Roma Sur on Foot

Why Roma Sur

Roma Sur is the half of Roma that most visitors never cross into. North of Coahuila you get the mansions, the mezcal bars and the queue for brunch. South of it you get a cemetery that became a stadium that became a housing project that became a park, a market run by Cubans and Colombians, a taquería with no chairs, and the house from Roma.

It runs from Coahuila south to the Viaducto, between Insurgentes and Avenida Cuauhtémoc. It is flatter, plainer and more residential than Roma Norte, and it has not been turned over to short-term rentals to anything like the same degree: in 2024 Roma Sur had 812 Airbnb listings against 2,571 in Roma Norte.

This walk suits people who have done Roma Norte and Condesa and want the part of the colonia where people still buy their tamales on the corner. It also suits anyone interested in 20th-century Mexico City, because the southeast corner holds one of the best stories in the city. It is not pretty everywhere. Some blocks are just apartment buildings and traffic, the big park has its share of people sleeping rough, and the east side borders a hospital district. That is the real Roma.

Practical basics

The walk is about 3.4 km, one way, and takes half a day with food. Take an Uber or taxi to Plaza Insurgentes at the start and home from Centro Médico at the end. Do it on a Sunday if you can.

Start	Plaza Insurgentes, on Insurgentes at San Luis Potosí
Finish	Centro Médico Nacional Siglo XXI, Av. Cuauhtémoc 330
Distance	About 3.4 km; roughly 45 minutes of pure walking
Time needed	3–4 hours with tamales, lunch and a market
Best day	Sunday: the Mercado El 100, El Hidalguense and Doña Emi are all open
Avoid	Mondays, when Doña Emi and Cine Tonalá are closed and El Hidalguense is shut until Friday
Toilets	Buy a coffee at MiMo, use the eco toilets at Huerto Roma Verde (small donation), or Sanborns at the start

On a weekday you lose El Hidalguense and the Sunday market but gain the IMSS medicinal herbarium at Centro Médico. If you are short of time, skip stops 8 and 9, the park and Centro Médico, and finish at Huerto Roma Verde. That saves about 1.5 km. If you come by public transport, Metrobús Campeche (Line 1) is three blocks south of Plaza Insurgentes, near the start. Metro Centro Médico (Lines 3 and 9) is at the hospital campus on Avenida Cuauhtémoc, at the end. Walk the east side in daylight. The area around Metro Centro Médico is crowded with patients and their families at all hours, and the park is quiet in the wrong way after dark.

A short history

Colonia Roma was laid out from 1902 by the Compañía de Terrenos de la Calzada de Chapultepec, on the Potreros de la Romita. The partners included Edward Walter Orrin, owner of the Circo Orrin, the engineer Cassius Clay Lamm, and Pedro Lascuráin, who later served as president of Mexico for 45 minutes. Orrin asked that the streets be named after the cities where his circus played, which is why you will walk down Tonalá, Monterrey, Campeche, Jalapa and Orizaba.

Coahuila splits the colonia in two. The south filled in more slowly than the Porfirian north and is mostly houses and apartment buildings of the 1920s to the 1950s, with fewer mansions and more Art Deco and California-style fronts.

The southeast corner has the strangest history. It was the Panteón General de la Piedad, a cemetery opened in 1871 and later abandoned. In 1924 José Vasconcelos had a school built on part of it, without moving the bodies. Next door, architect José Villagrán García built the Estadio Nacional, which opened in 1924, seated about 60,000, hosted the 1926 Central American and Caribbean Games and saw Presidents Calles, Portes Gil and Cárdenas sworn in. It was demolished in 1949.

On the stadium site Mario Pani built the Centro Urbano Presidente Juárez, the Multifamiliar Juárez, inaugurated in September 1952: 19 buildings, 984 apartments and about 4,000 square meters of murals by Carlos Mérida. An earthquake damaged it in 1957. On September 19, 1985, the big one brought parts of three buildings down and killed residents. Most of what remained was demolished that October, and the land became the Jardín Ramón López Velarde.

