In the Benito Juárez neighborhood, look for the mariscos flag next to a stainless steel cart under a blue pop-up canopy. That’s where you’ll find delicious shrimp cocktails, shrimp and fish ceviches, and aguachiles (spicy shrimp) both green and black (the latter made with charred chiles). But if you’re going to go out of your way for this seafood stand, don’t miss the excellent shrimp tortas ahogadas covered in a creamy, spicy salsa and the ice-cold micheladas topped with house aguachile verde. This celebration of Jalisco’s fresh beach cuisine is open Saturday and Sunday mornings only. [$]

Similar to tortas ahogadas, a lonche bañado consists of a birote filled with pork leg, covered in a creamy, chipotle salsa, and topped with swirls of a cream, mayo, and mustard sauce. The recipe was created by Lonches Gemma, but stop by Lonches Leo for one of the city’s classic versions. For something completely different, order a hamburger bañado or any of the many burgers submerged in savory salsas. [$]

Pozole is one of Mexico’s most famous dishes, and outside of Guerrero, Jalisco is a top destination for this hominy soup with pork head stock and meat. At Zapopan’s popular house of antojitos, delicious red pozole is the main dish, served with shredded lettuce, halved limes, chopped onions, thin-cut radishes, and tostadas. Complete your supper with red enchiladas — made with chile ancho and dressed with salty, aged cheese — and a tostada of deboned pickled pigs’ feet blanched in cream. There’s vegetarian pozole here, too, made with mushrooms. [$]

Head to Belisario Domínguez after drinks (or dinner) for steamed beef head tacos at this busy street cart where locals have gone for decades. In the blanket of white steam and beneath the fluorescent lights, work your way through a plate of tacos of various cuts: beef head, tongue, lips, and shredded meat from the skull (carnaza), dressed simply with diced onions, cilantro, lime, and spicy red salsa. [$]

While goat is king in Jalisco, Guadalajara’s great birria scene has room for many other proteins, including beef birria from this stand in Belisario Domínguez. Under a green-and-white-striped canopy, the stainless steel cart churns out tacos made with tortillas blandas (soft corn tortillas) or dorados (crispy tortillas) and served with a side of consomé for an everyday breakfast or lunch. There’s one communal table but plenty of shade from a large, leafy tree and the awning from a convenience store behind the stand. [$]

The walls of Ponte Trucha Negro are blue and white (typical marisqueria colors) and covered with photos of customers from across three decades. The stainless steel tables are covered, too, with clay plates of ceviche, grilled shrimp, and seafood tostadas alongside bottles of beer. Start with an order of aguachile tostadas (spicy raw shrimp) plus a chile güero (blonde chile) stuffed with shrimp. Or go for one of the playfully titled botanas (snacks), like la gran chingadera, which comes with a spread of raw and cooked seafood. The specialty of the house is a shrimp and octopus torta ahogada made with local birote and a salsa with as much spice as you can handle. [$$]

An army of taqueros and waiters serve a rapid-fire variety of popular Guadalajara-style roasted meats at this grand, sit-down taqueria. Try the peinecillo (long, thin steak cut from the entire dorsal), al pastor from the spit, carnaza (shredded meat), or bone-in beef ribs dressed with pico de gallo, avocado, and a variety of salsas from mild to hot. There are more than a dozen cuts at this Guadalajara institution, including ears and snout. And, best of all, you can enjoy your tacos with cold beers. [$]

The only question here is whether you want a large or small order of goat birria — but even that isn’t a question since you’ll want to go big on the birria de chivo, which will live in your memory long after you’ve burned off the calories. Goat birria is everywhere in town, but Tapatíos have faithfully come to this humble Ciudad del Sol birrieria since 1958. They come for delicious steaming bowls of well-spiced birria, rich with vaporous, fruity adobo and served with warm corn tortillas. Choose your cuts and add a squeeze of lime, diced onions, and cilantro. Pair with an ice-cold Modelo to experience the preferred hangover cure in Jalisco. [$]

