Bar Nino: Mexico City Travel Guide

One drink, taken seriously

Bar Nino does one thing. It pours margaritas, and the menu keeps changing with the seasons instead of settling on a fixed list.

The pedigree explains the interest. Nino comes from the people behind Licorería Limantour, the Roma Norte cocktail bar that regularly appears on lists of Latin America’s best. A side project from a team like that usually means a short menu and drinks they’ve tested hard. Here, all of that effort goes into a single cocktail.

The nine-chili margarita and the rotation

The drink people talk about uses nine types of chili. Mexico has a deep chili vocabulary, from smoky dried varieties to sharp fresh ones. Stacking nine of them into one glass is a statement about how layered the heat can get.

Everything else rotates. What’s poured in one season may be gone by the next, so treat the list you see online as a rough guide only. A few useful words for the bar:

• Con sal / sin sal: with or without a salt rim
• Escarchado: the rim coating, sometimes salt mixed with chili
• Picante: spicy; ask how hot before committing
• Otra, por favor: another one, please

Finding it in Roma Norte

Nino is tucked away in Roma Norte, so use the map pin and don’t count on spotting it from the street. The neighbourhood is laid out in a grid of tree-lined streets. Most visitors walk in from nearby or arrive by Uber or DiDi, both widely used in the city.

By public transport, Metrobús Line 1 runs along Avenida Insurgentes, the neighbourhood’s western edge, with stops at Álvaro Obregón and Durango. Insurgentes Metro station (Line 1) is a short walk north.

Build an evening around it. Avenida Álvaro Obregón, with its wide central walkway, is a good street for dinner first. Plaza Río de Janeiro, with its replica of Michelangelo’s David, is close by too. Condesa and Parque México are a short walk west if you want a second bar.

Pacing a margarita bar at altitude

Mexico City sits about 2,240 metres above sea level. Visitors regularly find that drinks hit harder here than at home. Two margaritas in, with a chili-heavy one among them, is a sensible place to pause and drink water.

How the evening works:

• Check before going. Nino is new, and hours and booking policy can change in a bar’s first months. Look at its social media or Limantour’s channels on the day.
• Pay by card or cash. Cards are widely accepted at Roma Norte bars. Ask for the bill with “la cuenta, por favor”; it won’t come until you ask.
• Tip on the bill. Around 10 to 15 percent is customary in Mexico. When paying by card, the server may ask how much propina to add before running the terminal.
• Taste down the heat scale. If you’re ordering more than one, have the milder seasonal flavour first. The nine-chili margarita lingers and will flatten whatever comes after it.

Prices aren’t published here. Check the menu at the bar or online before ordering.