Meanwhile the west side was going American. Sears opened its first Mexican store on Insurgentes on February 27, 1947, and historian Julio Moreno estimates about 110,000 people came in the first three days. Mercado Medellín was founded in 1964 and Taquería Los Parados opened the year after.

The recent story is quieter. Neighbors took over an abandoned piece of the Multifamiliar in 2012 and made it Huerto Roma Verde; Cine Tonalá opened the same year. Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma (2018) put Tepeji street on the map, and in 2026 the Michelin Guide listed Los Parados.

The route

The walk runs one way, west to east, from Insurgentes to the hospital district on Avenida Cuauhtémoc, in 9 numbered stops. Follow it on the Roma Sur on Foot map, which shows every stop, the walking route, cafés (brown circles), bakeries (gold circles) and the nearest chain cafés.

Roma Sur on Foot map — Red circles are the numbered walk stops.
**Coffee** 10Tienda Trama · 15MiMo Café Bueno · 16Borona Lonchería · 17Serenna Restaurante & Café
**Bakeries** 11Panificadora Monterrey · 12El Rústico · 13La Miga · 14Aurellia Bakery
Click to enlarge. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

#	Stop	What it is
1	Plaza Insurgentes and Sanborns	Mexico’s first Sears, start
2	Mercado Medellín	Little Havana market
3	Tepeji 21 and 22	Cuarón’s Roma houses
4	Cine Tonalá	Art-house cinema and bar
5	Centro Escolar Benito Juárez	1924 school on a cemetery
6	Multifamiliar Juárez and Mercado El 100	Surviving Pani blocks, Sunday market
7	Huerto Roma Verde	Community garden on quake ruins
8	Jardín Ramón López Velarde	Big park on the stadium site
9	Centro Médico Nacional Siglo XXI	Hospital campus with a Siqueiros mural, finish

The walk, part 1: Insurgentes to Cine Tonalá

The first part starts at the old Sears and goes through the market to the Roma house and the cinema, with bread, tacos and tamales on the way.

1. Plaza Insurgentes and Sanborns

San Luis Potosí 214 at Insurgentes · mall daily 11:00–21:00 · Sanborns Sun–Thu 8:00–22:00, Fri–Sat 8:00–23:00

Plaza Insurgentes, the old Sears. Photo: [6]

Have the driver leave you on Insurgentes at San Luis Potosí. The walk starts where Mexico met American retail. This was the first Sears in Mexico, opened in 1947 on the site of the old American School. Grupo Carso bought Sears Mexico in 1997, and in 1999 the store reopened as Plaza Insurgentes, with Sears still anchoring it and a Sanborns inside. It is a plain mall now. Sanborns is good for a first coffee, a clean toilet and a paper city map. From here, walk east into Roma.

Bread on the way: Panificadora Monterrey (Monterrey 239, Mon–Sat 6:30–21:00, Sun 7:00–21:00) is a neighborhood panadería with trays and tongs, conchas and cheap sweet bread, three minutes before the market (gold circle on the map). Buy one concha for the road. For a better coffee than Sanborns, Tienda Trama (Coahuila 137), a cooperative shop of Mexican makers, pours its own (brown circle on the map).

2. Mercado Medellín

Campeche 101 · Mon–Sat 8:00–18:00, Sun 8:00–17:00 · free

Drink stalls inside the market. Photo: [5]

Walk about nine minutes south-east to Campeche, ten if you stop for bread. Officially Mercado Melchor Ocampo, founded in 1964, with more than 500 stalls. After the 1985 quake, migrants from around Latin America moved in, and it is known as La Pequeña Habana. You will find Cuban malta, Colombian arepas and coffee, Venezuelan rum, yuca, sugarcane juice, mole by the kilo and Xochimilco herbs. Cuban and Colombian flags hang over the stalls.

Food nearby: next door, the Comedor de los Milagros (Medellín 221) is a Latin American food hall with Colombian, Peruvian, Argentine and Brazilian counters. It is better at night. From Friday to Sunday, El Hidalguense (Campeche 155, Fri–Sun 7:00–17:30) is three minutes west for Hidalgo-style lamb barbacoa cooked in a pit in maguey leaves, with consomé, handmade tortillas and salsas. Order a big portion to share and build your own tacos. Go early; there is often a wait.