Since 1975, Santa Tere’s specialist in carne en su jugo, or beef cooked in its own juices, has set the standard among Tapatíos. The beef is stewed with bacon, onions, and beans, then dressed with fresh diced onions, cilantro, and salsa roja and eaten with corn tortillas. Kamilos’s charming old country ranch interiors makes it great for family outings and tourists looking for an old-fashioned, kitschy restaurant to try this regional, hearty Guadalajara dish. [$$]

Francisco “Paco” Ruano — regarded as one of the most important food figures of the current generation by such seminal Mexican chefs as Enrique Olvera and Guillermo González Beristáin — has led Guadalajara into the modern Mexican era since opening Alcalde in 2013. Ruano uses local product like duck from Tapalpa cooked in adobo; roast suckling pig paired with a variety of moles; garlicky acociles (crayfish); and a fatty dish of frijoles puercos — refried beans strewn with pork neck, pulverized crackling and chorizo, and a pour-over of bean stock. Book early and request a seat at the chef’s table directly in front of the open kitchen, where the tasting menu is paired with Mexican wines, artisanal tequila, and local mezcal made in Jalisco. [$$$]

While the polish has worn away since the founding of this traditional Mexican cantina, the pulse of Guadalajara still beats in the pale-yellow walls, well-worn bar, and battered tables covered in bottles of Victoria and shots of Tequila Herradura in tall caballitos. The botanas (snacks) are simple: pickled pigs’ feet, tacos dorados, petite tortas ahogadas, or potato chips with lime and hot sauce. But the mariachis are the best in town, and the room is packed with locals and tourists wandering in from a hike through the historic center. Two-ingredient cocktails — rum and Coke, palomas — are served do-it-yourself style; you get a shot, a glass with ice, and a mixer. In this real Mexican cantina, all that mixology stuff won’t get in the way of the drinking. [$]

Founded in 1967 and located just a few blocks away from Parque Revolución, Tacos de Barbacoa Arthuro is a regional breakfast tradition in La Perla Tapatía known for its barbacoa de res, or beef stewed with adobo. The corn tortilla is dipped in adobo with a little lard, filled with barbacoa, and toasted on the comal until blanco (soft) or doradito (crispy), and you can add melted cheese and refried beans (highly recommended). Get yours bien doradito, extra crispy; that’s the Tapatío way. [$]

Located in Colonia Americana, this warm, intimate space seats only 40 guests, who get to enjoy a seasonal menu by chef Carlos Espinosa. The Guadalajara native uses modern Mexican techniques that draw on regional traditions. The delicate aguachile of fish and dried shrimp sits in a citrus bath of Thai curry, accented by thin slices of green apple and cucumber; the huarache de requeson in a mushroom mole is balanced by microgreens and salty Cotija cheese; and rabbit empanadas come in a recado negro, a thick Yucatán-style stew made from a paste of charred chiles. The extensive international wine list is sure to have options to pair with whatever you fancy. [$$$]

Take traditional antojitos, add tiki drinks and walls covered in old photos, and, voilà, you have Guadalajara’s only Guadalatiki bar. Tamales, red and green enchiladas covered in cream, and plates of sliced panela cheese with crumbled chicharrón prensado make excellent pairings for tropical beverages. The Pulque Tropical, for instance, blends cured strawberry pulque, pineapple syrup, and lemon with your choice of Cuban rum or aguardiente. Much of the crowd will be enjoying the simple, stimulating Margarita De La O or digging through selections of mezcal and raicilla from top local producers. [$$]

Recently, a wave of artisanal and ancestral tequila brands have been rediscovering the spirit’s roots: roasting pits, crushing agave with stone tahonas, and even embracing radical flavors created by open-air fermentation. The best products glow radiantly on the illuminated back bar of this Americana-Lafayette watering hole. Flautas, blue corn quesadillas de chicharrón prensado (pressed pork rinds), and creamy elotes accompany tequila blancos from Cascahuín 48, an overproof bottling from Fortaleza, and other high-proof tequilas. The cocktail menu changes monthly, but it usually features outstanding palomas and takes on American classics, such as a tequila Old Fashioned spiked with tepache. [$$]

