8 Best Restaurants in San Miguel de Allende and the Heartland, Mexico

A huge favorite with locals looking for good value and consistently great food, Mestizo comes through again and again. The setting is rustic yet elegant, with original art throughout, and, in one room, ceramic pieces by the famous potter Capelo are for sale. The small bar is charming, and best of all, the super-tasty, unpretentious food is both well prepared and well presented. Service is formal and attentive. Check it out near the beginning of your stay; we bet you'll go back.

This tiny open-air restaurant looking out onto the fields of La Trinidad's organic produce offers farm-to-table dining, literally. Gnocchi is tasty but too much for a main dish; it's better to share among your party so you can save room for one of the Korean lettuce wraps, a fresh green salad, or a pork loin sandwich. Absolutely not to be missed are homemade ice creams such as vanilla bean or coconut.

Go early for best selection; food is prepared fresh daily, and the kitchen usually runs out of some dishes by afternoon's end.

The farm is about 10 minutes outside of San Miguel.

This family-owned restaurant is known for its friendly service and casual atmosphere. It has great breakfast options, including eggs Benedict and waffles, which are available until noon to aid late risers. At lunch and dinner light fare predominates, including salads and sandwiches, but there are full meals as well, such as grilled chicken with lovely steamed veggies, and the popular chiles en nogada (mild chili peppers stuffed with an elaborate ground-meat mixture and topped with walnut sauce and pomegranate seeds). Desserts are all made in-house. Don't miss the new rooftop bar, up several flights of stairs, with exceptional downtown views.

When locals, be they Mexican or expat, ask each other where to eat, the answer is very often, "Let's go to Hecho!" Both the service and the food are consistently good. Choose one of the side dishes (including onion rings, garlic mashed potatoes, cactus salad, green salad, and many more) when ordering a burger, or two side dishes for the well-prepared salmon fillet, ginger chicken, or tender arrachera steak. Favorite desserts include the monster brownie topped with vanilla ice cream, peanut butter pie, and crème brûlée. On weekends musicians often serenade diners on the pretty outdoor patio, which has a retractable roof high above the café tables. One of the two inside rooms—both of which open onto the plant-filled patio—has booths; the other, larger room has tables for four or six diners.

This fresh fusion restaurant, in a 1673 building, is at once minimalist, eclectic, international, French-influenced, and tasty. Each dish is marked on the menu with its own nationality. A recipe for disaster? Not in the case of the arrachera fusión, a variation on the classic Mexican marinated steak that includes avocado, goat cheese, and a chipotle–red wine salsa. The menu includes a large selection of creative pizzas. The wine list changes every couple of months, each time featuring a dozen wines from Mexico and other countries. There's live music Friday and Saturday nights. It closes early on Sunday, at 7:30.

Locals go to Lupita on a regular basis for the large menu, reasonable prices, and easygoing atmosphere. There are several rooms inside with tables but, weather permitting, most folks choose the open patio with equipale (pigskin) chairs, umbrella tables, and colorful walls and tablecloths. There are breakfasts from light to full; and for lunch and dinner, five soups and seven salads to choose from, as well as antojitos (snacks like tacos and burgers; tostadas with guacamole), seven pasta dishes, and a full gamut of seafood and meat dishes. There's Wi-Fi and an honor-system lending library up the back stairs.

Opened in the summer of 2014, Paprika has no Hungarian dishes, as some diners expect. Rather, there's "contemporary comfort food" for an internationally oriented palate, like the large bowl of pasta puttanesca, or spaghetti topped with shrimp and clams in a subtle, fresh, white-wine sauce. Enjoy hearty main salads, panfried broccoli gomasio (a Japanese condiment of sesame seeds and sea salt), and perfectly seasoned rack of lamb. Candles bless the colonial courtyard (and its authentic altar) in the evening; the inside dining room is comfortable shabby-chic.

Locals bring special visitors and loved ones on special occasions to this restaurant, one of the best in the city, which is out near the bull ring beyond the city center. The house specialties change from time to time, but the menu always includes Mexican dishes with modern touches, including filete Chemita (steak sautéed in butter with onions). Save room for the creamy coconut ice cream. A classical pianist performs most weekdays between 3 and 5 pm, during lunch, and there's a duet Thursday through Saturday 8 to 10 pm.