San Miguel Restaurants: Our Favorite Brunch, Rooftops, Tacos, and Mezcal Cocktails

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San Miguel de Allende, in the heart of Mexico, is more than just a beautiful, well-preserved Spanish colonial town with a UNESCO pedigree; it is a foodies’ paradise. We spent three weeks here and are eager to share some of our favorite San Miguel restaurants, rooftops, tacos, non-Mexican cuisine, and even our favorite mezcal cocktail.

In San Miguel you can find not only excellent culinary styles from every corner of Mexico, but also high-quality cuisine from around the world. Because of the balmy weather most of the year, many restaurants showcase their creations in fantastic rooftop spaces, with magnificent views of the famous cathedral, colorful church towers, and the surrounding hills of the town.

We love to eat. It’s what drives our travels and we’ve found food to be the best way to get to know a country, a town, and its people. So the first thing we did upon arrival was take a few food tours, presented by locals: Tacos & Tequila and Mole & Mezcal; you can read more about these here. Some of the places we visited figure in our lists, but we also drew from other recommendations – from the tour guides, from locals we met, and from other reviews. While we were sadly unable to sample everything San Miguel has to offer, we feel we’ve come up with a list of the very best.

Brunch is a big deal here in San Miguel and brunch restaurants cater to locals and expats alike. Personally, we love rolling out of bed a little late, then having brunch instead of lunch, getting two meals in one. It’s all we need to get us through to dinner.

Rústica

We always stopped here for brunch as we were walking to City Market for groceries. It’s a cute place with a lovely outdoor space in the back, very popular with the brunch crowd.

Lavanda Café

Another regular brunch spot for us. They have a lunch menu starting at 11 am, but we’re all about the breakfast. Huevos rancheros for me, Tortilla Ranchera – omelette with chorizo and cheese – for Mark. That being said, the sweet potato chips are really delicious and it’s impossible to not eat them all. They have an excellent coffee selection. For me, the cappuccino is delicious and I will give it the award for most beautiful as well. Cash only.

Inside Café

Inside Café has a great rooftop and terrace with excellent views, always a nice brunch vibe. Beautiful savory dishes and delicious cappuccinos.

Amapola Café

They have great breakfast dishes, sandwiches, and salads. Excellent coffee and a nice patio in the back. They always bring out their delicious jam and butter while we wait for our food.

Panina

They have nice egg dishes, but this place is primarily a bakery and their sourdough bread is out of this world. And they are so nice here! We always leave with a sourdough loaf… and some croissants and bagels.

When you have stunning scenery and great weather almost year-round, you’re gonna have awesome rooftop bars and restaurants, and they are ubiquitous here.

Luna Rooftop Tapas Bar (Rosewood)

The rooftop restaurant at the Rosewood is hard to beat for the amazing panoramic views. Although we had dinner there and expected it to be pricey, it was shockingly expensive (but pretty good). However, we saw lots of other parties just having drinks and enjoying the sunset, so we recommend you do that instead.

Quince ROOFTOP

Quince has a very spacious, multi-level rooftop. In one direction, you have the sunset, and right behind you is a massive view of the Parish Church. The food and drinks were good as well.

La Azotea

The rooftop at La Azotea, just a block from the Parish Church, is a great place to relax and watch the sunset. You get beautiful views in every direction and you can enjoy their food, which was among our favorite.

Great drinks and don’t miss the jícama tacos!

Casa Nostra

One of San Miguel’s best international restaurants has a rooftop view to match. It makes a special dinner that much more memorable.

There are so many great tacos here, but a handful really stand out. We found ourselves going back again and again. You can’t have too many tacos.

Don Taco Tequila: Vegan Tacos

You heard me. Vegan tacos! Don Taco Tequila is strictly vegan. They use ingredients you might not be familiar with, like cashew cheese and pea protein, but the end result is really delicious, plus it’s a pretty healthy meal. We tried four: cauliflower, al pastor, carnitas and chorizo and loved them. I threw in their Nachilas as a bonus – nachos made with lentils, avocado and tomato and lots of other good ingredients. They bring you chips and four salsas which are spicy and delicious.

Sometimes you’re in the mood for something besides local food; we were here for several weeks so we mixed it up a little. Here are some of our absolute favorite non-Mexican places.

Casa Nostra

Excellent old-world European with a focus on Italian dishes, this international restaurant has a gorgeous rooftop and is popular for special occasion dinners. Impeccable service. We started with the caprese salad, which was fresh and tasty, then Mark had the Bolognese and I had the Rabbit with Pappardelle. Both pastas were really good.

Bennu

Regarded as the best pizza in San Miguel for sure, it stands up against many of the authentic Neapolitan-style pizzas we’ve tried. Their pizzas come out of the oven hot with the right amount of char, and they have great flavor profiles on these. Mark gets the classic Margarita and I get the Bestia, which features tomato, soppressata with dried chilies, smoked provolone and red onion.

Pork Belly

We went here for lunch to try their burger, which had great reviews. We ended up getting the burger and the pastrami sandwich, then sharing, and we were both winners. It was hard deciding which we liked better.

Hank’s

Hank’s is primarily Cajun-Creole and it’s a lively San Miguel institution. We started with the gumbo. Our drinks were just okay but the food was really delicious and the service was very attentive.

I have a weakness for mezcal, so I took it upon myself to try as many mezcal cocktails as I could. One will forever haunt my dreams, but others were also very tasty. I had to have them over and over again just to be able to rank them. You’re welcome. Here are my favorites:

Summary: Our Favorite San Miguel Restaurants

No matter how long your stay here, there is a wide variety of excellent San Miguel restaurants to keep you fed and watered, with views and ambiance for days. Start with a food tour to learn about the local food scene, then kick back on a rooftop bar and watch the sunset.