Alga

What Alga is

Alga is a small rooftop cafe in Polanco, Mexico City, on top of Casa Urbina, the 1940s mansion at Avenida Emilio Castelar 149 that faces Parque Lincoln. It calls itself a cafe and matcha bar, it opens every day from 08:00 to 20:00, and it serves coffee, ceremonial matcha, functional smoothies and a short kitchen card on a terrace above the roofline of Polanquito, the walkable cafe and restaurant quarter that surrounds the park.

It is not a standalone cafe. Alga occupies the terrace of a wellness floor in the same building, alongside a sauna, a cold plunge and Pilates, which explains both the menu and the room: protein-led plates, drinks you would want after cold water, and an interior finished to be photographed. The cafe was new when I filmed in 2026.

Two things follow from the setup. The first is that you can use the cafe without buying anything on the wellness side. The second is that the way in is not obvious, because Alga has no street frontage of its own and is reached through the mansion.

The house it sits in

Casa Urbina was designed and built between 1940 and 1941 by the architect Eduardo Fuhrken Meneses for Diana Flores de Urbina, on a corner plot of more than 1,300 square metres where Emilio Castelar meets Calle Lafontaine. It is two storeys over a basement with a turret on the corner, and it belongs to the wave of Spanish Colonial Revival architecture, called californiana in Mexico, that gave Polanco its look either side of 1940. The main facade is set back to leave a wide terrace facing south towards the park, and it carries carved cantera stone worked in a baroque manner, with pilasters, mixed curve arches and wrought iron.

Local architectural records are blunt about what has happened since it stopped being a family home. Windows were changed, structures were added onto the facade, interior stonework was painted black and a new veranda now covers the original entrance portal. The lower floors have been let to shops and restaurants for years, which is how a 1940s residence ends up with a cafe on its roof. On the way up you still pass carved stone, plasterwork, a staircase and chandeliers that belong to the original house.

I could not find published information on who runs Alga as a business. Its Instagram account is @byalga, and that is the only channel I can confirm.

How the menu works

Alga is a cafe and matcha bar rather than a restaurant, and the card is short by design. It is written for people coming out of a sauna, a cold plunge or a Pilates class, so it leans on protein and light plates instead of a bakery counter. The menu is split into eight sections:

• Coffee, 55 to 100 MXN: espresso, americano, flat white, cappuccino and latte, from a seasonal bean.
• Matcha, 135 to 160: ceremonial matcha whisked to order, plus strawberry matcha, CocoMatcha with coconut water and a version made with Koajti milk.
• Kitchen, 200 to 250: avocado toast on sourdough, brioche French toast with berries, a turkey morning melt with pesto and ranch manchego, green protein toast with turkey breast and a poached egg, and a smoked salmon bagel with capers and dill.
• Bakery, 40 to 95: scones baked daily, and Fluffy Date, a house marshmallow made with maple and natural gelatin.
• Functional Smoothies, 175 to 185: Lean Green with spinach, spirulina and ginger, then Golden Glow, Glowberry and Cocoa Flow.
• Refreshers, 50 to 120: still and sparkling water, orange juice squeezed to order, Soda Mate, kombucha.
• Te and More, 80 to 140: chamomile tea, chai latte, and a ceremonial cacao made from a pure cacao tablet, half water and half milk.
• Extras, 20 to 55: oat milk, an extra espresso shot, an egg, collagen, 50 g of avocado.

There is no tasting menu, no set breakfast and no long list of specials. Expect to order a drink and one plate and be finished inside an hour.

What I noted on my visit

The interior does more work than the food list suggests. The terrace is glassed and planted, the furniture is deliberate, and the contrast with the carved stone and chandeliers you walk past on the way up is the point of the place. If you are choosing between the indoor room and the terrace, the terrace is the reason to come.

What it costs

The figures below come from Alga’s own menu, last updated in August 2026. They are in Mexican pesos.

Item	Price
Espresso	55 MXN, about 3 USD
Cappuccino or flat white	95 MXN
Latte	100 MXN
Ceremonial matcha	135 MXN, the flavoured versions 160
Scones, baked daily	95 MXN
Avocado toast or French toast	200 MXN
Smoked salmon bagel	250 MXN
Functional smoothie	175 to 185 MXN
Oat milk, extra espresso shot, extra egg	26, 20 and 40 MXN
A drink and a plate, per person	About 300 to 400 MXN, 16 to 21 USD

The cheapest way in is an espresso at 55 MXN, the dearest single item is the smoked salmon bagel at 250, and the drinks that push a bill up are the functional smoothies rather than the coffee. Sauna, cold plunge and Pilates are charged separately by the wellness floor, not by the cafe. Prices move, so treat the card on the table as the final word.

Do you need a reservation

Not for the cafe. Alga takes walk-ins and the terrace is not run on a booking system. The only reason to get in touch first is to check whether the rooftop is open on the day you want it, because a small cafe inside a private building can close for an event or for maintenance without notice.

• Instagram: @byalga, for anything about the terrace.
• Wellness sessions: sauna, cold plunge and Pilates are booked and paid for separately from the cafe.
• Groups: the terrace is small, so ask before turning up with more than four people.

Getting there

• Address: Avenida Emilio Castelar 149, corner of Calle Lafontaine, Polanco III Sección, Miguel Hidalgo, 11550 Mexico City.
• Landmark: it faces Parque Lincoln, the long park with the mirror pond and the clock tower. From the pond it is a two minute walk.
• The way in: through the hall of the mansion, up the stairs to the second floor, then the lift to the roof.
• Metro: Polanco, on Line 7, is about a ten minute walk.
• Driving: street parking around Parque Lincoln is metered and genuinely hard to find at brunch. Valet at a neighbouring restaurant or a taxi is the easier answer.
• On foot: Polanquito is the one part of Polanco that rewards walking, so plan to arrive and leave on foot.

Before you go

• Know the route before you arrive. Hall, stairs, lift. There is no rooftop door on the street, and the ground floor of the building is occupied by other businesses.
• Go in the morning. It is a breakfast menu on a terrace that faces the park, and the block fills up later in the day.
• Do not expect a skyline. Polanquito is two and three storeys, so the view is roofs and treetops.
• Bring a layer. Mornings in Mexico City are cool at 2,240 metres, and the rainy season, roughly May to October, brings afternoon downpours to any open terrace.
• The hours are wider than the menu suggests. Alga lists every day, 08:00 to 20:00, so the terrace is not a breakfast-only stop, even though the kitchen card is written for the morning.
• Pair it with the park. Parque Lincoln, the aviary and the Polanquito streets around it make the obvious hour either side of breakfast.
• Check the hours before you go. The hours on this page come from the venue’s public listings, which drift, so confirm on Google Maps or the venue’s own channels before a special trip.

Watch the visit

The reel above is the walk up through the mansion and onto the terrace, which is the part worth seeing before you go. For everywhere else I have filmed in the city, open my map or browse the Mexico City recommendations.