17 Must-Visit Restaurants in Puebla, Mexico

When it comes to the most delicious food in Mexico, a shortlist of destinations instantly springs to mind – Oaxaca, Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Puebla. Each city has its own unique culinary character and a few dishes worth flying for, but in the opinion of many (including ours), the Mexican cuisine in Puebla and Oaxaca is among the richest and most interesting in Mexico.

Being so close to Mexico City (just two hours by bus), many travelers treat Puebla City as a quick day trip from Mexico’s capital. But if you fly for food like we do, then you’ll know that Puebla deserves much more than that.

Aside from its many delicious antojitos and moles, Puebla is home to over 300 candy delicacies. With so many sweets like camotes, borrachitos, and tortitas to try, the confections in Puebla alone are worth a few days’ stay!

Food is a big part of the Mexico experience so if you plan on visiting Puebla, then be sure to visit these restaurants to find some of the best examples of regional specialties like mole poblano, chiles en nogada, tacos árabes, and cemitas.

WHAT FOOD IS PUEBLA KNOWN FOR?

Puebla is home to some of the most delicious food in Mexico so you’ll find quite a few regional specialties here. Aside from finding the best restaurants, it’s important to know what dishes to look for so be sure to read our guide on what to eat in Puebla.

It lists and gives a detailed description of the most important and delicious dishes to look for so you might want to read that article first before continuing with this one.

THE BEST PUEBLA RESTAURANTS

Finding great local food is important to us so we scoured the internet and asked the opinions of locals to come up with this list of must-visit restaurants in Puebla. If you already know what Pueblan dish(es) you want to try, then click on the links below to jump to any section of the guide.

Mole Poblano: Comal | Restaurante Casareyna

Chilen en Nogada: La Antigua China Poblana

Tacos Arabes: Tacos Arabes Bagdad | Tacos Beyrut | Tacos Tony

Chalupas: Restaurante Casareyna | Anotjitos Las Güeras

Cemitas: Super Cemitas El As de Oros | Cemitas La Colonial | La Antigua China Poblana

Pelonas: Comal | Anotjitos Acapulco

Chanclas: Comal

Molotes: Molotes La Ventanita | Anotjitos Acapulco

Dulces Tipicos de Puebla: La Gran Fama

Pasita: La Pasita

1. Tacos Árabes Bagdad

If you love tacos as much as we do, then tacos árabes should be tops on your list. Puebla is the birthplace of this dish, the very dish that inspired what many believe to be Mexico’s undisputed king of tacos – tacos al pastor.

Bagdad is one of the best places to try tacos árabes in Puebla. It’s the restaurant that was featured on the taco episode of Ugly Delicious with Chef David Chang. They flew to Mexico to tell the story of tacos and Tacos Árabes Bagdad was the restaurant they visited to try this important crossover dish.

Bagdad offers tacos made with both árabe and al pastor meat. You can get them as ala carte tacos or tortas but we recommend availing of one of the restaurant’s promos. You can get a quarter kilo (0.55 lbs) of meat with a few pieces of pan árabe and corn tortilla and a small jug of agua de sabor (flavored water). This is enough for one big eater or two people with modest appetites.

For more flavor, we ordered a side of jocoque which is a fermented milk product similar to sour cream. We suggest doing the same if you want more zing in your tacos.

Put them all together and voila! You have your own DIY taco árabe. Pan árabe really works best for this type of meat. I’ll explain more below.

If trying tacos árabes is important to you, then Bagdad is a must-stop in Puebla. There’s a reason why the Ugly Delicious producers featured this restaurant on their show.

Tacos Árabes Bagdad

Address: Av 2 Pte 311, Centro, 72000 Puebla, Pue.
Operating Hours: 11AM-8PM, daily
What to Order: Tacos árabes

2. Tacos Beyrut

Located a few blocks from Tacos Árabes Bagdad is Tacos Beyrut, a similar but smaller taqueria with a more focused menu. They basically have just two things on their menu – árabes and falafel. I suggest trying both.

