Creepers cover the walls of Mexico City’s Xuva restaurant

Diners are transported to a tropical oasis inside this Mexico City restaurant, where palm trees and creeping vines surround guests.

Xuva’ sits inside Casa Ribera, a historic building in the city’s Santa María la Ribera neighbourhood. The mansion was overhauled by architects Mecate Studio to create a mixed-use hub with space for the plant-filled restaurant, an office for the practice, a pair of galleries and a design store.

Diners are seated in a long, narrow space that was once a side courtyard for the Mexico City mansion, inspiring its biophilic interiors. Huge leaves and vines trail down the concrete walls and translucent ceiling, while Xuva’s floor has handmade clay tiles, designed to reference the shade patterns cast by trees.

Chef Juan Aquino has created a menu of dishes that reflect his childhood spent on the Oaxaca coast, serving shrimp-stuffed chillis, mole stew, and guac with roasted grasshoppers. Ingredients are extra fresh, with some of them harvested from Xuva’s garden.

Calle Salvador Díaz Mirón 128, Sta María la Ribera, Cuauhtémoc, 06400 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico