and around the central market: gorditas, tacos, and the comida corrida set lunch. Expect a filling market meal for well under a couple hundred pesos, often much less (prices approximate).

Restaurants on and around Avenida Hidalgo. The center has a run of sit-down places, some in handsome colonial courtyards, serving regional dishes done properly. A full restaurant meal with a drink typically runs a few hundred pesos per person (approximate). These are still far cheaper than equivalents in San Miguel.

Mezcalerías. Small mezcal bars in the side streets pour local spirit and often serve snacks to go with it. A good place to end an evening.

What a local would tell you

Have asado de boda at least once, eat your street food at the market where it is freshest and cheapest, and don’t fill up on generic “Mexican restaurant” fare when the regional plates are the reason to eat here.