Bread: El Rústico (Medellín 265, daily 9:00–18:00) is on the way south (gold circle on the map). It mills its own flour on stone in the shop and bakes whole-grain sourdough, and the fresh loaves come out around midday. Buy something for tomorrow’s breakfast.

3. Tepeji 21 and 22

Tepeji 21 and 22 · exterior only, private homes · free

Tepeji 22, the facade used in the film. Photo: [4]

Walk about six minutes south-east to Tepeji, a little more if you go down Medellín past El Rústico. Cuarón grew up at number 21. The film used the house across the street, number 22, because the light was better; the crew changed its gate to match. Only the facade was shot here, and the interiors were rebuilt elsewhere. Number 22 has a small sign saying Roma was filmed there. People live in both houses. Take your photo and move on.

Lunch: Taquería Los Parados (Monterrey 333, Mon–Thu 12:30–3:00, Fri–Sat 12:30–5:00, Sun 12:30–1:00) is four minutes south. Open since 1965, and the name is literal: there are no chairs. You stand at metal shelves and eat charcoal-grilled meat cooked to order. Michelin recommends the bistec and the paper-thin costilla, and the pastor is safe. Loud, bright and full until very late.

Before 12:30, or for something lighter, go to Tamales Doña Emi at Jalapa and Tlaxcala, two minutes north-east and on the way to the next stop (Tue–Fri 8:00–14:00, Sat–Sun 8:30–14:30, closed Mon). Look for the lime-green banner. Ermilia Galván, Doña Emi, learned her trade in Ozumba and started out with a wooden cart in La Roma more than 50 years ago; her daughter and granddaughter run it now. There are about 18 kinds. The verde and rajas are the classics, and the huitlacoche with goat cheese and the fig with walnut sell out first. Have an atole with it and eat on the sidewalk like everyone else. Late in the morning the choice gets thin.

4. Cine Tonalá

Tonalá 261 · Tue–Sun 13:00–1:00, closed Mon · check showtimes and prices

From Tepeji it is about two minutes north-east, past Doña Emi; from Los Parados, about six minutes north. Cine Tonalá opened in 2012 and has since spread to Bogotá, Tijuana and Querétaro. It shows independent and auteur films, usually with at least one Mexican title, in their original language with Spanish subtitles, plus stand-up and concerts. You can order pizza and drinks into the screening. It isn’t open yet in the morning, so note what’s on and come back in the evening.

Coffee break: MiMo Café Bueno (Aguascalientes 11, Mon 9:00–18:00, Tue–Fri 8:30–18:00, Sat–Sun 9:00–17:00) is two minutes away and only a minute off the way to the next stop (brown circle on the map). It is a small specialty coffee bar on a tree-lined block. Single-origin beans, V60 and Chemex, and baristas happy to explain the choices. The best coffee on the walk.

The walk, part 2: the old school to Centro Médico

The second part covers the old cemetery, stadium and housing project.

5. Centro Escolar Benito Juárez

Jalapa 272 · exterior only · free

Two minutes east, on Jalapa, is a neocolonial public school by Carlos Obregón Santacilia, built in 1924 for José Vasconcelos’s education drive, on a corner of the old cemetery. The bodies were never moved. It is still a primary school, so look from the street.

6. Multifamiliar Juárez and Mercado El 100

Huatabampo and Toluca · exterior only · Mercado El 100 on Orizaba, Sun 9:00–14:00 · free

Sculpture in the Centro Urbano Presidente Juárez. Photo: [3]

Walk three minutes north on Jalapa into what is left of Pani’s Multifamiliar. The tall blocks are gone. The low four-story type D buildings survived, and people still live in them. Calle Toluca is the old Orizaba, which Pani sank below ground level so traffic could pass under the complex, reportedly the first such underpass in the city. The plaque from the 1952 inauguration is on Antonio M. Anza.

