Modern Mexico City: Part 3

A dining experience is elevated when you have both high-quality food and an amazing view. It's much more common to have one over the other. In fact it seems if it's a roof top bar or restaurant the owners all too often over-rely on the view and not the quality of the food and drinks to bring people in. Although we were only there for lunch, we arrived for the view and left thrilled with the food and service! We feel extremely lucky to have stumbled upon El Mayor, a restaurant on top of a building with a bookstore.  We were actually site-seeing over at the Zocalo where you can find the National Palace, the cathedral, and the Templo Mayor. I looked across the Templo Mayor and say what seemed to be a modern oasis atop a building that was sure to have a great view. We walked around the Templo because of construction, ran across a protest, skirted the edge of people in the backs of trucks with bull horns, and used the skyline to find that sky-high haven.  Here's what we found. If you're visiting Mexico City you must have a meal or happy hour at El Mayor. Buen Provecho! 

Here's the Trip Advisor rating of El Mayor. I guess it's not a secret place but it certainly felt like that at the time. 

A satisfied me.

Happy Mr. Monkey with Oaxacan cheese with green salsa.

Squash flower soup

The stairs down to the bookstore and up to the view.

Modern Mexico City: Part 2

It's taken a snow and ice storm to get me back to blogging! Snuggled by the fire looking out at a winter wonderland is a perfect time to reflect on warm weather, sun, and spring travel adventures. Here I offer you some pictures of the hotel that we stayed in while in Mexico City. It's called Downtown Mexico City. It's a silly name for a hotel but the hotel itself was quite beautiful. The hotel is part of the Grupo Habita family of boutique hotels. The pictures from the website of the hotel really don't do the building justice. One of our favorite features were that there were at least 3 different outdoor dining areas. One space pictured below is a separate restaurant but in the same building. Mr. Monkey especially appreciated the living wall with a bike hanging from it to look like the bike was simply parked on a lovely grassy patch of a park. There was also a small but awesome rooftop pool, bar, and jacuzzi. We soaked with a professional paddle boarder and his girlfriend who were just passing through from Australia to Europe. They decided to break up their trip in D.F. (district federal, aka Mexico City, like calling Washington D.C., "D.C."). Of course! If you want to see better pictures of the rooms check out the hotel website. They do a much better job of picturing the room. In the end we were very happy with our choice of hotels. The location was amazing and I will definitely stay here again! I also want to check out other Grupo Habita hotels too. Hmm, now where will our next sunny adventure be?

Me in the bottom left corner, black metal poles are purse and coat holders for each table.

Slightly better view of bike on park wall.

Yummy breakfast with Nopales and mole!

Restaurant decor.

Me standing outside the door to our room. This is the second floor and the green bushes are tops of trees that cover the cafe patio below.

Second floor hotel restaurant.

Recreated Lazano painting in staircase down to first floor.

Cigarettes in our mini-bar station!

Sinks in our room.

Bathroom with only a curtain! Good for couples only!

Hotel lobby