After 15 years of wandering through Mérida’s markets, I thought I knew them pretty well. Then I spent three hours eating my way through Lucas de Gálvez and San Benito with The Lost Taco Food Tour and realized there were entire corners—and quite a few things to eat—that I had been walking past for years.
If you’ve ever entered what locals often call the Mercado Grande, you know exactly how overwhelming it can be. People are moving in every direction, fruit stacked in brilliant piles, vendors calling out from their stalls, tortillas hitting hot comales, fresh juices being poured, meat counters, flowers, spices, piñatas and an endless number of places that look like they might serve the best thing you’ve eaten all week.
The problem is knowing where to start.
That’s exactly why this tour was so much fun.
Exploring Lucas de Gálvez and San Benito with people who know where to eat
We met Chef Alex and Jorge in Plaza Grande and started walking toward the markets. Instead of simply marching us from one food stop to another, they began with some of the history of this part of Mérida and explained what we were about to experience.
The Lost Taco Food Tour is built around something I think makes a food tour far more interesting: the guides understand the food. The company describes its tours as being developed by chefs, locals and people immersed in Yucatecan food culture, and recent guests consistently mention the guides’ explanations of ingredients, cooking techniques and traditions.
That knowledge makes a difference once you’re inside the market.
As you will see there are countless food stalls and not all cochinita is the same: there is cochinita and COCHNITA. You could try a local “antojito” and leave feeling like you’d had a terrible experience filled with fat, but if you know where to go, you could leave feeling like you’d just found a Michelin-star gem in the middle of the market chaos.
That is what makes this tour worth it.
Why Mérida’s Mercado Grande can be intimidating—and why you should go anyway
Lucas de Gálvez and San Benito aren’t polished markets created for visitors. These are working markets and a very real part of daily life in Mérida.
They’re busy. They’re noisy. They’re colorful. And there is a LOT going on.
You can buy everything from produce, meat and spices to clothing, household goods and traditional ingredients, but food lovers could easily spend hours just figuring out what to eat. Current guests on The Lost Taco tour describe the two markets as packed with things to see, smell and taste, and several mention that having a guide makes the experience far easier to navigate.
I’ve been coming here for years and still appreciated having someone say, essentially, this is where we’re eating.
That alone is valuable.
If you enjoy markets, give yourself more time to explore this part of Centro beyond the tour. Mercado Grande is very different from Mérida’s restaurant scene, and understanding both gives you a much better picture of how people actually eat in Yucatán.
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Your Food Tour Experience? Seven stops and a LOT of food
Over approximately three hours, we stopped at seven different places, eating as we worked our way through the markets.
We started lightly with fresh juices and seasonal fruit, which makes perfect sense in Yucatán. Walk through the produce sections and you’ll see whatever is at its best at that moment piled high around you, and drinking fresh fruit juice while surrounded by the ingredients somehow makes it taste even better.
Then things became more serious.
We tried panuchos and salbutes, two staples of Yucatecan cooking that visitors often confuse. Both begin with masa, but they’re prepared differently and have distinctly different textures. A panucho traditionally has a tortilla filled with refried black beans before being fried, while a salbut is a lighter fried tortilla that puffs slightly and remains softer. Add turkey or chicken, pickled red onion and the accompanying salsas and you have two dishes that explain quite a lot about Yucatán in a few bites.
Next came cochinita pibil, arguably Yucatán’s most recognizable dish. Pork is seasoned with achiote and traditionally slow-cooked, producing meat that’s tender enough to pull apart easily, with acidity and spice cutting through its richness.
And we weren’t finished.
There were gringas al pastor, with seasoned pork and melted cheese folded into a flour tortilla—a shift away from strictly Yucatecan flavors but exactly the sort of thing you want to eat while wandering through a Mexican market.
And then we headed back to the Plaza Grande and finished up with a 100% fruit paleta (iced popsicle). Those are the best! This particular place I have been many times and very much agree it’s a Merida must!
By this point, you begin to understand an important rule for this particular Mérida food tour:
Come hungry.
The best food tours aren’t only about eating
Obviously, we ate. A lot.
But what I liked most was that we weren’t simply sampling dishes. We met vendors, talked with the people preparing our food and learned more about what we were eating along the way.
That’s what makes a good food tour worthwhile even when you already live in the city.
If tasting traditional dishes leaves you wanting to understand more about Yucatán’s food culture, spend another morning exploring Mérida’s smaller neighborhood markets. Santiago, Santa Ana and other parts of the city each offer a slightly different window into everyday life.
Fast Facts: The Lost Taco Food Tour in Mérida
Location: Begins around Mérida Centro and explores Lucas de Gálvez and San Benito markets
Length: Approximately 3 hours
Atmosphere: Busy, informal, very local and food-focused
Price Point: Current online listings start around US$65 per adult; check current pricing when booking.
Best For: Food lovers, first-time Mérida visitors, returning travelers and locals who want to understand the markets better
Insider Tip: Go hungry, wear comfortable shoes and consider doing the tour early in your Mérida trip—you’ll leave knowing several places you’ll probably want to return to.
For information and booking, message +52 558 461 1130.
You can also hear my interview with Chef Alex about The Lost Taco Food Tour on What’s Happening Yucatán:
Listen to the interview with Chef Alex on Spotify
