For the last fifteen years (give or take) I have been living in the San Miguel Chapultepec neighborhood of Mexico City. Being located right between the eternally gentrified expat hot-spot of la Condesa and the ungentrifiable down-and-dirty barrio of Tacubaya, we tend to see a lot of fluctuation in the local eating establishments.
There are constantly new restaurants, cafés, eateries, and food stalls of every type being opened ... and just as often closed again. We've gotten quite used to it, and in fact try to get a taste of every new place before it shuts its doors again for good. I particularly enjoy scrutinizing hamburgers, seeing if I can find the best ones around, sometimes more successfully than others.
Many of the burgers I've tried were no good. Soggy or stale, over- or undercondimented, ridiculously small or too huge to handle, or they only offered soda but no beer with it. I know, I am being a bit hard to please, particularly when it comes to hamburgers. But there is simply such a wide range of offers that it's actually worth it. So yeah, good riddance to those sub-par burgers! However, I must also admit, some of the hamburgers we tried were actually quite delish, still the place got closed for some reason. Oh well... They will be missed, for sure, but there are always others.
Las Mamis, Not Living Up To Its Hype
Recently a new burger joint was opened not far from our house, and before I even had a chance to check it out I was overwhelmed by promotions for it. It's the fourth or fifth location of this up-and-coming chain, with tons of reviews all over social media. I even wanted to post a link here to a video my neighbor mentioned, where some intrepid restaurant tester claims it to have the best burgers in town (very difficult reasoning, even just in our area, but a completely baseless claim in Mexico City), but when we tried to find it, we were flooded by similar reviews. The place in question is called Hamburguesas Las Mamis, more specifically the Revolución location (on José Morán 24, close to the corner of Protasio Tagle).
Granted, the place - or more precisely the food - sure looks fantastic on their site. So one day we went to see if it is actually as delicious in real life. My final verdict: not bad, but it could be soooo much better, especially compared to all those other hamburgers we've had in our neighborhood these past years. For one, the burgers were pretty heavy on the pickles. I actually quite like pickles, but once they overpower the taste of the meat, it's clearly too much of a good thing. Also, the bread-meat ratio was tilted towards the bread side, clearly not what I'd call ideal. Plus they didn't have beer, only soda, which I don't drink, so that's another minus point. The fries were quite tasty, but a bit on the scarce side. So yeah, we've had much better burgers before. In face, there is one other place I much prefer.
My Personal Favorite Hamburgers
Only one block from the aforementioned burger chain, actually right in the parallel street, there is an unassuming little food place. (Vicente Eguia 10, to be exact.) It's called Condesa De Barrio and apart from hamburgers they also serve pizza and a couple of other dishes. Everything I tried there is good enough to recommend, but the hamburgers are definitely high up among the best burgers I've ever tried in my life! Their size, their consistency, their composition, but most of all their taste is just as it should be. If there is such a thing as perfection, these hamburgers are very close to it.
They offer the typical packages of a burger, fries, and a drink, but since that means soda, and the fries in that package are also a modest amount, I prefer ordering everything separately. That way I get a decent serving of fries (also super tasty) and nice beer. It couldn't be any better!
Interestingly, this place is not swimming in reviews, but there are a good number of customers every time I walk by, so I can assume (hope, hope) that it will continue existing for a while. I most certainly want to enjoy their hamburgers plenty more times.