Set up along Bucareli, just south of Reforma – two of the city center’s core arteries – only after dark, there is a steady huddle that gathers under a yellow tarp around steam and light bulbs.
Most don’t know it, even if they’ve eaten here for years, but the name of the place is El Buho – “The Owl” – and it has worked for 47 years to warm bellies from sunset to sunrise with tortas, tacos, hot chocolate, doughnuts and coffee.
It sits at the hub of the nation’s first newspapers – El Universal, El Excelsior, El Milenio – all venerable and well circulated, but the only thing this place cares about is who’s up working way after the boss has gone home, who’s hungry, who’s working the press, who are the unsung heroes delivering the goods.
El Buho isn’t the only spot erected to feed the papers’ night crews. There are a couple of others on Bucareli and a great, very similar spot just off on Independencia. But we offer El Buho as a starting point. Nostalgia aside, the food is downright yummy, and we always enjoy bringing visitors here – a rough, trendless star.
The tacos are 19 pesos (US$1.25), 30 if you want to combine or add cheese. Tortas are a budget-busting 45 pesos.
Our favorite is the torta de chile relleno. Taking a chile poblano, stripping it of seeds and inserting cheese, then rolling it in batter and deep-frying it is a standard-issue move in Mexico City, but putting that inside of a bolillo (Mexican hoagie roll) and searing it on both sides, only to later bathe it in proper salsas, is quite something more.
For 30 pesos, it’s a damn steal, and if you’re coming home from centro bars any night of the week, it’s something like peace of mind. Something good, something true.
El Buho’s lineup is impressive. You have column A, tortas, tacos; column B, bistec (steak), longaniza (sausage-y thing), pechuga (chicken breast), milanesa (breaded chicken cutlet) and chile relleno de queso; column C, guisados: chicken in cream, chicharrón (pig skin) in green salsa, chuleta en adobo (pork in morita salsa), spiced mixed-steamed meats (suadero en guajillo); and column D, our lovely toppings: standard salsas red and green (just enough picante), a mix of nopales (cactus), chile and onions, whole cooked pintos, limes and purple onions in escabeche (pickled). Add queso – Oaxacan cheese, and plenty of it – to get a nice centimeter-thick layer to ensure it goes down salty but well-done.
Mix and match. Or don’t and just have a decent hot chocolate and a doughnut to kill the hungers before heading back to work (or before heading home).
It sounds greasy, but it really isn’t. This is what a lot of people depend on every night for dinner, and the menu ends up being filling but not painful.
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