San Cristobal De Las Casas BIG GIANT Review
My Top Five of Four Different Categories: Restaurants, Nightlife, Cafes, and Activities!
This was the second straight August that I returned to San Cristobal (San Cris for short) for about ten days. I love my life in Puerto Escondido, but it’s such a close-knit community that it can become socially exhausting. It’s also very hot. Every single day. Sometimes, it’s nice to take a bus out of town in any direction, but my favorite place to end up is in San Cristobal de Las Casas.
If I was told I couldn’t live in Puerto Escondido any longer, I wouldn’t hesitate. I would move to San Cris the next day. I’ve loved the charming mountain town in the Highlands of Chiapas since my first visit there ten years ago in 2013, and with every return trip, I’m reminded of the city’s unique and powerful draw.
There’s fascinating history, stunning nature, brilliant street art, incredible food, a great music scene, and cozy cafes galore—and it’s all incredibly affordable. I’ve stayed in the same room for the past two years at Berlin 61 hostel, a few minutes walk from the main zocalo and pedestrian streets in the heart of the city.
My cozy private room with a private bathroom is less than $10 a night. Berlin 61 is my first recommendation to start this BIG GIANT review (that is … if you want a comfortable and cheap private room with absolutely no frills.)
Let’s get into the rest of my favorite bites and places to check out when you make it to San Cristobal! (Note: Both the order and whether or not there is a picture included says next to nothing about how strongly I recommend a place. Also, all photos are my own.)
Top 5 Restaurant Experiences
Sarajevo Cafe Jardin
I had three separate friends recommend this place to me, and it was easy to see why. The menu had me immediately wondering how many mornings I would be able to return for breakfast. When I first arrived it was actually almost one in the afternoon, which is when their “Daily Menu” kicks in, so for 120 pesos I had a coffee, juice, soup, and entree. It was all delicious, and for that price, it felt unfair to the restaurant.
From the moment you enter their space, something about the calming jungle-taking-over-an-old-estate vibe brings a sense of calm, and you immediately know the place does everything right. The service, the food, the decor, all of it was a 10/10.
Casa de Ahn (Ramen)
The first afternoon I attempted to get a bowl of ramen at Casa de Ahn I was told “The wait will be an hour,” as I stood outside the small 5-table restaurant in front of a little plastic chain. I decided to come back at a different time, and I’m very glad I did.
The ramen I had filled every pore in my stomach and steam poured out of me like a chimney. I sweat and smiled into the bowl until it was empty, and I left incredibly full. The place is small but the portions are big, and you can tell whoever is behind this Ramen knows exactly what they’re doing. Two types of ramen were already “out for that day” when I pulled in around 7:30 on my second attempt.
Mesón del Taco
This is the only place on this top 5 that I stopped in each of the past two years. Last year I happened upon Meson del Taco for my final meal in San Cristobal. This year, I searched around on Google Maps, opening up photos of taco holes a few blocks south of Berlin 61, and when I saw the pastor stick in a photo I knew it was this place.
When I entered, twenty of the thirty tables were full, and all twenty-some staff members were running around making people very happy. Their pastor is exceptional, and they’re famous for their cheeses. It’s definitely a local spot and one that I’m glad I fortuitously stumbled upon. I plan to pop into Meson Del Taco every year I return to San Cris. It’s just the perfect local taco hole. Amazing food, unpretentious vibe, and you can have a great meal and a beer for 120/150 pesos.
Pies de la Tierra (This could be on the experience list too!)
This is the most unique recommendation on this list by a kilometer. I ended up here because I was invited to play my guitar at the restaurant on a Sunday afternoon. The restaurant is located inside Parque Encuento and is only open on the weekends, so without this invite, I never would have found it.
Pies de la Tierra is a small wooden restaurant overlooking their garden, which provides all of the vegetables for their meals. The food is cooked over wood-burning fires, and they serve up healthy portions of feel-good breakfast food—con amor sin prisa (as their sign says).
They have a simple 3-choice menu, and my Huevos Rancheros was an absolute treat. I could genuinely taste the love from the farmers and the cooks in the dish. It was the most nourishing meal I’ve had in a while and the experience of playing some music and then hiking around this beautiful park made for a very memorable and wholesome Sunday.
Te Quiero Verde
I actually didn’t make it back to Te Quiero Verde this past visit. There are only so many meals—and some percent of them have to be street esquites—but this place is amazing. I went last year for my very first meal of the trip because it’s the highest-rated restaurant on Four Square.