In the picture below, you can see the difference between taco árabe and taco oriental. They’re both made with árabe meat but the former is served in pita bread while the latter is wrapped in a smaller corn tortilla. Corn tortillas are great with al pastor but in my opinion, the chewiness and fluffiness of pan árabe works so much better with árabe meat.

I recommend getting the falafel as well. If you’ve never had it, it refers to a popular Middle Eastern dish consisting of deep-fried patties of ground chickpeas wrapped in pita bread with salads, pickled vegetables, and tahini-based (sesame) sauces. Tacos Beyrut makes theirs with beets.

Beyrut’s falafel is delicious but be careful not to get any of that purplish beet juice on your clothes!

This has to be the most beautiful meat spit I’ve ever seen. Unlike most spits, Tacos Beyrut intersperses the layers of pork with onions and herbs.

I was watching them grill this and the cook was carefully shaving meat off the corners first. I didn’t stick around long enough but I assumed he did this until he wound up with a perfect cylinder. The shape of the spit is another difference you’ll notice between árabe and al pastor.

If you like restaurants with highly focused menus, then you need to enjoy a meal at Tacos Beyrut. It’s tough to pick but this may be my favorite tacos arabes place in Puebla so far.

Tacos Beyrut

Address: Av 5 Pte 718-A, Centro histórico de Puebla, 72000 Puebla, Pue.
Operating Hours: 5:30-10PM, Mon-Sat (closed Sundays)
What to Order: Tacos árabes

3. Tacos Tony

Tacos Tony is another great place to try tacos árabes in Puebla. They have a wider menu that also features cemitas, falafel, quesadillas, queso fundido, and alambre.

Pictured below are two tacos árabes and a taco oriental. I recommend trying both, just to taste the difference, but árabe meat really does work best with chewier pita bread. It’s the closest thing to shawarma you’ll find in Mexican cuisine.

You can better understand the difference between árabe and al pastor meat in this picture.

Al pastor spits (leftmost) are much more orange in color due to the annatto seeds used in the marinade. They’re also shaped like a top, which is why al pastor meat spits are referred to as trompo (spinning top) in Mexico. Árabe meat spits are typically cylindrical in shape.

Don’t mind the size difference between the meat spits in this picture because this is an atypically small al pastor trompo. They’re usually much bigger, about the same size as an árabe meat spit.

Tacos Tony is located just a block away from the zocalo (main public square) so it’s a convenient place to visit for people wanting to try tacos arabes.

Tacos Tony

Address: Av 3 Pte 149, Centro histórico de Puebla, 72000 Puebla, Pue.
Operating Hours: 10AM-8:30PM, Mon-Sat / 10AM-7PM, Sun
What to Order: Tacos árabes

4. El Patio y Las Ranas

El Patio y Las Ranas is another highly-regarded taqueria in Puebla, arguably the most popular on this list. However, they don’t seem to offer tacos árabes. Instead, they specialize in árabe’s cousin and Mexico’s most iconic taco – the al pastor.

El Patio y Las Ranas gives you the option of enjoying their al pastor meat in pita bread, flour or corn tortillas, or in sandwiches. They offer other types of meat as well like chuleta (pork chop), bistec (beef steak), chorizo (sausage), and cochinita pibil (pit-roasted pork).

Al pastor meat works very well in pan árabe as well. Corn tortillas are great but if you like the chewiness of pita bread, then I suggest trying this.

We absolutely love quesillo (Mexican cheese). It’s creamy and gooey and has a taste and texture similar to mozzarella.

If you love cheese, then we highly recommend trying queso fundido. It literally means “melted cheese” and refers to a bowl of melted gooey cheese served with flour tortillas. It can be served with just cheese or with some type of meat like chorizo mixed in. It’s sooo delicious!

Check out that cheese pull! As described, quesillo is very similar to mozzarella.

To eat, you take a generous helping of queso fundido and stuff it into a flour tortilla. Top it with one or two salsas and a spritz of lime juice and you’re good to go! You can think of it as a DIY version of a quesadilla.

