Lunarena Café

What Lunarena Café is

Lunarena Café is a small Turkish coffee bar in Mexico City with two branches, one in Condesa at Pachuca 9 on the corner with Agustín Melgar, and one in Roma Norte at Zacatecas 8. Its specialty is coffee cooked the Turkish way: very finely ground beans simmered in a cezve, the small long-handled pot, on a tray of heated sand rather than on a direct flame.

The name is a compound of luna, the moon, which the cafe links to Middle Eastern tradition, and arena, the Spanish word for sand, for the brewing method. The cafe sells its own roasted coffee and cezve sets for home use, runs coffee classes, and offers the reading of coffee grounds, known in Spanish as lectura de taza, as a bookable experience.

Lunarena is one of the better known places for Turkish coffee in the capital. Chilango and Dónde Ir profiled it in 2023 as one of the city’s dedicated Turkish coffee bars, and by 2026 the Condesa branch had accumulated close to 800 Google reviews with a 4.5 rating.

Who is behind it

Lunarena is a family business. A Food and Pleasure profile from July 2023 named Moisés Carrillo as the person directing it, with family recipes behind the sweets. Visitors in 2025 and 2026 reviews repeatedly mention an owner named Victor who talks guests through the history of Turkish coffee at the table, and staff members Leela, Quique and Adrián by name. The service style is personal and explanatory rather than a quick counter transaction.

How the menu works

There is no set menu and no table service formality. You order at the counter or from your table, and the coffee is brewed to order in front of you.

• Turkish coffee: the core product, brewed in a cezve on sand, served in a small traditional porcelain cup with a glass of water. You can have it plain or with cardamom, cinnamon, anise, mint or dried flowers, and you choose the sugar level before brewing, as the sugar goes into the pot.
• Lattes and specialty drinks: lattes built on Turkish coffee rather than espresso, including the house Latte Lunarena with turmeric and anise, plus a mocha that several reviewers single out.
• Tea: Turkish black tea served in the tulip-shaped glasses.
• Sweets: baklava with pistachio, Turkish delight and other honey and nut pastries, with seasonal additions.
• Savoury: shakshuka, eggs baked in house tomato sauce, listed as the main savoury dish, and an anise lemonade.
• Retail: bags of the cafe’s own coffee in several roasts, cezves and cup sets.

What I ate

When I filmed in August 2026 I had the classic Turkish coffee at the Condesa branch, brewed in the sand tray at the counter in front of me, served thick and strong in a decorated Turkish cup with a plate of traditional sweets alongside. The cup and saucer sets are the small handleless kind you see in Istanbul, and the coffee and the sweets are meant to be taken together: the coffee is strong and unsweetened in the cup, the sweets carry the sugar.

The reading ritual, as the cafe teaches it, goes like this: when you finish the coffee, hold the cup close to your heart, turn it three times, then flip it onto the saucer so the grounds run down the inside. The patterns that remain are what the reader interprets as past, present and future. On my visit the room was full of rugs on the floors and walls, low tables and mixed colourful seating, and my note from the day was that the atmosphere is more authentic than styled.

What it costs

Lunarena does not publish a full price list online, and delivery listings were empty when I checked. The figures below combine what I saw and what Mexican press reported.

Item	Price
Coffee cup reading, by reservation	600 MXN, about 30 USD (August 2026)
Average spend for coffee and a sweet, per person	150 to 350 MXN, about 8 to 18 USD (press, 2023 to 2024)

The average spend range comes from two profiles: Dónde Ir quoted a 350 MXN ticket in November 2023 and MXC quoted 150 MXN in March 2024. Both predate my visit, so budget toward the upper figure and expect the coffee itself to be priced like a specialty coffee in Condesa rather than a corner cafe. Prices move, and the cafe takes cards.

Do you need a reservation

For coffee and sweets, no. Both branches take walk-ins throughout the day.

For the cup reading, yes, always. The reading is a separate 600 MXN service performed by a specific person, and it is offered by appointment only.

• Instagram: send a direct message to @lunarenacafe with the branch, date and time you want.
• Phone: the cafe’s contact number given in 2025 listings is 55 1493 4320.
• The cafe also takes table reservations for groups by the same channels.

Coffee classes, where you learn to brew in a cezve, are also arranged in advance through the same Instagram account.

Getting there

• Condesa branch: Pachuca 9, corner of Agustín Melgar, Colonia Condesa, Cuauhtémoc, 06100 Mexico City. This is the residential north end of Condesa, about a 10 minute walk from Parque España and 12 to 15 minutes from Metro Chapultepec.
• Roma Norte branch: Zacatecas 8, Roma Norte, Cuauhtémoc, 06700. Two blocks from Metro Hospital General on Line 3, and around 10 minutes on foot from Plaza Río de Janeiro.
• Metrobús: the Álvaro Obregón and Sonora stops on Line 1 serve the Roma and Condesa branches respectively, each followed by a short walk.
• Parking: street parking only, with parking meters in Condesa. A taxi or ride-share is simpler.
• If you are using old articles, note that the Condesa branch was previously listed at General Benjamín Hill 71 in Hipódromo Condesa near Metro Patriotismo. The Pachuca address is the current one.

Before you go

• Book the reading before you turn up. It is the reason many people visit, and it is not available on the spot.
• Decide on sugar before you order. Turkish coffee is sweetened in the pot, not at the table. Ask for sade (no sugar), orta (medium) or şekerli (sweet), or just say how you like it in Spanish.
• Leave the grounds. The last third of the cup is sediment. Stop when the coffee turns thick.
• Go in the afternoon. Mornings are quieter; late afternoon and evening is when the room fills, and the 10:30 pm closing makes it a good after-dinner stop.
• Kids are fine. It is a cafe, not a bar, and the low seating suits families.
• Bring a camera. The rugs, copper pots and cups photograph well, and the staff are used to it.
• Pair it with a walk. The Condesa branch is close to Parque España and Avenida Amsterdam, where Orquídea makes a light, health-focused lunch before or after coffee.
• 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 shows the sand brewing and the cup ritual at the Condesa branch. For more cafes and restaurants nearby, open my Mexico City map or browse the rest of the Mexico City recommendations.