El Cardenal

Centro Histórico, Mexico City · Mexican · $$

El Cardenal on Calle de la Palma has been serving the canonical Mexico City breakfast since 1969 - enchiladas suizas, tamales, atole, pan dulce from their own bakery - in a Centro Histórico dining room that has survived earthquakes, economic crises, and decades of the neighborhood's upheaval. The restaurant was a gathering place for writers and intellectuals through the 1970s and '80s, and the clientele still skews toward people who have somewhere important to go afterward. The tamales arrive wrapped in banana leaf; the atole, thickened with masa and flavored with guayaba or fresa, is not optional.