Trying tacos arabes and tacos al pastor in Puebla is interesting because you can see how it evolved from a Lebanese dish into the Mexican favorite that it is today. By many accounts, El Patio y Las Ranas is one of the best places to enjoy tacos al pastor in Puebla.

El Patio y Las Ranas

Address: Av 2 Pte 105, Centro, 72000 Puebla, Pue.
Operating Hours: 12NN-8PM, Mon-Sat / 2-8PM, Sun
What to Order: Tacos al pastor in pan árabe

5. Don Pastor

We’re partial to small, family-owned restaurants or street stalls and rarely go to chains. However, Don Pastor was one chain that we couldn’t pass up. You’ll see why below.

Don Pastor is a chain of taquerias with about five branches in Puebla. They have an extensive menu featuring typical taqueria offerings like tacos al pastor, árabes, carne asada, alambres, and queso fundido.

On the plate below are two examples of their signature dish – tacos al pastor. We usually keep our expectations to a minimum when it comes to cookie-cutter chains but these tacos were surprisingly delicious.

These carne asada tacos were fantastic as well. Carne Asada is traditionally made with grilled skirt or flank steak. Don Pastor smothers theirs in guacamole.

At El Patio y Las Ranas, we enjoyed queso fundido with chorizo. At Don Pastor, you can get it mixed with a generous amount of their tasty al pastor meat.

Gotta love that cheese pull! My god was this good.

Queso fundido has quickly become one of our favorite Mexican dishes. It’s seriously delicious no matter what type of meat it’s made with.

Don Pastor’s branding game is strong. They have their own line of branded salsas as well, all of which are absolutely delicious!

Don Pastor wasn’t on our list but we were so taken by their branding and decor that we decided to give them a try on our last day in Puebla. This has to be the most well-branded restaurant we’ve seen thus far in Mexico. Thankfully, we enjoyed their food as much as their branding.

We walked by three Don Pastor branches in Puebla but the one right next to Catedral de Puebla, just off the zocalo, is the biggest and most fun. I recommend going to that one.

Pictures don’t do it justice but Don Pastor’s interiors are so much fun. They’re colorful and rife with detail. It has the same visual appeal as a luchador’s mask and costume.

Here’s another reason why you should eat at the Catedral branch. As far as we know, it’s the only outlet that has this seating area made to look like a subway car. Isn’t this cool?

We wanted to sit here but unfortunately, so did everyone else. Boo! Next time then.

Don Pastor

Address: C. 16 de Septiembre 203, Centro histórico de Puebla, 72000 Puebla, Pue.
Operating Hours: 11AM-11:30PM, daily
What to Order: Tacos al pastor, tacos árabes, carne asada

6. Antojitos Las Güeras

Compared to Mexico City or Guadalajara, true street vendors – the ones that specialize in just one or two dishes – don’t seem to be as common in Puebla, at least not in its historical center. For the best street food, you need to walk away from the zocalo.

About 8-10 blocks from Puebla’s zocalo is Las Güeras, a small easy-to-miss stall in a frenzied market area. It’s a great place to try chalupas, which are fried discs of masa topped with shredded meat and other ingredients. It’s one of the most popular snacks or antojitos in Puebla. Be sure to try it topped with both red and green salsa.

The masa dough in a chalupa is shallow-fried but it isn’t crunchy. It’s soft and mostly takes the flavor of the sauce it’s topped with. It’s tasty and makes for a great appetizer or mid-afternoon snack.

We almost missed Antojitos Las Güeras because the pin (and name) in Google Maps is a little off. Incorrectly listed as “Chalupas Las Güeras”, it’s on the right block but located on the other side of the street. I pinned a more correct approximation of its location on the map at the bottom of this post. Just look for the tiny shop with the orange awning below.

Las Güeras is best known for its chalupas but they serve other anotojos as well like pelonas and tostadas. They make their pelonas stuffed with, you guessed it, chalupas. It’s a great place for tasty cheap eats in Puebla.

