Payna

What Payna is

Payna is a small seafood restaurant at Medellín 105 in Roma Norte, Mexico City, which opened in August 2026. It is genuinely small: a handful of tables inside and three on the pavement, which is the whole capacity.

The name comes from the painani, the relay runners of the Mexica empire who carried fresh fish from the Veracruz coast to Moctezuma’s table in Tenochtitlan. That is the concept rather than a decorative story. Payna buys direct from producers on the Gulf and the Pacific and puts the catch on the table fast, with the menu changing as the season and the boats change.

The menu is long for the size of the room: oysters, clams, a crudo del día, ceviches, aguachiles, cocteles, tostadas, tacos, octopus and a short list of specials. It is printed on two cards with a price beside every line, prices include tax, and the kitchen notes that everything is weighed raw. A star marks the chef’s favourites, which were the ceviche de carreta, the camarón roca tostada, the clam taco, the aguachile Payna and the pulpo zarandeado. Payna holds no guide listing or award, having opened only in 2026.

Who cooks here

Alex Reyna, known as El Muñeco, is the chef. He is from Baja California and has spent more than a decade working on how Mexican coastal fishing actually operates, which is why the restaurant talks about its producers before its dishes.

His stated line is that ice is an ingredient, and the restaurant sums up its identity as ice, oysters and mañosadas, roughly meaning clever, slightly mischievous technique. In practice that means the kitchen will not impose a fixed menu on the sea: the catch is what comes out, and the cooking adapts. The muñeco taco is named after him.

Awards and press

• Marco Beteta listed Payna among the notable Mexico City openings of August 2026, calling it mariscos chilangos built on the painani idea.
• Draft Media profiled it in 2026 as the place where the sea decides the plate, and named Alex Reyna as the chef.
• Payna holds no Michelin Guide listing, Bib Gourmand or ranking.

How the menu works

Payna is à la carte and built from small plates. Three or four dishes per person is normal here, and the sensible approach is to ask what came in that day before ordering.

• Oysters: with salsa rasurada, red onion and ponzu, 360 MXN a half dozen and 600 a dozen, or acevichados, six pieces under the house fish ceviche, 400.
• Clams: Valentina and lime, made in house, 110 MXN a piece, 290 for three and 500 for six. The almeja Payna, in a burnt chilli ponzu with octopus and shrimp, is 220.
• Crudo del día: the line that tells you to ask for the catch of the day, dressed with shiitake ponzu, chives, lemon zest and olive oil, 290 MXN.
• Aguachiles: the aguachile Payna de camarón, in a chilli salsa with smoke oil, roasted pineapple and mustard seed, 320 MXN, the classic verde de camarón at 285, and a mushroom one with roasted pineapple and habanero at 195.
• Tostadas: the camarón roca, fried shrimp in rock sauce with smoked fish pâté and avocado cream, the tostada de la casa of tuna with chapulín macha and yuzu mayonnaise, and la clásica of yellowfin tuna with avocado, red onion and ponzu.
• Ceviche and coctel: a ceviche de carreta, minced fish barely dressed with lime and salt under avocado, and a coctel mixto of fish, octopus and shrimp with the house salsa bruja.
• Tacos: the taco muñeco, fish a la talla with cabbage, pickled onion, chipotle mayonnaise and avocado cream, 110 MXN a piece. Chile güero stuffed with shrimp chorizo, 180. Three crisp octopus tacos drowned in green shrimp aguachile, 350. A clam taco in cheese sauce with bacon, 210. And a vegetarian taco of setas a la talla, 80.
• From the fire: pulpo zarandeado in chilli mayonnaise with rice, beans, avocado and tortillas, by weight at 150 MXN per 100 g.
• Specials: camarones cremosos in a garlic cream with fried onion, 300 MXN, and palomitas de pescado, fried fish with guacamole and chipotle salsa to share, 260.
• Dessert: cajeta flan with salt and olive oil, 180 MXN.
• Drinks: charged separately. Bottled beer is 70 MXN across the board, a caguama 180, cocktails 110 to 240, spirits 150 to 320, soft drinks 65, coffee 49 to 85.

