Sanborns Centenario

The chain. Sanborns is a Mexican institution rather than a restaurant chain: a combined café, restaurant, pharmacy and shop, open long hours, with waitresses in the traditional china poblana-inspired uniform. Its menu runs Mexican and international, and for a visitor it solves three things — breakfast before anything else opens, a predictable meal, and a clean bathroom with wi-fi. All branches take cards.

This branch. On Centenario, in the Del Carmen neighbourhood — which is to say in the middle of Coyoacán, a few minutes from the Jardín Hidalgo, the Mercado de Coyoacán and the Frida Kahlo Museum. It is the practical option in a neighbourhood that fills with visitors at weekends.

Why that matters here. Coyoacán is busiest from Friday to Sunday, when the plazas, the market and the museum queues are at their worst. A branch like this is where you sit down when everywhere else has a wait.

Practical notes. Centenario #5, colonia Del Carmen. Coyoacán has no Metro of its own: Viveros-Derechos Humanos and Coyoacán, line 3, are about twenty minutes on foot. Book the Casa Azul online before you come — it sells out daily.