Antojitos Las Güeras

Address: Calle 5 Nte. 1003, Centro histórico de Puebla, 72000 Puebla, Pue.
Operating Hours: 11AM-8PM, daily
What to Order: Chalupas

7. Restaurante Casareyna

Casareyna is arguably the best restaurant on this list. It’s the upscale restaurant of the 4-star hotel of the same name.

Google “best restaurants in puebla” and the highly-regarded El Mural de Los Poblanos will top nearly every list. We make room for one fancy restaurant on every trip so we considered going to El Mural de Los Poblanos, but our AirBnB host recommended Casareyna instead. He called it one of his favorite restaurants in Puebla.

Casareyna offers an extensive menu of Pueblan, Mexican, and international dishes. We came here specifically for their mole degustation but we decided to try their chalupas as well. As you can see below, their chalupas are less oily and more refined in presentation than the more humble offerings at Las Güeras.

What you’re looking at is one order of chalupas (four pieces) split onto two plates. They’re topped with red and green salsa, chopped onions, and pulled pork.

We tried their chalupas de mole poblano as well. Rich and deeply chocolatey, the discs of fried masa are topped with mole, shredded chicken, and sesame seeds.

This is what we came here for. We wanted to have a mole degustation and Casareyna is known for being one of the best places to try it in Puebla. Casareyna’s tasting menu consists of four different moles – mole poblano, pipian verde, pipian rojo, and mole blanco. They’re each made with chicken or pork and served with corn tortillas, rice, and purple yam puree.

Mole poblano is the quintessential mole in Puebla. It’s an incredibly rich and chocolatey mole made with over twenty ingredients. Pipian refers to sauces made with pepitas (pumpkin seeds) as its main ingredient, the most common being pipian verde and pipian rojo. Tomatillos and green chili peppers give color to pipian verde while pipian rojo gets its reddish-orange hue from red chilis and tomatoes.

Mole blanco refers to a Oaxacan mole made with peanuts, almonds, pine nuts, sunflower seeds, and white corn tortillas. They’re lightly roasted and ground before being mixed with other ingredients like bananas, apples, golden raisins, chilis, milk, white chocolate, and spices.

All four moles are delicious but mole poblano is the most memorable and unique-tasting of the bunch. A true Pueblan dish, it’s extremely rich and chocolatey and probably unlike any sauce you’ve ever tasted.

Like many dishes in Mexico, mole in Puebla is eaten with corn tortillas. You can either break pieces off the tortilla and dip them in the mole or eat all the components together like a taco.

The Casareyna Hotel is about a 10-15 minute walk east of the zocalo. It’s in a quieter part of town just south of Paseo de San Francisco and Barrio del Alto.

Casareyna may look a bit intimidating but you can walk in without reservations. We did.

Restaurante Casareyna is an upscale restaurant with excellent service and reasonable pricing. At the time of our visit in February 2022, the mole degustation cost just MXN 245. With appetizers, it’s good enough for two people.

Restaurante Casareyna

Address: Privada 2 Ote. 1007, Centro histórico de Puebla, 72000 Puebla, Pue.
Operating Hours: 8AM-10:30PM, daily
What to Order: Plato de degustación de moles

8. Comal (Fantastic Mole Poblano!)

Comal may be the best restaurant we visited near the zocalo. It’s a local favorite that serves many Pueblan dishes like mole, cemitas, chalupas, pelonas, and chanclas. They serve great food in a casual setting with excellent views of the Puebla Cathedral.

We enjoyed three Pueblan specialties at Comal, starting with this beautiful mole poblano. Compared to other dishes like cemitas or chalupas, mole poblano can vary greatly from restaurant to restaurant.

For your first taste, I suggest trying it at a highly-regarded restaurant like Comal. Mole is such a complex dish that it’s best to try it at a place that really knows what it’s doing. We had it at some random restaurant on our first day in Puebla and it tasted a bit bitter and unbalanced. This one and the version at Casareyna are so much better.

