💬 Do you like Mexican food? Are you a street-food kind of person? Some people are and some people just aren’t. If you are, huzzah, lucky you, plenty of great snacks for you! And if you aren’t, I hope that by the time you’ve finished reading this article, you’ll be excited to search out authentic Mexican street food in Mérida and to give it a try.

In this article I’ll tell you where to find the best Mexican street foods in Mérida and also let you in on the secrets of my favourite eating spots in the rest of Mexico. 

Did you know that street food is often called ANTOJITO in Spanish? The direct translation of antojito is “little cravings”.

Personally, I’ve always been a huge fan of street food. Wherever I travel I take myself to markets and street stalls to gobble up delicious local treats. 

🇨🇳 When I worked as an English teacher in China I ate lunch at street stalls almost every single day. 

🇹🇭 In Thailand, I was rarely far from a market restaurant. 

🇷🇼 When I lived in Rwanda my favourite food was market samosas. 

🇲🇼 Working in Malawi, I would beg my local colleagues to stop at street stalls to let me buy BBQ mouse. They drew the line I didn’t know how to draw for myself but I still wonder about that mouse!

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Welcome to Mérida

Mexican Street Food -What You Need to Know

✔️ Every region of Mexico has its own take on street food; Yucatán is entirely different to northern Mexico, for example. 

✔️ The most important thing for visitors to know is that street food is generally safe and clean in Mexico. Mexicans eat street food and aren’t getting sick. Visitors are also eating street food and not getting sick. The best way to find your street vendors is to watch where the locals eat and avoid where they avoid.

 ✔️ Because tap water isn’t used in cooking, there’s little that should be classified as ‘out of bounds’. I’ve always eaten salad in Mexico and have also always drunk every juice or agua fresca I’ve been offered because I know that the water used is garafon water (bottled and declared safe to drink).

So, without further ado, let’s commence our culinary tour of the streets of Merida.

Street Food in Mérida: Esquites and Elotes – Corn

🌽 This is Mexican street corn served in two different ways. Both versions are a popular street food across the whole of Mexico.

🌽 It is important to remember that these corn snacks are not the yellow sweetened variety of corn you’re probably used to. This is white corn. 

🌽 Elotes are grilled or boiled corn on the cob, generally smothered in mayonnaise and lemon juice and then rolled in chili powder and/or cheese.

🌽 Esquites is off-the-cob corn kernels in a cup smothered in mayonnaise / cream with cheese, lime juice, chili and a whole host of optional extras. Esquites is one of my absolute favourite snacks.

🌽💲 Prices vary slightly but it’s rarely more than $50 pesos for a large cup of corn.

Where can I find elotes and esquites in Mérida?

Elotes and esquites stalls tend to appear at dusk. When you’re out walking and exploring you’ll see them anywhere people congregate: look around plazas and playgrounds and on Paseo Montejo. At the beach in Progreso you’ll find stalls around the piers.

Mexico Cassie’s favourite elotes and esquites experiences around Mexico

🌽 I had my first ever cup of esquites at Día de Muertos in Oaxaca. I fell in love.

🌽 I’ve enjoyed it when cold and tired in the mountain village of Tapalpa, Jalisco.

🌽 Esquites and people watching on the plaza of Chiapa de Corzo (Cañon de Sumidero embarking point) are a great pairing.

🌽 Strolling around Coyoacan in Mexico City and gobbling up the giant elote is a lot of fun.

Street Food in Mérida: Marquesitas

🧇 A marquesita is esentially  a cross between a waffle and an ice cream cone. The mixture is poured on a hot griddle and heats it up until it looks like a flattened cone. Personally, I love it when I strike gold and get an ever so slightly chewy one.

🧇 Apparently the marquesita was born during a particularly cold spell in Mérida when ice cream sales were unusually low. Some bright spark decided to try using the cone batter in a different way.

🧇 The marquesita is rolled up tight and filled with different fillings of your choice. 

🧇 Grated edam (queso de bola) tends to be a staple ingredient but it isn’t mandatory. You can then add any combination of peanut butter, banana, jam, Nutella, Nusita (a local three-flavour spread).

🧇 Recently, super fancy marquesitas have appeared in Mérida that include ice cream and other fun ingredients.

🧇💲Generally, it’s around $50 pesos for one of these bad boys but the more ingredients you choose, the more they cost. 

Where can I find marquesitas in Mérida?

