Where To Eat In Monterrey During The 2026 World Cup

Mexico City has tacos. Guadalajara has birria. Monterrey has the grill — and if you fly home from the 2026 World Cup without ordering cabrito al pastor, you have wasted your time in the most meat-serious city in Mexico. Four matches at Estadio BBVA. One clear instruction: eat regio before you leave.

Monterrey is the industrial capital of northern Mexico, a city that built itself on steel and manufacturing, and developed a food culture that reflects that directness. No fuss, no florals. Fire, protein, smoke, and the kind of portions that assume you have been working since dawn.

Best Cabrito Restaurants In Monterrey For 2026 World Cup Match Day

El Rey del Cabrito on Constitución is the institution. It has been cooking young goat over open wood fires since 1959 and it has not needed to change its formula. The whole cabrito — served split, charred at the edges, yielding in the middle — is the order. You eat it with tortillas, salsa, and refried beans. The smell of the kitchen is the best thing about Monterrey at 1pm and El Rey del Cabrito is the source.

El Granero del Norte is the other name that locals say before El Rey. Where El Rey is downtown theatre, El Granero is the neighbourhood institution that regiomontanos actually argue about at family dinners. Order the cabrito al pastor — cooked slowly on a spit rather than over direct flame — and the machaca breakfast platter if you are arriving early.

These are not cheap restaurants by Monterrey standards but they are not expensive by World Cup visitor standards. Book ahead on match days. Both will be full.

What Is Machaca And Why You Should Eat It For World Cup Breakfast In Monterrey

Machaca is dried, shredded beef rehydrated and scrambled with eggs, tomato, onion, and chilli. It is the breakfast of northern Mexico and it is extraordinary. The drying and salting process concentrates the beef flavour in a way that slow cooking alone cannot achieve. You will find it at every local breakfast spot in Monterrey