Also, this year on the free walking tour our guide pointed it out as one of his favorite lunch spots in the city. My taste buds also agree. So, that’s three separate reasons to give this spot that specializes in vegan food a shot. They have amazing burgers, juices, and traditional Mexican dishes as well. Go grab a table in their outdoor garden patio.
Top Five Places to Grab a Drink
Naufragio (Only open from Thursday-Saturday)
If you end up in San Cristobal, this place will likely be recommended to you whether you read this or not. It’s a pretty famous establishment, and for very good reason—it’s fuckin’ rad. It’s got a speakeasy feeling upon arriving at the address. It’s just an innocuous light blue wall with a wooden door on a dark street a few blocks away from the action, but once you enter you’re in a whole new world.
Naufragio is a large labyrinth space with 5 or 6 different rooms. The back room is filled with smoke from their pizza ovens, and the taproom in front is pumping with incredible live music.
Basically, their pizza is amazing (might be the very best in San Cris based on a Facebook post I caught), their craft beer is delicious, the space is so memorable, and the music is always insanely impressive. What’s not to love?
Café Bar Revolution
This is another spot you’d either be told about or just stumble upon if you had a week in San Cristobal. It’s on a crowded corner of the main pedestrian street full of restaurants and street vendors. Café Bar Revolution is a restaurant during the day, but they are best known for the parties they throw in the evening.
Once you pay the small cover and enter through the crowded front door, the place is immediately likable. Most people are drinking caguamas (huge glass bottles of beer), and there is live music shooting out from different corners of the space. My one Saturday in town I ended up at Revolution with my dancing chanclas (flip flops) on, and I realized for the first time that the upstairs wooden cabin-feeling area is also a massive party!
At some point in the night, there was a DJ playing upstairs with a live bass, saxophone, and hand drummer in support. At the same time, downstairs there was a five-person reggaeton band playing uptempo original music, HEARE MEH NOHW!
If you’re looking to meet new people, dance to live music, and get a bit lost inside a single establishment, check out Cafe Bar Revolution.
Paliacate
I spent two separate nights at Paliacate Cultural Space on this trip to San Cristobal, and I imagine if you find it, you’ll be a repeat visitor as well. They operate a pizza restaurant and bar, but the reason most folks go is for what’s happening on their stage.
The first time I went was on the very first night of my trip because the man who repaired my guitar told me I could go play it at an open mic hosted there every Wednesday night. I showed up around 8:30 and played a little three-song set ten minutes later. They have a great sound system and I was just so excited to be playing somewhere new, for entirely new people.
I had a great time, and the owner invited me back to play for an hour on Saturday before a local rock and blues band played. I had a blast, and the band that played after me was insanely good.
Also, before my set, I got to catch a moving two-person play with no words about an old woman and a bird (see photo evidence above). It was wonderful and completed the strange Saturday night lineup of entertainment. I have a lot of love for this space. The owner is lovely, and you can tell they try really hard to make an inviting stage for local authentic artists in San Cristobal.
Vino de Bello
Vino de Bello was also one of those places that multiple friends urged me to check out. They’re located right on one of the city’s main streets that fills up every evening with diners, visitors, and buskers playing live music. Vino de Bello feels like a dive bar in the south of Spain, with its dark moody interior and old-school furniture.
Try to grab one of their street-side tables outside in the last hour of sunlight. It’s the perfect place to tuck in for some people-watching and a glass of wine. They’re most famous for offering 30 peso glasses of house wine. Not only is the wine pretty good and dirt cheap, but each glass of wine you order at Vino de Bello comes with an appetizer—just like in Spain.
You can spend around $6 at Vino de Bello and have three glasses of wine with three different tasty snacks and a bowl of popcorn included on the house. There’s a reason some people return to this spot every single evening, and there’s also a reason three separate friends put it on my radar this year.
Esquina San Agustin
When you clock this place street side, something about the design makes you want to walk through the big wooden doors. When you actually do step inside, the place is pretty jaw-dropping. It’s a massive, elegant, mostly wooden food court with huge ceilings and vegetation everywhere. It’s the type of place that will make most folks pull out their phone for a picture immediately.
Pick any of the options for an afternoon snack, coffee, sundowner, or even a nice dinner out. There’s Thai food, a meat market, a pizzeria, and more! I grabbed a coffee at Amor Negro on my first visit, so that’s the only place I can truly recommend, but go stop in and either follow your nose or the voters on the internet. It’s worth a quick visit just to check the design and architecture!
Top 5 Cafes and Coffee Holes
Kukulpan
Kukulpan is one of those spots, that once you find it, it’s hard not to make sure you’re walking route doesn’t end up curving past it every day. Kukulpan is a bakery and coffee shop right on a prominent corner a block from Plaza de Santo Domingo. They have amazing baked goods, both savory and sweet options, at prices ranging from 15-35 pesos.