🧇 You’ll find marquesitas as the sun goes down. Check out playgrounds and plazas. By Parque las Americas in Garcia Gineres you will find a whole row of street food vendors. Here you can even get a marquesita with ice cream on it!

🧇 My favourite marquesitas come from a small stand by the church on Plaza San Juanistas in Campestre.

🧇 You can even buy marquesitas from proper shops these days. You’ll find them in the malls and at the airport. Marquesitas are big business.

Mexico Cassie’s favourite marquesita experiences around Mexico

🧇 There’s nothing like eating a marquesita on the beach at dusk or joining locals on a small pueblo’s plaza to buy your kids a marquesita.

Street Food in Merida: Tostilocos

When you order tostilocos, you are paying for someone to open a bag of nachos (Tostitos or Doritos) and smother it in all sorts of delicious unhealthiness.

🧀 Tostilocos, I believe, were invented in Tijuana (like the Caesar Salad).

🧀  Tostitos are a type of nacho chip. and loco means crazy in Spanish so these are essentially, “crazy chips”.

🧀Your bag of nachos will be opened lengthways and covered in cream, liquid cheese, cheese, chili sauce, jalapeños and sometimes even meat. Basically, anything goes on tostilocos.

🧀 If you’re at a really ‘fancy’ stand you may be offered chili nuts, chile candy and extra chile sauces to really make this snack ‘pop’. 

🧀 💲Around 50 – 75 pesos

Where can I find tostilocos in Mérida?

🧀 I generally find tostilocos in parks. Remember the street food vendor street I mentioned above that’s by Parque las Americas? The best tostilocos I ever had in Mérida was on Parque Aléman at dusk. Mmmmm, they even put them on a plate for me. Fancy!

🧀 Animaya, Mérida’s incredible (and free) safari zoo and play area has good tostilocos stands in the playground.

Mexico Cassie’s favourite tostilocos experiences around Mexico

🧀 I love to eat tostilocos strolling around Mexico City’s Bosque de Chapultepec, the best park in Latin America. 

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Three Highly Rated Food Tours in Mérida

Street Food in Mérida: Helados, Paletas Y Bolis – Ice Creams

Ice creams are taken very seriously in Mexico and Mérida is no exception. When it’s hot for so much of the year everyone eats ice cream all of the time.

🍦Helado = ice cream (it’s easy to get non-dairy ice cream, often called nieve)

🍦 Paleta = ice lolly on a stick (popsicle)

🍦 Bolis = ice lolly in a plastic wrapper

🍦You can buy all of these in stores like Oxxo if you’re after an international branded ice cream, from a local store or from the guys walking around selling their wares from tiny cool boxes. All are perfectly safe. 

🍦 Be warned that the homemade bolis can give a big old surprise if there is too much food colouring. Suffice to say we have had some interesting experiences helping our kids in the toilet after they’ve had cheap blue bolis.

Where can I find ice cream in Mérida?

🍦 Mérida takes ice cream very seriously, as I said. The oldest and most famous ice cream store is EL Colón. There are two central locations: one on Paseo de Montejo, and one on the Plaza Grande. Here locals will sit and enjoy a sorbet and a small pastry while watching the world go by. There’s really nothing in Mérida that compares to this experience. Be sure to try the watermelon and coconut flavours, they’re my favourites.

🍦 Pola Gelato is another of my favourite options for ice cream in centro. On Mondays they follow the Yucatecan tradition of pork and beans by having a pork and bean flavoured ice cream! They also have an incredible red wine sorbet and many other interesting flavours.

🍦 If you’re after a paleta (popsicle on a stick), my top recommendation in Mérida is Paletaria de las Rellenas de 60. Here you can get the most delicious versions of paletas you can imagine.

🍦 There are dozens of other ice cream stores, both experimental and fancy as well as traditional and cheap. Be sure to try them all, even the vendors on the street with their small carts of homemade ice cream.

Mexico Cassie’s favourite ice cream experiences around Mexico

🍦 We learned about the various cacti flavoured ice creams while staying in and around San Miguel de Allende. 

🍦 In Cholula, just outside Puebla, we enjoyed zero-waste ice creams served in corn-husks. 

🍦 In Tequisquiapan (Guadalajara) they have incredible ice cream options including tequila and avocado.

Street Food in Mérida – Fruit Based Options

In Mérida there are fresh fruits everywhere you look. The trees are laden with it, and the markets overflow with this sweet natural goodness. The most common fruits to see are oranges, melons, grapefruit, coconut, mango and papaya.