In the trendy Americana neighborhood, chef partners Adolfo Galnares and Maria Ortega offer a farm-to-table dining experience in a contemporary space complete with white walls accented by thin, horizontal wooden slats and a rooftop garden. Start with an escamoles toast — spread with avocado and earthy ant eggs cooked in garlic and hoja santa — and the crowd favorite, a creamy risotto de huitlacoche enriched with artisanal butter from Atotonilco and shiitake mushrooms. Then enjoy the local catch of the day prepared using Mexican techniques, such as the tuna with sikil pak, a spicy pumpkin seed salsa from the Yucatán. Pair it with a house gin tonic made with prickly pear. [$$$]

Guadalajara is second only to Ensenada as a destination for seafood in Mexico, and chef Antonio de Livier, a Mexicali native, offers some of the best at this retro blue-and-white cevicheria. It’s the ideal lunch spot for seafood cocktails, clam birria, and signature tostadas like tuna with blackened habanero, washed down with Loba Blanka, a witbier from a local craft brewery. [$$]

The ivory walls of chef Alfonso “Poncho” Cadena’s thematic modern Mexican restaurant are decorated with bones and anatomical patterns. The design, by his brother, Ignacio “Nacho” Cadena, acknowledges the foundations of flavor: bones, nerves, and connective tissue. The decor echoes the food: modern, rustic plates of braised duck, sous vide cabreria (tenderloin on the bone), and grilled octopus in a spicy adobo of burnt chiles, loosely stacked over grilled vegetables, and plated with swirls and dots of vegetable puree. The menu changes with the availability of seasonal items, as does the cocktail menu based on Jaliscan fruits sold in local markets. [$$$]

When he opened El Terrible Juan Café in 2015, Juan Carlos Yerenas had one simple mission: make a great cup of coffee for his friends and family using the best coffee beans in Mexico. Working to build relationships with coffee plantations in the highlands of Chiapas and Cosautlán de Carvajal, Veracruz, this expresso specialist has grown along with his customer’s thirst for fine coffee. A lonche filled with chilaquiles or a mollete (open-face bean toast) with four cheeses pairs nicely with a shot of Chiapan espresso in Yerenas’s welcoming garage cafe in Zapopan, the perfect pick-me-up before heading to the Plaza del Sol or the Mercado de Abastos. [$$]

A warm bowl of menudo filled with a selection of cuts chosen by the late Graciela “Chela” Quino Ruíz is essential eating in the Mercado de Abastos. For more than 50 years, this family recipe — a sacculated, jellied combo of callo de res (beef stomach), libro (book tripe), casitas (honeycomb tripe), cuajo (cow rennet), ranilla (hoof), lengua (tongue), and other cuts — has warmed the bellies of Mexican politicians, celebrities, and generations of Tapatíos. Save room for the enticing enfrijoladas: rolled corn tortillas filled with beef chorizo and drowned in a pale bean sauce, Mexican cheese, and cream. [$]

Since 1956, diners have been plopping down on stainless steel benches here to enjoy carne asada cooked over charcoal with fatty refried beans, accompanied by generous sides of cactus salad, dry crumbled cheese, charred corn tortillas, and salsa martajada, a spicy salsa of blackened tomatoes and chile serranos ground in a molcajete. The menu on the wall has an impressive list of guisados (stews), but the colita de res (oxtail) and crunchy chilaquiles con chicharrón warrant return visits. [$]

Steamed tacos al vapor filled with guisados — known as tacos de canasta (basket tacos), tacos mañaneros (morning tacos), or tacos sudados (sweaty tacos) in other parts of Mexico — come with seven fillings at this breakfast stand, which sets up on Friday and Saturday mornings in Zapopan. Carnaza (shredded beef), mashed potatoes, refried beans, or stewed chicharrón are top choices from the array of large stainless steel pots. Pile pickled jalapenos, potatoes, carrots, and cactus on your plastic taquero plate, too. [$]