Café Pacífico is one of the city's most enduring cantinas, a dark-tiled room with high ceilings, ceiling fans, and the smell of decades of good beer and fried botanas (bar snacks). It is the kind of place where you order a caguama (a large 940ml bottle of Modelo or Victoria), and a plate of chicharrones arrives without you asking.
In the tradition of Mexican cantinas, the botanas are free with drinks — expect peanuts, jicama with chile, and if you are lucky, a plate of tacos de canasta. The atmosphere is mixed: workers, students, older men playing dominoes, and the occasional confused tourist. That is exactly right. Go in the early evening before dinner.