If you’d like to make this quintessential Pueblan dish yourself, then be sure to check out our authentic mole poblano recipe. It was developed by a renowned local chef who runs a popular cooking class in Puebla.

Can you tell I love tacos? I enjoy wrapping everything up in a taco but it’s easier to just rip up the tortilla and dip it in the sauce. Mole poblano is rich, thick, and tasty and makes for the perfect dipping sauce.

What you’re looking at is Puebla’s answer to tortas ahogadas – the chancla. It refers to a type of Mexican sandwich made with chorizo and ground beef drenched in a spicy tomato-based sauce. I enjoyed my fair share of tortas ahogadas in Guadalajara but I think I like chanclas even more. The bread is so light and delicate that you almost forget you’re eating a sandwich.

We only had chanclas this one time so I’m curious to see what it’s like at other places. I’ll definitely look for more restaurants that serve it on my next trip to Puebla.

I love cemitas, but I think I may enjoy pelonas even more. The pelona is a type of Mexican sandwich made with shredded beef, refried beans, lettuce, and deep-fried bread.

The fillings are great but what really makes this sandwich is the fried bread. It’s crisp but extremely light and crumbles between your teeth when you take a bite. It’s so incredibly delicious.

Comal is one of the most popular restaurants in Puebla. It’s located right in front of Puebla Cathedral, just a few doors down from Don Pastor.

We were lucky enough to be seated at one of the balcony tables and enjoyed this view of the church over lunch. Baroque architecture and great Pueblan food. What more can you ask for?

Comal

Address: C. 16 de Septiembre 311-b, Centro histórico de Puebla, 72000 Puebla, Pue.
Operating Hours: 8AM-12MN, daily
What to Order: Mole, cemitas, antojitos

9. Antojitos Acapulco

I enjoyed the pelona at Comal so much that I needed to have it again. This time, at Antojitos Acapulco, a humble street food stall with no dining tables. As I expected, it was just as good as Comal’s pelona which goes to show that you don’t need to go to the most expensive restaurants to find the best food in Puebla.

Seriously, if you see pelonas on a menu, just order it. Chances are, it’ll be delicious.

Acapulco specializes in molotes but they offer other antojitos as well like pelonas, gorditas, flautas, tostadas, and these tasty tacos de canasta (basket tacos).

Also known as tacos al vapor (steamed tacos) or tacos sudado (sweaty tacos), tacos de canasta are filled with different types of stew before being bathed in oil or melted butter. They’re typically sold from baskets to keep them warm which is how they got their name.

Tacos de canasta are delicious and one of our favorite types of tacos. They’re a popular breakfast item or snack and can be found throughout central Mexico.

Acapulco makes molotes filled with a variety of ingredients like mushrooms, chicharron, shrimp, Oaxacan cheese, and picadillo. It’s similar in shape to an empanada except it has a thicker, harder shell and is topped with cream and one or two salsas.

Can you guess the molote filling? We got ours filled with spicy pulpo (octopus).

Open since 1962, Antojitos Acapulco is a true street stall located just around the corner from the zocalo. It’s another great place to get cheap eats in Puebla.

Antojitos Acapulco

Address: Av 5 Pte 114, Centro histórico de Puebla, 72000 Puebla, Pue.
Operating Hours: 9:10AM-11PM, daily
What to Order: Molotes, pelonas, tacos de canasta

10. Molotes La Ventanita

Like Anotjitos Acapulco, La Ventanita is a tiny shop that specializes in molotes, an empanada-like snack made with masa and all-purpose flour. They make other antojitos like tostadas and pelonas but what they’re really known for are their molotes.

I’m not sure if you can tell from this picture but the molotes at La Ventanita are huge. You can get them stuffed with different fillings like mushroom, potatoes, spicy shredded chicken, and beans. We got ours filled with chicharron and huitlacoche, a mushroom-like fungus that grows on corn.

