The Best of Santa Maria de la Ribera
Description
Santa María la Ribera, little known to most travelers, is a beautiful, 19th-century neighborhood of cafés and restaurants, plus traditional shops you’re starting to see less of in Mexico City. On this tour, you’ll visit the best places to eat in the area and you’ll learn the stories of the vendors and entrepreneurs who are shaping the modern character of this close-knit, artsy neighborhood. Some of the tour's highlights include visiting a working tamales factory that offers more than 20 varieties daily, strolling through the local market to see how a traditional city market looks and feels, popping into a neighborhood cooking school and restaurant that helps locals who may want to start their own food businesses. You'll also stop by a pulquería that’s drawn neighborhood residents for more than 100 years.
Tour Options
Itinerary
Santa María la Ribera was founded in the 1860’s, and it still retains its turn-of-the-century character. On this tour, designed by our expert culinary guide Nico Garcia, you’ll visit a range of local places that highlight just how special this neighborhood is. You’ll stop at a neat local garden, where you’ll make your own herb-infused Mexican salt. You’ll visit a working tamales factory that offers more than 20 varieties daily—a place we think supplies the best tamales in the city. Plus you’ll do a quick stroll through the local market, to see how a traditional city market looks and feels. You’ll pop into a neighborhood cooking school and restaurant that helps locals who may want to start their own food businesses. And you’ll stop by a hidden pulquería—a place with swinging saloon doors and no sign—that’s drawn neighborhood residents for more than 100 years, each imbibing the fermented Mexican beverage that traces its roots to prehispanic times. You’ll also see some of the landmarks that make Santa Maria la Ribera what it is, including a century-old geology museum. As a sweet treat, we’ll also try buñuelos, or crunchy, fried dough topped with sugar syrup.
Highlights
What's included
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Wheelchair accessible
- Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
- Public transportation options are available nearby
- Transportation options are wheelchair accessible
- All areas and surfaces are wheelchair accessible
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
Reviews(33)
Our guide, Toti was wonderful. She was engaging, very knowledgeable and willing to entertain all of our questions with detailed and thoughtful answers. All of the food and drinks we tried were fabulous and we thoroughly enjoyed our tour.
Hi Claire. We're so glad to hear you enjoyed your tour in Santa María la Ribera. It's a hidden gem that we love for its architecture and the incredible variety of food it offers. Toti has a way of sharing her enthusiasm when answering questions during the tours.
We booked our food tour through Eat Mexico and had at the time of the booking requested Clara Hernandez as our guide. So glad that we did - Clara was amazing, patient, friendly, generous and ever so knowledgeable. We had communicated our preferences at the time of booking and Clara had undertaken thorough research on what would be appropriate for us given we had undertaken food tours previously in Mexico City. The highlight for me was trying pulque for the first time! Have no hesitation in recommending Clara or Eat Mexico!
Our tour with Nico was amazing! We learned so much about the cultural history that the food and neighborhood connect to. The pacing was perfect, and he was completely flexible in terms of now much we wanted to eat. Santa Maria de la Ribera is a charming area, and this tour will make you want to move there. Nico knows his food and we recommend him highly.
Guide Nico found us at the beautiful Kiosko morisco and so began a relaxing, informative, and well tailored tour for my friend and me. We learned so much from the highly educated Nico whose love of that particular community shown through. From our first taste of the Austrian inspired concha with nata, to the ancient fermented drink pulque, to the Market and delicious sheep barbacoa taco and soup, to tamales in both corn husk and banana leaf to a high end indigenous restaurant for a mocktail and appetizer—we learned about the history of the country and all the changes that have happened —all reflected in one great community—Sta Maria de la Ribera. Thank you, Nico!
I can’t say enough great things about this tour company, EAT MEXICO, and their tour guide, Nico. The company is made up of knowledgable, discerning food people who learned how to create enjoyable, informative and often revelatory tours. It’s most definitely NOT a bunch of tour guides who just learned to parrot a script. (Trust me. I have unfortunately taken a couple of package tours in CDMX and they are a drag.) These folks actually care. And that has turned us into repeat customers. Santa Maria Ribera was our third tour with the company. Nico is a superstar. He has such a pleasant, approachable, low key way of transmitting his boundless knowledge and leaving you feeling not only more connected to the place but also eager to learn more about the underground history and foodways of CDMX.
We had been recommended this tour and we weren’t disappointed. Our guide, Toti, was friendly and knowledgeable and was able to tailor the tour to our needs and wants. We tasted a wide range of Mexican foods in different types of outlets - street food, small cafes and a smarter bar to finish. We even tasted grasshoppers which were a revelation! Toti was also great at answering our many questions about things as diverse as Mexican history and politics, food preparation and driving in Mexico. Highly recommended
Highly recommend this tour with Toti and Clara! Super informative, fun, and delicious. This was my second tour with Eat Mexico and would use them again.
Toti & Clara were THE best. So knowledgeable and fun! They made special accomodations for food restrictions and allergies. The food was delicious and we left stuffed!
As luck would have it, it was just me on the tour. Fernando was excellent company as we ate a wide range of delicious food. My favorites were the banana leaf wrapped tamales at Tamales Cintli and the outstandingly delicious consumé at Casa Chacón. This was my 3rd tour with Eat Mexico. Highly recommend.
Really loved this tour of neighborhood food. We sampled different foods from street vendors, small shops and even some fine dining. There was plenty to eat, with generous servings, and extras tailored to our interests. Toti was a wonderful guide. She explained the history of the neighborhood and the food we tried. I would definitely recommend this tour to anyone. If you like to eat great food definitely add this one to your trip plans.