What to eat
Zacatecas food is northern, hearty and built for a cold, high-altitude climate: dried chiles, ranch cheese, pork, and mezcal on the side. The dishes worth seeking out by name:
- Asado de boda zacatecano — “wedding roast,” pork simmered in a dark, mildly sweet red-chile sauce with a chocolate edge. This is the regional plate to try first, and it is the one dish you should not leave without eating.
- Enchiladas zacatecanas — tortillas dipped in a dried-chile sauce, folded with cheese and onion, often served with potatoes and carrots.
- Birria and other slow-braised meats, rich and warming against the altitude chill.
- Gorditas — thick griddled corn pockets split and stuffed (chicharrón, guisados, requesón), a staple market breakfast.
- Queso ranchero and asadero from the surrounding ranchland, often griddled fresh at stalls.
- Pan de pulque and nieves — pulque-leavened bread from the bakeries, and water-based ices in tuna-cactus and local fruit flavors from plaza carts.
- Mezcal — Zacatecas is a real mezcal-producing state; it belongs on the table, drunk neat.
Where to eat it
Mercado González Ortega and its fondas (breakfast and midday). The cheapest, most honest food is in and behind the central market near the cathedral: gorditas and tacos in the morning, and the comida corrida set lunch (soup, a main, agua fresca) around 2 to 3 pm. Expect a filling market meal for roughly 90 to 160 MXN (approximate), often less. This is where locals actually eat.
Sit-down restaurants on and around Avenida Hidalgo (comida and dinner). The center has a run of proper restaurants, several in handsome colonial courtyards, doing regional dishes well, this is where to order asado de boda and enchiladas zacatecanas cooked properly rather than at a stall. A full meal with a drink typically runs a few hundred pesos per person, roughly 250 to 450 MXN (approximate), still far below the equivalent in San Miguel de Allende.
Mezcalerías in the callejones (evening). Small mezcal bars in the side streets pour local spirit and set out snacks (botanas) to go with it. The place to end a night, drinking neat with orange and sal de gusano.
Meal timing
Mexicans eat a light early breakfast, a big comida in mid-afternoon (roughly 2 to 4 pm, the main meal), and a lighter late supper. Do your gorditas at the market in the morning, your asado de boda as the afternoon comida when kitchens are at full tilt, and keep the evening for mezcal and botanas rather than a heavy dinner.
Order this, not that
Order asado de boda at a courtyard restaurant on Hidalgo at least once, and do your everyday eating at the market where it is freshest and cheapest, not on a pretty terrace priced for tourists. Skip the generic “Mexican restaurant” menu of tacos-al-pastor-and-fajitas, that is not why you came, and drink the mezcal neat rather than buried in a cocktail. For where residents drink and eat off the tourist strip, see where locals go, and for the wider mezcal and food thread across MexicoWise.