Here’s a look at the huitlacoche. Also known as corn smut, it’s an interesting ingredient often used in Mexican cuisine. It’s soft and earthy and tastes very similar to mushrooms.

The La Ventanita stalls are so small that they’re easy to miss. There are actually two shops just a few doors apart. Just look for the red awnings with the words “La Ventanita” on them.

Here’s a closer look at one of the shops. It doesn’t seem like it but there are a few tables inside.

Molotes La Ventanita

Address: Av 10 Pte 304, Centro histórico de Puebla, 72000 Puebla, Pue.
Operating Hours: 10AM-8PM, Mon-Sat (closed Sundays)
What to Order: Molotes

11. La Antigua China Poblana

Aside from mole poblano, chile en nogada was the one Mexican dish we were most excited to try in Puebla. With a dish as beautiful as this, how can you not be?

As described in our Puebla food guide, chile en nogada is a seasonal dish that’s traditionally eaten from around August till mid-September. We were in Puebla in late February so hardly any restaurants were offering it at the time. Thankfully, we found La Antigua China Poblana.

Chile en nogada consists of a stuffed poblano pepper covered in a creamy walnut sauce and pomegranate seeds. Pomegranates are in season in August and September which is why this dish is so hard to find at any other time of the year.

Interestingly, the consumption of chiles en nogada coincide with Mexican Independence Day. It’s a patriotic dish whose ingredients are meant to represent the colors of the Mexican flag – green poblano pepper (and parsley), white sauce, and red pomegranate seeds.

Here’s an inside look at the poblano pepper. It’s stuffed with a delicious picadillo mixture that goes so well with the creamy walnut sauce and pomegranate seeds.

As you can probably tell from the pale pomegranate seeds, we had this particular version when pomegranates were out of season. It was still delicious but I can assure you, chiles en nogada are that much better in September when pomegranates are in season.

If you can get your hands on ripe pomegranates and would like to make this dish yourself, then check out our chiles en nogada recipe. It was developed by the same chef as the recipe for mole poblano.

In Guadalajara, tortas ahogadas are among the most popular comfort foods. In Mexico City, it’s tacos of every kind. In Puebla, it’s cemitas.

Cemitas are Pueblan tortas or sandwiches. They can be made with different types of meat though the most popular are cemitas poblana de milanesa – sandwiches made with a flattened breaded piece of chicken, pork, or beef.

You can find cemitas pretty much anywhere in Puebla – from proper sit-down restaurants like La Antigua China Poblana to street food stalls to fondas (small family-owned eateries). We never met a cemita we didn’t love so compared to dishes like mole poblano or chiles en nogada, I think it matters less where you try it, especially if you’re a first-time visitor.

La Antigua China Poblana is one of the restaurants you’ll find immediately surrounding the zocalo. Many of these restaurants tend to be on the touristy side but this was the only place we could find at the time that served chiles en nogada. Thankfully, their food was delicious and reasonably priced.

From the outside, La Antigua China Poblana is just a door with a sign above it but walk inside and you’ll find this interesting and surprisingly airy dining space. Aside from the food, the architecture is what we love most about Puebla.

La Antigua China Poblano

Address: Av 2 Sur 110 – 4, Centro histórico de Puebla, 72000 Puebla, Pue.
Operating Hours: 8AM-12MN, daily
What to Order: Mole poblano, chile en nogada, cemitas, antojitos

12. Super Cemitas El As de Oros

If cemitas are appealing to you, then you need to go to Mercado de Sabores. Located about a 20-minute walk from the zocalo, it’s a large food hall with around two dozen food vendors, most of whom specialize in cemitas.

Upon the recommendation of our AirBnB host, we had lunch here after visiting Amparo Museum, one of the best museums in Puebla.

I’m not familiar with its history but it seems that Mercado de Sabores was meant to showcase the best in Pueblan food. Today, many stalls have closed, with the only ones thriving being the vendors specializing in cemitas. It was a bit sad to see but it also shows just how popular cemitas are in Puebla.