The staff is incredibly kind, the vibe is folk-artsy, and everything I ordered there during my 5 separate visits was a highlight of the day. Grab a table on their little front patio, order whatever your heart desires, and soak in San Cristobal.
Frontera Artisan Food and Coffee
Frontera is located a stone’s throw from Kukulpan. They’re essentially neighbors. After working in the Australian coffee scene for a while, I accidentally became a coffee snob. I think Flat Whites are the perfect combination of strong espresso and pulled milk, but they’re hard to find in certain corners. San Cristobal doesn’t have very many coffee menus with Flat White as an option, but Frontera makes them!
Not only do they have Flat White on the menu, they nail it. My coffee and chilaquiles were both amazing. Even the presentation of the coffee on a little wooden board with a Frontera business card stuck into the wood was impressive. It’s the type of place you could work remotely from all day, without ever needing to leave your chair. They’re also attached to a lovely outdoor garden oasis shared by several interesting businesses.
Black Dragon Coffee Roasters
Black Dragon Coffee Roasters is a bit of a walk from the city center, but if you’re visiting the Templo de Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe, you’ll end up just one block away. The mural outside of the cafe first caught my eye, and once you enter inside, you’ll find every detail interesting and well-considered.
The space has an artistic boho type of aesthetic, with a comfortable living room lounge feel. You’ll also notice in the back room a huge coffee roaster, so not only are they serving great coffee, but they also act as the primary roaster for many other coffee houses.
Last year I had the good fortune of meeting the owner and we spoke for thirty minutes about his love for coffee and the surrounding coffee farms. He’s a conscious business owner with great ideas and projects to empower and support the local coffee farmers whom we all rely on to get our daily java!
Cafeología
This place is the most modern and upscale coffee house on this list. It might be the most upscale and fancy coffee shop I’ve entered anywhere in the world actually. Their espresso machine looks like a coffee maker from a movie about the future, and the decor in general is sharp, clean, and elegant. It’s the type of place where the staff wear matching aprons with leather straps. You can tell there have been multiple meetings about how the giant cookies are to be stacked just so in the display case.
Their coffee is incredibly good, and you get the sense that they take great pride in getting it right on every single order. It makes for a great little calm escape from the busy street it’s located on.
Yik Cafe
Yik Cafe is the most local and old-school cafe on this list of recommendations. There are multiple Yik cafes in various neighborhoods of San Cristobal, and they all seem to have been stuck in time since the mid-1990s. The menu, furniture, and overall feel of the place are all wonderfully unassuming.
The prices are fair, the coffee is strong, the food is good, and the service is stellar. You can get a delicious two-shot cortado for 30 pesos, and happily be on your way walking the sunny streets of San Cris while the caffeine starts striking a match on your brain. (See photo of that exact moment happening above.)
BONUS: Astro Cafe
I happened to stumble into Astro Cafe on my last morning in San Cristobal. It’s also neighbors with Kukulpan and Frontera, so that really is the best corner to grab a coffee and get some work done in the city—no question. Astro Cafe shares a space with a little bookstore and also has a cute little outdoor garden space with a lovely cat who will come over for a cuddle.
I ordered the breakfast packet, which came with coffee, fresh fruit, and a wonderful plate of huevos rancheros! The whole thing was a very reasonable 100 pesos (around $5). I got some work done for a few hours in their garden space and was so happy to find one more amazing and cozy cafe where I could be productive and well-fed for cheap on my last day in town.
Top 5 Activities and Day Trips
Canyon Del Sumidero
If there’s a “can’t miss” activity on this list, it’s certainly Sumidero Canyon. It’s one of the most breathtaking natural wonders I’ve ever seen with my own eyes. I went on the full-day tour 10 years ago on my first visit, and I vividly remember being on that little boat smiling wide-eyed, squinting into the sun until my face hurt. The canyon is incredibly beautiful. The walls shoot straight up into the sky, while birds fly overhead. If you’re lucky, you’ll even spot a Crocodile in the water. I decided to run it back again on my visit to San Cris this year.
The full-day tour only costs around 600 pesos (~$30 USD) and begins with a 1.5-hour drive out to the launch for the boat ride. Once you’re strapped into your life jacket, and loaded onto the boat, the next two hours are pure magic. As a day trip, it’s everything you could want—affordable, stunning, interesting, and a great way to make some new friends. Most of the folks on my boat ended up meeting out later that night at Narufragio for drinks and pizza.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Not That You Asked to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.