Mérida’s murals were almost all lost in 1985. What could be saved went to a monument at the Fuentes Brotantes housing unit in Tlalpan, far south. On Sundays the Mercado El 100 sets up here, with organic producers, cheese, tamales and coffee.

7. Huerto Roma Verde

Jalapa 234 · daily 10:00–19:00 · free to enter

Walk two minutes back west to Jalapa. The entrance is the one with the wall of blue water jugs. This lot sat abandoned for 27 years after the quake until neighbors and volunteers took it over in 2012. Now it is a permaculture garden and community center run by La Cuadra A.C., with a geodesic dome, a greenhouse, rescued animals, a temazcal and a café cooking from the garden. I like it.

8. Jardín Ramón López Velarde

Av. Cuauhtémoc s/n, across from Centro Médico · open 24 hours, go in daylight · free

The park on the old stadium site. Photo: [2]

Walk on to the park and go in by its northwest side, about eight minutes. Under your feet are, in order, a 19th-century cemetery, a 60,000-seat stadium and most of a 1952 housing project. The park took the poet’s name in 1985. It has a running track, courts, a serious outdoor gym, dog runs and an ahuehuete tree declared part of the city’s natural heritage. The borough spent 25 million pesos (~1.3 million USD) redoing it under mayor Sandra Cuevas, and added a steel elephant made of license plates by Fernando Andriacci. Look for it.

9. Centro Médico Nacional Siglo XXI

Av. Cuauhtémoc 330, Col. Doctores · grounds open daily · free; Herbario Medicinal Mon–Fri 10:00–14:00

Centro Médico Nacional Siglo XXI. Photo: [1]

Leave the park and cross Cuauhtémoc to the campus, about 13 minutes on foot. Strictly speaking this is Colonia Doctores, but Roma Sur looks at it every day. The first Centro Médico, designed by Enrique Yáñez, opened in the early 1960s; the 1985 quake wrecked its foundations, and the complex was rebuilt and reopened in 1992 as Siglo XXI. José Chávez Morado’s relief Evolución y futuro de la ciencia médica en México survived and stands at the access plaza.

The prize is inside the Hospital de Oncología: David Alfaro Siqueiros’s Apología de la futura victoria de la ciencia médica contra el cáncer (1958), a 26-meter mural rescued from the ruins and rehung in the lobby. This is a working cancer hospital. Ask the guard politely, look quietly, and don’t take photos of patients.

On weekdays the IMSS Herbario Medicinal, in the basement of the Unidad de Congresos, shows about 17,000 medicinal plant specimens.

This is the end of the walk. Metro Centro Médico is on the campus, or get an Uber home from here.

Coffee, food and drink

For coffee, go to MiMo; for breakfast, Doña Emi; for lunch, Los Parados or, on a weekend, El Hidalguense; for the evening, La Riviera del Sur.

Place	What	Where
MiMo Café Bueno	Specialty coffee	Aguascalientes 11, between stops 4 and 5
Tamales Doña Emi	Tamales, atole	Jalapa at Tlaxcala, between stops 3 and 4
Café del Huerto	Food from the garden	Inside stop 7
El Rústico	Sourdough, whole-grain bread	Medellín 265, between stops 2 and 3
La Miga	Bread, pastries, coffee	Monterrey 284, near stop 3
Aurellia Bakery	Bakery	Jalapa 278 Local D, near stop 3
Panificadora Monterrey	Traditional pan dulce	Monterrey 239, between stops 1 and 2
Taquería Los Parados	Grilled-meat tacos	Monterrey 333, near stop 3
El Hidalguense	Lamb barbacoa, weekends	Campeche 155, near stop 2
Comedor de los Milagros	Latin American food hall	Medellín 221, next to stop 2
Borona Lonchería	Brunch, salads, coffee	Aguascalientes 98 D
Por Siempre Vegana	Vegan tacos	Coahuila 169, between stops 1 and 2
La Riviera del Sur	Yucatecan food, mezcal	Chiapas 174, between stops 1 and 2

For the evening, La Riviera del Sur (Chiapas 174; Mon 13:00–24:00, Tue 13:00–1:00, Wed–Sat 13:00–2:00, Sun 13:00–24:00) is one block over the line into Roma Norte. It is a large cantina-style room with dark wood, domino tables and tropical murals. The food is from the Yucatán peninsula: relleno negro, chaya quesadillas, cochinita, and a long mezcal list. Service can be slow because the room is big. Nobody minds.