🥭 If you head downtown to Centro you’ll see plenty of small stands selling cups full of cut fruit, generally smothered in chile powder. Even many of the supermarkets have a cut fruit bar with tubs of chile powder standing alongside, ready for the necessary dousing. 

🥭 Agua Frescas are delicious fruit drinks that are incredibly refreshing. They will always be made with purified water (good) and will sometimes have added sugar (bad). As a general rule, if it’s pre-made it may well have added sugar, if it’s being made in front of you, it’s unlikely to have extra sugar.

🥭 If you like chili fruit, maybe you’ll also enjoy the famous Mexican chili candies. Of course, Mexico also has plenty of amazing non-spicy candy.

Where can I find fresh fruit snacks in Mérida?

🥭 Your best bet is around the markets, particularly Lucas de Galvez where there are sellers with fruit as well as permanent agua fresca stands. In this market you will also find people selling fresh coconuts that are perfectly delicious.

🥭 As in most Mexican cities, you will find street vendors with little stalls selling fruits as you walk around town.

🥭 Look out for fruiterias (shops selling fresh fruit, they will make smoothies and agua frescas too)

🥭 Many restaurants will have an agua fresca del día

Mexico Cassie’s favourite fruit snack experiences around Mexico

🥭 Bionico is a popular Mexican street food. It’s a fruit cocktail from Guadalajara that includes chopped fruits topped with a sweet cream mixture, granola, pecans, raisins, and desiccated coconut.

🥭 At the beach, particularly in Yucatán, you’ll find fabulous coconut pie, flan, ice cream and fresh coconut.

🥭 In Tabasco we bought coconut along the side of the road, lychee also grow in Tabasco.

🥭 Eating enormous plates of fresh fruit while watching my kids play in Mexico City’s parks is one of my favourite things to do.

🥭 Watching my four-year-old buy fruit from a vendor in Creel (Copper Canyon) is one of my favourite memories ever.

Do you love chocolate? Did you know chocolate was invented in Mexico? Find out more about Merida’s chocolate traditions here.

Street Food in Mérida – Tacos and more

🌮 In Mérida you will find that taco stands tend to be open for breakfast so get there early. By lunch people in Mérida have moved onto loncherias or cocina economicas (many of which deliver), which are often found around the markets for cheap, simple but delicious meals. 

🌮 Tacos are a folded tortilla (generally corn in Yucatán but you can find wheat in the stores) usually stuffed with meat but there are generally options available for vegetarians too.

🌮 In Yucatán there is nothing better than eating fresh handmade tortillas or tacos. Generally they will be small corn tortillas in Yucatán.

🌮 Tacos vary wildly depending on where you are in Mexico. In the north you may well find flour tortillas are more common than corn tortillas. The flavour is very different, indeed. 

🌮 Tacos al Pastor are very popular – this is a marinated pork roasted on a spit. This probably came from Lebanon originally but has been entirely Mexicanised with a fabulous array of salsas and pico de Gallo (a delicious tomato and cilantro based salsa that can be pretty spicy).

🌮 At a loncheria you might find empanadas, quesadillas, tortas (filled bread rolls), panuchos (refried tortilla stuffed with beans and topped with chicken or turkey and salad), salbutes (more or less the same but without the beans) and sopes. Pretty much whenever you’re out and about, whether at a street food stand or a local restaurant you’ll be offered any of these options. 

🌮 In Mexico City, if you want a quesadilla with cheese, please remember to specify that you want it with cheese. Those weird and wonderful people don’t think cheese is a vital ingredient in the quesadilla.

Where can I find tacos etc in Mérida?

🌮 My favourite taco stands in Mérida are El Ñero, Wayan’e in Itzimna and one by the stadium (calles 13×18). These aren’t exactly street tacos but they’re not super posh places either.

🌮 If you’re out in the mornings you’ll see people at breakfast taco stands everywhere you look. If you’re after lunch or supper tacos then my favourite place to eat them is Catrín.

🌮 Loncherias tend to be around the markets and smaller plazas. Try San Juan, Santa Ana and San Sebastian in particular.

Mexico Cassie’s favourite taco experiences around Mexico

🌮 The streets of Mexico City are the undisputed king of tacos so you utterly must try tacos while you’re there. I wouldn’t dream of being in the city and not trying a new taco spot. I’ve eaten tacos with my kids in centro, with my partner and friends by Reforma and, oh gosh, where haven’t I eaten tacos in Mexico City?

