Baldío - Mexico City’s First Zero-Waste Restaurant with a Green Michelin Star

Feb 19

Mexico City has a food scene that is both diverse and historic. Blending indigenous, Spanish, and even global influences. While the city offers an array of options, there is a restaurant that goes back to its roots: Baldío.

Since opening in 2024 by brothers Pablo and Lucio Usobiaga, it has made headlines for it being the first zero-waste restaurant that is vegan friendly in Mexico City. It operates with no kitchen garbage bin by utilizing, fermenting, and upcycling all food scraps, including peels and roots into new dishes and seasonings.

They even eliminate single-use plastics. Any store-bough product that would normally come in plastic container is banned. For their furniture, they have used recycled materials.

Baldío exterior — Photo by Vegan Ventures

To source their ingredients, they have partnered with Arca Tierra. A Mexico City-based initiative founded by Lucio Usobiaga that regenerates ancestral Aztec chinampa (floating garden) farming in Xochimilco. It operates a sustainable, agroecological system across multiple chinampas, producing over 2.5 tons of food monthly for local restaurants and families. Using regenerative, pre-Hispanic methods, these chinampas supply seasonal, nutrient-dense produce to the restaurant.

If you’re not familiar, Chinampas is an agricultural method that dates back more than 1,000 years. It goes as far back to the Aztecs and even earlier when Mexico City was still a lake. Its nutrient-rich mud from the lakebed was used to build the artificial islands. Because of its proximity to the water, it made especially fertile growing conditions.

These efforts towards a sustainable business model has earned Baldío the city’s first MICHELIN green star in 2025. This coveted award is presented to restaurants who are at the forefront of the industry for their commitment to sustainable gastronomy and eco-friendly practices. Recognizing leaders in ethical sourcing, waste reduction, and environmental management. In Mexico, there are only 8 restaurants who have received a green MICHELIN star.

When it comes to the dining experience, Baldío offers an intimate, immersive dining experience that gives guests the chance to see the chef’s in action with an open kitchen concept. While there is a menu where you can order a la carte, they also offer a Baldío Experience. A chef’s tasting menu where you enjoy 6 courses (though I somehow had 8) that is $1,900 MXN. They can make this experience vegan upon request.

You can add to this experience with a wine pairing ($1,600 MXN) and even a non-alcoholic pairing ($750 MXN). Offering non-alcoholic tepache, a traditional Mexican fermented beverage made from pineapple rinds, cores, sugar (typically piloncillo), and spices like cinnamon, resulting in a sweet, tangy, and lightly fizzy drink that paired perfectly with my amuse bouche.

Though my personal favorite was their non-alcoholic pulque. Which is produced by consuming the fresh, unfermented, or lightly fermented sap of the agave plant, known as aguamiel (honey water). This sweet, non-intoxicating, and milky-colored sap is harvested daily from the heart of the maguey plant before it undergoes the rapid, natural fermentation process that turns it into traditional alcoholic pulque. It is often considered a tonic or nutritional drink due to its natural sugars and nutrients.

Despite it not being a fully vegan restaurant, the dishes really highlighted the bounty that Mexico has to offer. People often forget that before the Spanish arrived, the indigenous were mainly vegetarian. As Mexico was a primary center of origin for agriculture, with dozens of globally significant fruits and vegetables domesticated by indigenous civilizations like the Maya and Aztecs.

Some key native crops include maize (corn), tomatoes, chili peppers, avocados, cacao, vanilla, beans, squash, jicama, and so many more. These were all showcased throughout my Chef’s Experience. Every dish came with a story and with a connection to the land. It felt like a celebration of Mexico and its farmers.

By the end of my meal, I was handed a photo. It was of one of the farmers who contributed to my meal. Once again tying the meal back to the people and the land.

It is safe to say that this meal was a one-of-a-kind experience that will be remembered for years to come.