Eric F.
Yelp
'El Cardenal' is a well known restaurant in the "Centro Historico" (Historical City Center) and near the Bella Artes.
Building the first Capital City of "New Spain" in Mexico was a very important task for the Imperial Architects of the expanding Spanish Empire. Especially when Hernando Cortez told them to build New Spain's first Capital not only in the middle of a Volcano filled Valley in the Mountains, but also on the Island in a Lake there, constructing the city of Hernando Cortez, a new legend, over the rubble of ancient pyramids & palaces, now only ruins of the former Aztec capital of "Tenochtitlan, making this city-to-be constructed at an elevation of nearly 7,400 ft, just below the line where trees stopped growing.
And they designed it in a European style that incorporated Baroque, Gothic, and Renaissance influences and facades.
Home to numerous landmarks dating as far back as long before the Aztec era, "Centro Historico" is the city's beating heart. Circling around the massive "Zócalo Plaza", this area draws tourists to it's museums and it's iconic buildings, like the Art-Nouveau wonders of the "Palacio de Bellas Artes" and the "Metropolitan Cathedral". Street vendors and basic "Taquería stalls" exist in harmony with high-end restaurants, all alongside the bustling, pedestrian-only street "Calle Madero".
'El Cardenal' is housed in a beautiful French-style 'Porfirian' building, with high ceilings and wide stone columns, which we can still admire thanks to restorations of the meticulous work so professionally carried out by Architect José Helue Mina.
Daily service at 'El Cardenal' is offered on two floors.