🌮 In Oaxaca, try a taco de chapuline, grasshopper taco. One of my kids is a big fan!

🌮 Also found in Oaxaca is the tlayuda; a traditional large corn tortilla that has been smothered in lard, refried beans, Oaxaca cheese and salad. A tlayuda could be mistaken for a giant tostada if I’m being honest but that doesn’t mean it isn’t totally delicious. I used to stop for tlayudas after language school when I lived in Oaxaca.

🌮 The Tabasqueno version of the tlayuda is the pishul, also well worth trying. I enjoyed it so much that I made my family eat in the same small restaurant two days in a row just so I could eat it again.

🌮 Outside the Copper Canyon Adventure Park in Chihuahua, there is a street food market where you can sit and enjoy some of the best tacos you’ll ever have. I still think about this market more than I care to admit.

🌮 At the beach around Mexico, of course, fish tacos reign supreme. Do not miss this deliciousness. From Sayulita to Baja California, to Oaxaca, to Yucatán, everywhere sells its own fish tacos. Bathe them in hot sauce and go to town on those bad boys. 

Street Food in Mérida – Gorditas

Similar to an arepa, the gordita is made from masa and filled. Fillings can be savoury or sweet.

🫓 Did you know that gordita means ‘fatty’ in Spanish?

Where can I find gorditas in Mérida?

🫓 Although they do exist in Mérida, I actually only saw them regularly at festivals or on the corner of calles 60 x 61 by Plaza Grande where there is a gordia store.

Mexico Cassie’s favourite gordita experiences around Mexico

🫓 In Bernal, in Queretaro, gorditas are a bit of a “thing”. We climbed the monolith, which had been a dream of mine, and then headed into town to try their famous gorditas. Pretty yum.

Street Food in Mérida – Tamales

🫔 A tamal (one tamal, many tamales) is a type of corn dough dumpling stuffed with a filling and wrapped in either a corn husk or banana leaves. 

🫔 Tamales are eaten all the time and they’re popular party food.

🫔 In Yucatán, tamales and pib (a type of tamal) are served at Hanal Pixán (Yucatecan Day of the Dead).

🫔 Fillings include chicken, mole, vegetables and cheese. There are even sweet tamales.

🫔 In CDMX you may even be offered a torta de tamal, a tamal in a crusty bun.

Where can I find tamales in Mérida?

🫔 My favourite tamales in Mérida are bought from the back of a truck on Av Romulo Rozo just off the Monumento A La Patria around 6 pm because it’s well known that the best tamales in Mérida come from here.

🫔 If you want a vegan alternative then Manik Bal is amazing.

🫔 The main market, Lucas de Galvez, also has good tamales.

Mexico Cassie’s favourite tamal experiences around Mexico

🫔 Although my kids, being good Mexican children, love a tamal and will beg for them regularly, I’m not a huuuuuge fan. They, of course, grew up eating them at birthday parties and school whereas I did not. I truly enjoyed the tamales I ate on the plaza and in the market in Guanajuato, though.

🫔 In Mexico City we took a tour to the Aztec canals of Xocimiloco and my kids persudaed the tour guide to take us to his favourite tamales restaurant in Coyoacan on the way back. They loved that experience.

Street Food in Mérida – Fried Stuff

You’ll see many of these street stalls around, particularly at events. They tend to sell churros, fries, corn dogs, bits of sausage and chips (crisps to my British readers). I’m not a fan of anything from these stands except chips smothered in chile sauce. Everything else tends to be cold. My weirdo kids do like a corndog when they can persuade us to let them eat one.

Street Foods in Mérida – Beach Sweets

If you head to the beach you’ll be treated to guys heading up and down the beach calling ‘meringue’ over and over. They don’t only sell meringues but all sorts of local candies (that can also be picked up in town). All are delicious if you enjoy sugar. They generally cost up to $25 pesos a piece. Stop a guy and have a look. You can also get similar candies in the Lucas de Galvez market.

Convenience Stores

You can barely move in Merida without stumbling over an Oxxo, Seven-Eleven or a Six. Here you can buy absolutely anything your heart desires…as long as your heart desires potato chips, chocolate, biscuits, soda or beer. And of course, fast food stores are everywhere too.

And, of course, a final plea for sustainability when travelling: carry your own cutlery and crockery rather than add to the mountains of waste we humans create on a daily basis.