There are many cemitas vendors at Mercado de Sabores. But like hawker centers in Singapore, you go to the stalls with the longest line of locals. At Mercado de Sabores, that was Super Cemitas El As de Oros. Keep reading to see why they call their cemitas “super cemitas”.

It’s hard to tell from this picture but this super cemita poblana de milanesa was absolutely massive. It’s an extremely filling (and delicious) behemoth of a sandwich with breaded steak that was big enough for both of us. You’ll get a better sense of its scale in the next picture.

Can you get a better sense of its size here? It’s like one of those gigantic large dishes you see on YouTube!

To be honest, I still don’t think this picture adequately captures just how large this sandwich was. It’s a beautiful beast of a cemita that any sandwich lover needs to conquer in Puebla.

Super Cemitas El As de Oros

Address: Mercado de Sabores, Av. 4 Pte. 1104, Historiadores, 72090 Puebla, Pue.
Operating Hours: 10AM-8PM, Sat-Sun / 10AM-7PM, Mon-Tue (closed Wed-Fri)
What to Order: Super cemitas

13. Cemitas La Colonial

You’ll be spoilt for choice with the sheer number of cemitas stalls in Puebla. One of the most highly-rated is La Colonial, a small cemitas stand just a couple blocks south of Mercado de Sabores. They serve cemitas and tacos made with different cuts of pork like pierna (pork leg), lomo (pork loin), and carnitas (braised pork).

Pictured below is my delicious pierna cemita. It isn’t a super cemita but it’s just as big on flavor. Like I said, we never met a cemita we didn’t like in Puebla.

The La Colonial pin on Google Maps is a little off. It’s located on the corner, across the street from where Google Maps says it is. I pinned its exact location on the map at the bottom of this post.

Cemitas La Colonial

Address: Av 2 Pte, Centro histórico de Puebla, 72090 Puebla, Pue.
Operating Hours: 9AM-7PM, daily
What to Order: Cemitas

14. La Gran Fama

As described at the top of this post, Puebla is home to over 300 types of dulces típicos or traditional sweets. During colonial times, they were offered as gifts to the convents’ benefactors but today, you can find them sold from the dozens of candy shops throughout the city. In fact, there are so many sweets shops along Avenida 6 Oriente that it’s often referred to as “El Calle de Los Dulces”.

One of the very best candy shops along this street is La Gran Fama. Walk into this shop and one of the first things you’ll notice is how much classier it looks compared to the other shops. In the words of one reviewer, it looks like a “Parisian macaron shop”.

La Gran Fama provides excellent service. We asked our server for recommendations and she filled our tray with all kinds of Pueblan goodies like camotes, borrachitos, tortitas de Santa Clara, and mostachones.

Camotes – cylindrical sweets made from sweet potatoes – are among the most popular so be sure to get a few pieces of that.

La Gran Fama may look like a Parisian macaron shop but you won’t be paying Parisian prices. This big box of handpicked dulces típicos cost us just MXN 157 (February 2022).

There are dozens of sweets shops along Avenida 6 Oriente. Ignore them all and make a beeline for La Gran Fama.

La Gran Fama

Address: Av 6 Ote 208, Centro histórico de Puebla, 72000 Puebla, Pue.
Operating Hours: 9AM-8PM, daily
What to Order: Dulces típicos de Puebla

15. Puebla La Churreria

Churros – that delicious pastry dessert from Spain – isn’t an example of Pueblan regional food, but you can find darn good ones just a stone’s throw from the zocalo. La Churreria is one of the best places in Puebla to have churros and other pastries like buñuelos, cubiletes de queso, conos de crema, and bolas de Berlín.

Pictured below are churros, cubiletes, and two cups of hot chocolate. The churros here are crisp but super light and airy. They’re delicious.

Cubiletes are fantastic as well. They’re essentially Mexican mini-cheesecakes that resemble muffins.

Puebla La Churreria is located next to Puebla Cathedral, on the opposite side of Comal and Don Pastor. Don’t miss it.

