Rio Mayo: Frontera 150 (corner with Guanajuato)

This bar opened just recently in Roma. I went here with my roommate Tricia and they gave her free palomas (tequila with grapefruit soda) because they have lots of cheap, or in somecases, free drink specials for girls. The thriftiness doesn’t stop there though, beers are 18 pesos and dark beers like Bohemia Obscura are 22 no matter what gender you happen to be. They have nice flat screens for watching sporting events and the place is usually hoppin’ even on weekdays. On weekends they have live DJs.

Mexico City Dive Bars

You've just reached one of the best places to find some good dive bars in Mexico City. As a resident of the city, I want you to benefit from a lot of the leg work my friends and I had to do to find great, cheap places to drink with cool people. What's a dive bar? Generally I see it as a place where the beer is cheap, where the place has character but is usually not "trendy", and where a crowd from many walks of life congregates. My friends and I have a few rules in reporting a dive bar. First, the beers have to be equal or less than 25 pesos (about $2 US), preferably much less. Second, the place has to be a legit bar, not a restaurant with cheap drinks. Third, we have to have been there at a time when it was full of cool, fun people or we won't recommend it.
In all reviews we'll try to include a short description, the intersection the bar is nearest to, what the beers cost us, at least one photo, and any other pertinent information, like a metro stop nearby. Enjoy!

Hija De Los Apaches: Dr. Claudio Bernard #149, between Dr. Carmona y Valle y Dr. Lucio, Col. Doctores, metro Línea 1 Cuahutémoc or Balderas

I have to credit my pal Ashton for pointing this exceptional bar out to me. It sits a block and a half from a great art space in Colonia Doctores (http://www.estacionindianilla.com.mx/) so it makes for a great stop after a culture-filled afternoon. I have yet to go back to this place at night but it was really lively even at 4pm. Picture a cantina over run by youngsters listening to rock and drinking 25 peso caguamas (liter size beers). A few old timers still hang out there too and tend to prefer putting down tall mugs of the assortment of pulques available. Pulque is a cactus based alcoholic drink that I tend to despise due to it's slimy consistency, but never the less it adds a unique color to the dive bar's drink menu and a true taste of Mexican history. Top it all off with waiters running around in Nietzsche t-shirts and you start to get the idea...a very unique, cool experience. This is the kind of place that I love to write about on the blog and share with others. I’m really looking forward to taking a couple friends here on a second visit, preferably a weekend night. BTW, be careful in Colonia Doctores, especially at night...don't go here by yourself at 10pm, ok?

La Nueva Excelencia | Cuba Libre

The area around Allende and Republica de Cuba in the Centro Historico could be called Dive Bar Heaven, if your version of heaven involves lots great places to get cheap beer, meet people, and have fun. Here’s two places I really like when I’m in this neighborhood but not at Rio de la Plata (which has its own review on this site). Both are on Rep. de Cuba between Allende and Callejon 57. Metro Allende is the closest to this general location, Metro Bellas Artes is close too.

La Nueva Excelencia:  Maybe it’s the glass brick bar or pastel colored walls, but this place reminds me of bars you see in Pedro Almodovar films. The “New Excellence” has a legit stage where bands perform on weekends and an open bar with a nice balcony. They also have Karaoke some nights, which can be downright hilarious depending on how many 15 peso beers the people there have consumed.

Cube Libre: Cuba Libre is an awesome little place that tends to have rock and/or metal music most weekends. The clientele is of the young/rocker type and the beers are 12 pesos, the lowest I know of in the neighborhood. I’ve ended up here on numerous nights and really enjoyed myself…plus I can usually get in when some of the other bars are full. I don’t think I’d show up at this place in a golf polo and khakis though.

Dive Bars in La Condesa

La Con-fresa doesn’t really have dive bars but there are three standouts we’d like to recommend where you can get relatively cheap drinks and have a great atmosphere.

La Felina: Baja California and Ometusco (near Metro Patriotismo): La Felina is one of those bars that does just about everything right: beers for 25 pesos, Mezcal shots for 40, an ambiance that is both hip but not too overdone, and fantastic DJs on the weekends (usually hip hop, funk, or new wave). It’s small and if you don’t get a seat there be 9pm you’re probably not getting one, but that’s OK, standing and bumping into people in the crowded venue is more likely to force you into talking to your neighbor and making a new friend…which is one of the main things that should be happening in a “dive bar”—even if this spot is too cool to be one.

El Centenario: Vincente Suarez and Michoacan: This joint is a cantina meaning bright fluorescent lights (even at midnight), restaurant style tables, and botanas (cheap/free food depending on how many drinks you buy). I wouldn’t say it’s one of the top cantinas in town but it’s right in the very center of the Condesa bar scene, making the location extremely convenient. You could even say it’s an oasis of Mexican culture in one of the most un-Mexican places in Mexico, well besides Cancun. Beers: 25 pesos

Bizarro: Yucatan and Alvaro Obregon: One the border of Condesa and Roma Norte, this goth/metal bar is great place to grab a drink when you’re in the mood for thrashing electric guitar music and jet-black hair dye. 25 peso beers and 20 peso glasses of wine keep the place packed even on weekdays.

Julia's: on Cuauhtemoc by the corner of Chihuahua (metro Hospital General in Doctores [don't use this metro at night]).

I passed Julia's one day walking back to my apartment from the metro and had to do a double take. Who would have thought that one of the cheapest dive bars in town would be in the lovely Colonia Roma Norte? At 12 pesos a beer and 30 pesos a pitcher, the prices are unbeatable...plus the place is one of those rare dive bars that is clean. I've never been to Julia's when it was completely packed but they get bonus points for playing great music (often 70s funk and disco) most of the times I've gone. The place is often closed by 10 or 11pm but makes a great after-work-prefunk stop on Fridays. Don't let the sign on the photo fool you, it's not a restaurant so don't go there with a big appetite.

Rio De La Plata: Allende and Republica De Cuba (Metro Allende)

Rio De La Plata is one of the first and best dive bars I went into in the city. It has two floors, the top one with music and dancing (usually traditional Mexican music) at night. On weekends it's packed and there's a good chance you won't get in if you get there after 11pm. In which case they have Rio De La Plata 2 a, by far, inferior bar with the same great prices but without the rowdy ambiance. It's not the cheapest dive bar in this area but most definitely one of the liveliest. 14 pesos a beer, 20 pesos for a mug of dark beer from the tap, and you can buy cases of 12 bottles for, well...12 times 14 if you and your friends don't like waiting for a waiter. One downside; the bathrooms smell like hell, maybe even worse than hell on some days, but with crowds of people downing cases of beer at a time and then sweating it up on the dance floor, what do you expect?