What I ate

When I filmed in August the table was built around four things:

• The camarón roca tostada, which the card builds with rock sauce and a smoked fish pâté under an avocado cream. My favourite dish here.
• A very large fish taco with refreshing cabbage and pickled onion, the taco muñeco, at 110 MXN.
• A clam, which tasted close to eating one straight out of the water.
• Palomitas de pescado with guacamole and chipotle salsa, 260 MXN, a must order.

The menu runs on the catch, so treat that as an indication rather than an order sheet.

What it costs

The prices below are the ones printed beside each dish on Payna’s own cards, read at the table on my visit, not figures taken from listings. They are in Mexican pesos and, as the card states, they include tax.

Item	Price
Taco de setas a la talla, 1 piece	80 MXN
Taco muñeco, fish a la talla, 1 piece	110 MXN
Taco de chile güero with shrimp chorizo, 1 piece	180 MXN
Taco de almeja, 1 piece	210 MXN
Taco de pulpo ahogado, 3 pieces	350 MXN
Aguachile de setas, piña and habanero, 200 g	195 MXN
Aguachile verde de camarón, 160 g	285 MXN
Aguachile Payna de camarón, 160 g	320 MXN
Almeja Valentina y limón	110 MXN each, 290 for three, 500 for six
Almeja Payna, 1 piece	220 MXN
Oysters, salsa rasurada	360 MXN a half dozen, 600 a dozen
Oysters, acevichados, 6 pieces	400 MXN
Crudo del día, 160 g	290 MXN
Pulpo zarandeado	150 MXN per 100 g
Camarones cremosos, 180 g	300 MXN
Palomitas de pescado, 300 g	260 MXN
Flan de cajeta	180 MXN
Bottled beer, any of them	70 MXN, caguama 1.2 L 180
Cocktails	110 to 240 MXN
Mezcal and spirits, 60 ml	150 to 320 MXN
Soft drinks, agua del día, lemonade	65 MXN
Coffee	49 to 85 MXN

Two things the card does not settle. The tostadas, the ceviche de carreta and the coctel mixto carry prices too, but I did not record those three lines, so ask when you order. And the kitchen prints a note that everything is weighed raw, so the gram weights beside the aguachiles and the crudo are raw weight rather than what lands on the plate. Three or four plates and a beer puts most people between 600 and 900 MXN a head, which is ambitious for a fish spot this small. The quality is what justifies it, and every table being taken across the weekend suggests the market agrees.

How to book

There is no online reservation system, which is normal for a restaurant with this few seats.

• Phone: +52 55 1152 1943.
• Instagram: @paynamx.
• Otherwise: walk in, and pick your moment.

Opening hours are not published anywhere I could find, so message the restaurant before making a trip. The pattern is reliable: weekends fill, weekdays are calmer, and the earlier you arrive the better your chance of a pavement table.

Getting there

• Address: Calle Medellín 105, Roma Norte, Cuauhtémoc, 06700 Mexico City.
• Metro: Insurgentes on Line 1 is about eight minutes on foot.
• Metrobús: Línea 1 at Álvaro Obregón, about five minutes.
• Landmarks: a few blocks north of Avenida Álvaro Obregón. Do not confuse it with Mercado Medellín, further south in Roma Sur.
• Parking: difficult on Medellín. Walk or take a taxi app.

Before you go

• Ask what came in today. The species change and the staff know what is best that afternoon.
• Order the camarón roca tostada first. Then decide the rest of the table around it.
• Follow the stars if you are stuck. The card marks the chef’s favourites: ceviche de carreta, camarón roca, clam taco, aguachile Payna and pulpo zarandeado.
• Avoid Friday and Saturday evening as a walk-in. There are too few seats.
• Do not expect a cheap marisquería bill. Three or four plates and a beer is 600 to 900 MXN.
• Go at lunch if you are alone. Small plates and a small room work best in daylight.
• Pair it with another Roma Norte stop. La Pantera Asador is a short walk away on Colima.
• Check the hours before you go. The hours on this page come from public listings, which drift, so confirm on Google Maps before a special trip.

Watch the visit

The reel above is the short version: the tostada, the taco and the clams. For the rest of the city, open my map or browse the Mexico City recommendations.