The San Ángel Inn occupies a beautiful seventeenth-century hacienda, once a Carmelite monastery and later a pulque estate, set around courtyards and formal gardens at the edge of the neighbourhood. It is one of Mexico City's grand old restaurants, serving classic Mexican and continental dishes — and famously strong margaritas, brought to the table in silver bowls — to a well-dressed crowd amid white tablecloths and colonial arches.
It is a special-occasion place rather than a casual stop, and not cheap, but the setting is genuinely lovely and the service old-school. Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo's studio-house stands directly across the street, making the two an easy pairing for a southern afternoon.