Prendes

What Prendes is

Prendes is a Spanish and Mexican restaurant at Moliere 222 in Polanco, Mexico City, and it carries the date 1892 because that is when it opened, on the ground where the Palacio de Bellas Artes now stands.

The history is the reason to know about it. In 1904, when Porfirio Díaz ordered the construction of the palace, the restaurant was moved off the site and reopened on Calle 16 de Septiembre in the historic centre, where it spent most of the twentieth century. Pancho Villa is said to have ridden a horse into the dining room. Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo ate there, as did María Félix, Chavela Vargas, Cantinflas and Walt Disney. A mural on the wall records the famous guests, and it is the first thing to look at when you sit down.

After a period of closure, Prendes reopened on 1 September 2016 in Polanco, next to Palacio de Hierro, with a bigger room and a terrace. The family behind it is now in its fourth generation. Prendes holds no Michelin Guide listing or Bib Gourmand.

I visited as a guest of the restaurant.

Who is behind it

The Álvarez family, from Asturias in northern Spain, and specifically from the village of Prendes, which is where the name comes from. The restaurant’s own history names Lázaro Álvarez García as its founder in 1892; press accounts credit the Asturian brothers Manuel and Rafael Prendes with the opening and place Álvarez at the helm shortly afterwards. Either way, four generations of the same family have run it since.

Lázaro Álvarez leads the restaurant today, with Román Aguilar as chef. If he is in the room he will tell you the story of the move himself, including the part where a president decided a palace mattered more than a dining room. The group also runs Bellinghausen, Puerto Prendes and Boccado Prendes.

Awards and press

• El Financiero has covered Prendes twice in its recent history, in June and October 2025, as the restaurant where Pancho Villa rode in and Diego Rivera ate maguey worms.
• Food and Wine en Español covers it as one of the most frequented restaurants in Polanco.
• Milenio covered its Christmas menu paired with Bornos wines.
• Prendes holds no Michelin Guide listing, Bib Gourmand or star.

How the menu works

Prendes is à la carte and it is long. The kitchen started as purely Spanish and absorbed Mexican ingredients and dishes across a century, so the menu now runs both traditions at once without pretending they are the same thing.

• The Spanish side: freshly carved jamón, calamari, Cantabrian sea bass, croquettes, and a wine list heavy on Spanish bottles.
• The Mexican side: escamoles a la hidalguense, gusanos de maguey, and chiles en nogada in season, roughly July to September.
• The house classic: filete Chemita, a beef fillet the restaurant says was invented by a customer rather than by a chef.
• The rest of the grill: rib eye prime, grilled robalo, and brains in black butter for anyone who wants the genuinely old-fashioned end of the card.
• To finish: desserts and a carajillo, the espresso and Licor 43 that ends most long lunches in this city.
• Drinks: a large wine cellar, a cocktail list, dry martinis and margaritas.

What I ate

When I filmed in August the table went like this:

• Gusanos de maguey with a dry martini, and escamoles, the fried ant eggs. Both are better than they look and the pairing is the house’s own.
• Filete Chemita, the legendary dish, in a portion sized for the era it comes from.
• A very large chile en nogada, in season, with a watermelon margarita.
• Freshly cut jamón with a glass of tempranillo, which is the safe option for anyone at the table who is not in an adventurous mood.
• Dessert and a carajillo with marshmallow.

Leave room for the dessert. The portions before it are not small.

What it costs

Prices below were published in 2025 and 2026 and move with the season, particularly on the seasonal dishes.

Item	Price
Sautéed vegetables, the cheapest dish	110 MXN, about 6 USD
Most main courses	160 to 420 MXN, about 9 to 23 USD
Filete Chemita	370 MXN, about 20 USD
Escamoles a la hidalguense	380 MXN, about 21 USD
Grilled robalo	410 to 440 MXN, about 23 to 24 USD
Rib eye prime	680 MXN, about 37 USD
Iberian ham, the most expensive item	900 MXN, about 49 USD

For a Polanco restaurant with this much history attached, the prices are reasonable and the portions are large. A full lunch with wine lands well above the dish prices, but you are not paying a premium for the year on the door.

How to book

Reservations are recommended, particularly at weekends and for family tables.

• OpenTable: listed as Prendes Moliere, Ciudad de México.
• Phone: 55 5280 4309.
• Website: prendes.mx.
• Instagram: @restaurante_prendes.

Opening hours are Monday to Saturday from 13:00, with listings giving the closing time as anywhere between 22:00 and midnight, and Sunday from 13:00 to 19:00. There is no breakfast service. Ask for the terrace when you book if you want it.

Getting there

• Address: Moliere 222, Polanco, Miguel Hidalgo, 11540 Mexico City, beside Palacio de Hierro Polanco.
• Metro: Polanco on Line 7 is about a ten minute walk. Auditorio, also on Line 7, is a similar distance.
• Landmarks: the Palacio de Hierro Polanco department store is the marker. The restaurant sits next to it on Moliere.
• Parking: use the Palacio de Hierro parking or valet. Street parking in Polanco is not worth attempting at lunchtime.
• From the centre: about 20 to 30 minutes by taxi depending on traffic, longer than the map says.

Before you go

• Go for lunch, not dinner. Polanco lunch is the format this restaurant was built for, and it can run for hours.
• Order the insects. Escamoles and gusanos de maguey are on this menu because Diego Rivera asked for them, and they are the reason the place matters gastronomically rather than only historically.
• Time it for chile en nogada season. July to September, and the portion here is unusually large.
• Look at the mural first. It is the guest list of a century, and the staff will happily walk you through it.
• Bring parents or grandparents. This is a restaurant that works best across generations, which is fitting given who runs it.
• Pair it with a different kind of history. For the modern end of Mexico City dining, see the rest of the Mexico City recommendations.
• 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 short version, the mural, the insects and the filete. For everything else in the city, open my map or browse the Mexico City recommendations.