Puebla La Churreria

Address: Calle 2 sur, Av 5 Ote y, Centro histórico de Puebla, 72000 Puebla, Pue.
Operating Hours: 7AM-10PM, daily
What to Order: Churros and other pastries

16. Panaderia El Hospicio

We were lucky enough to be staying at an AirBnB in the same building as this panaderia or bakery. They bake their bread and pastries inside the building so every day, at least twice a day, we’d get a whiff of that heavenly aroma wafting from their ovens. It was torturous and intoxicating all at once.

We stayed in Puebla for over a week and new goodies would grace their shelves everyday. We bought something new every single day and everything we had was delicious.

This was easily my favorite pastry from the bakery. It’s some sort of strawberry cream cake. It’s a popular item and sells quickly but were lucky to score maybe four or five slices during our stay. It’s absolutely delicious, especially with a cup of hot coffee.

El Hospicio opens bright and early at 7AM and would tempt us with their pastries until 9PM every night. These guys are pure evil.

Panaderia El Hospicio

Address: Av 2 Pte 501-B, Centro histórico de Puebla, 72000 Puebla, Pue.
Operating Hours: 7AM-9PM, daily
What to Order: Breads and pastries

17. La Pasita

Dishes like mole poblano and chiles en nogada are native to Puebla. Pasita isn’t just native to Puebla, it’s native to one Pueblan cantina.

Pasita is the signature drink of La Pasita, a small bar located at one end of Callejón de Los Sapos. Poured into a slender shot glass, it’s a type of raisin liquor served with a toothpick-skewered raisin and a cube of goat cheese.

La Pasita has been serving this drink for over fifty years. Both the bar and the drink are Pueblan institutions. In a way, taking a shot of pasita has become a rite of passage for people visiting Puebla.

The owners of La Paista are super friendly and offer great service. We had fun sipping on these pasitas and chatting with them in our broken Spanish. ¿Una mas por favor?

Pasita is the most well-known but you can get many other drinks here as well, like these shots of licor de almendras (almonds) and rompope. Rompope is a delicious eggnog-like drink made with egg yolks, milk, sugar, and alcoholic spirits.

Like Pueblan sweets, rompope may have originated from the convents of Puebla so it’s something you’ll want to try here as well. La Pasita is an excellent place to try it.

You can’t really tell from this picture but La Pasita has to be one of the smallest bars we’ve ever visited. It’s a standing-room-only bar that can fit a maximum of maybe 8-10 people.

If you like them enough, then you can pick up bottles of their pasita and rompope. I’ll definitely do that on our next visit to Puebla.

La Pasita is located on the right side of one end of Callejón de Los Sapos. You can’t miss it.

La Pasita

Address: Av 5 Ote 602, Centro histórico de Puebla, 72000 Puebla, Pue.
Operating Hours: 1-6PM, Wed-Mon (closed Tuesdays)
What to Order: Pasita and other shots of liqueur

LOCATION MAP

To help you navigate to these restaurants in Puebla, I’ve pinned them all on the map below. It includes a few other restaurants as well that we had on our list but couldn’t get to. Click on the link for a live version of the map.

FINAL THOUGHTS ON THE BEST RESTAURANTS IN PUEBLA, MEXICO

As described at the top of this post, many travelers treat Puebla as a quick day trip from Mexico City. I hope this guide helps convince you that Puebla is so much more than just a side trip.

Like Oaxaca, Puebla has one of the most colorful culinary traditions in Mexico. With so many delicious dishes to try, you’ll need several days to get a real taste of Puebla.

We fell in love with Puebla and its food so we’re already looking forward to our next trip. Aside from chile en nogada, we’re looking forward to trying other seasonal specialties like escamoles. Known as “Mexican caviar”, it’s a regional delicacy made with ant eggs or larvae. I’ll be sure to tell you guys about it after we try it.

Until then, thanks for reading and have an amazing time eating your way through Puebla!

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