If you just want a familiar cup, the chains sit along the route:

Starbucks at Monterrey 330, across the street from Los Parados (near stop 3)
Tierra Garat at Manzanillo 38, a block from El Hidalguense
Sanborns inside Plaza Insurgentes, at the start
Starbucks at Nuevo León 188 and Tierra Garat at Nuevo León 122, across Insurgentes in Hipódromo
Starbucks at Insurgentes Centro 523, near the Viaducto

Shops worth the detour

Roma Sur has no shopping street. Its best buys are edible.

Mercado Medellín (stop 2): Cuban and Colombian groceries, mole paste, Venezuelan rum, dried chiles.
Tienda Trama, Coahuila 137: a cooperative shop with work by Mexican makers, ceramics, jewelry, embroidery and its own coffee.
Mercado El 100 (stop 6): Sunday-morning organic produce, cheese and coffee from small producers.
El Rústico (Medellín 265): a loaf of stone-milled sourdough.

Which day to walk

Sunday gets you the most; Monday the least. Only the stops with limited days are listed below.

Stop	Mon	Tue–Fri	Sat	Sun
2 Mercado Medellín	Open	Open	Open	Until 17:00
4 Cine Tonalá	Closed	From 13:00	From 13:00	From 13:00
6 Mercado El 100	No	No	No	9:00–14:00
9 Herbario Medicinal	Open	Open	Closed	Closed

Of the food stops, El Hidalguense opens only Friday to Sunday, and Doña Emi is closed on Mondays and stops at 14:00 (14:30 on weekends). On a weekday other than Friday, lunch at Los Parados and skip El Hidalguense.

Keep walking

Roma Sur borders three other walks in this series, so you can carry on.

North: Roma Norte. Plaza Insurgentes, at the start, is a block from Roma Norte. Walk up Medellín or Monterrey and you are there. The main Roma guide covers it.

West: Hipódromo and Condesa. Cross Insurgentes at the start and walk west along Campeche into the Hipódromo’s Art Deco streets and on to Parque México.

South: the Ecoducto. From Los Parados (near stop 3) walk four blocks down Monterrey to the Viaducto. Since 2017 the median has carried the Ecoducto, a 1.6 km planted walkway that cleans water from the piped Río de la Piedad with biodigesters and wetlands. It runs west from Monterrey to Calle Unión, past Insurgentes, and Metro Chilpancingo (Line 9) is a few minutes north of its western half.

About the author and where to stay

Brian has lived in Roma Norte for about five years and writes the See Mexico City guides. He speaks seven languages and still gets lost on purpose.

When you visit, stay with us at Penthouse El Cielo de Roma in Roma Norte.

Photo credits

Photos via Wikimedia Commons, used under the licenses shown. Numbers match the captions.

Plaza Insurgentes (2023).jpg, UNVERIFIED, UNVERIFIED
Locales de bebidas en el Mercado de Medellín.jpg, UNVERIFIED, UNVERIFIED
"Roma" filming locations in Mexico City – 2.jpg, ProtoplasmaKid, CC BY-SA 4.0
PrimariaBenitoJuarezCUBJDF.JPG, Thelmadatter, CC BY-SA 3.0
Escultura en el Centro Urbano Presidente Juárez.jpg, UNVERIFIED, UNVERIFIED
Huerto Roma Verde 03.jpg, Álvaro de la Paz Franco, CC0
Jardín Ramón López Velarde.jpg, UNVERIFIED, UNVERIFIED
Centro Médico Nacional Siglo XXI IMSS 08.jpg, UNVERIFIED, UNVERIFIED

Sources

Hours and prices checked October 2026; confirm before you go.

Roma Penthouse — Penthouse Cielo de Roma