a cdmx restaurant worth the hype

*hint* I got the tuna tostadas

a first look at our dinner

Funnily enough, this restaurant is sort of the reason we ended up in Mexico City. Don’t get me wrong, I had seen some videos circulating online, and heard some ever increasing enthusiasm about the city, so there was natural intrigue.

But I kept hearing excellent things about the city’s food scene, and about one restaurant in particular: Contramar.

So I kinda thought, screw it. I am curious about the city, keep seeing video clips of that red & green sauced up fish and hearing all this rave about the tuna tostadas, I’m going to see if I can book a reservation. Which, by the way, is no easy feat for a restaurant THIS popular. Well, a reservation was scored, and when I told my fiancé about it, we agreed we were due for some spontaneity and booked the trip.

After all that, I got an email from the restaurant saying that a mistake had been made, and that they were booked. They switched my reso over to their sister restaurant, Entremar, and assured me that the menu was the same.

Well, I’m indeed very happy we came to Mexico City, and have even extended our time in the city because you simply could not tear me away from tacos, street side agua fresca, and the Borel croissant.

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But let’s talk Entremar, because Contramar is VIRAL, and, I fear, at a high price point. I’ll cut to the chase, it IS worth the hype.

These restaurants specialize in seafood and offer a more upscale Mexican cuisine menu than your casual taquerias, so it’s a great place to sit awhile for a fancy lunch (which is probably the best time to go, more on that later) or nice dinner.

Side note: being on a budget, we ended up getting a sort of hodgepodge of starters/ tacos/tostadas sections as the mains were bougie, and honestly, 10/10 recommend.

Here’s what we ordered:

The Tuna Tostadas

This is probably the second most famous dish in the Entremar/Contramar world. I love a good raw tuna, so popular or not, I suspect I would order this dish regardless. It also comes in an order of four, which felt like decent value compared to some of the other tostadas on the menu.

We were served crisp tortillas, which, despite being fried, had not a trace of grease. They were topped with thinly sliced red tuna, a slice of fresh avocado, lettuce, and a sort of light, barely detectable, but very good glaze situation.

please give the tuna the attention it deserves

Okay. I get it. I get why people book Contramar months in advance in the name of these tostadas. It was so incredibly fresh, perfectly seasoned, and had such great texture. The tuna was lean, but still had that great meatiness you want from good seafood, and it paired so well with the avocado. It’s a simple bite, so don’t expect a miracle, but I ended up with an intense craving for it a few days later.

Sopes with King Fish Al Pastor

If you had tuned into my newsletter on all things taco, you’ll see that referenced how Mexico just utilizes the crap out of corn and masa (flour made with corn), in far more ways than just the corn tortilla.

One of those ways is to make sopes. This dish is a thick disk of fried masa with savoury toppings. Kinda like if a tortilla was made extra thick and treated like a tostada. I was intrigued, so when I saw that Entremar offered one with fish al pastor, I was all in!

If I’m being honest, I wasn’t as in to the sopes. The fish al pastor was DELICIOUS, (especially with the cheese on top) and the textures hit the mark, but I did find that the thicker base meant the masa flavour was A LOT stronger, and while I enjoy the taste of masa, I found this distracted from the al pastor. I don’t think this was an Entremar issue- more of a preference thing. Still. It was good fun giving this dish a try.

Pescadillas

I am suddenly realizing that three out of the four savoury dishes we got were fried. Hah. Really speaks to the quality of Entremar, because this meal somehow felt quite light despite this fact.

Anyways, you guessed it! Pescadillas are quesadillas filled with gloriously tender fish. Rather being cooked on a comal like street quesadillas, these bad boys are reminiscent of empanadas and fried. They come at you hot, fresh and served with a tasty, just-the-right-amount-of-acid guac that balances the fried element so well!

These were really quite good, and the order came with four, so again, really worked to fill our stomachs.

The Octopus Carnitas Tacos

Show. Stopping. Dish. I enjoyed every dish up until this point- especially the tuna tostadas. This dish though? This sealed the deal on this restaurant being VERY worth the hype and higher price point.

Octopus is seasoned to perfection then pan fried carnitas style before being served on corn tortillas with a bit of lettuce and avocado. It also got served with a salsa that paired perfectly. If I’m being honest, the octopus was SO good that it didn’t require salsa at all, and I ended up alternating bites with and without. Divine.

my mouth is watering

The meat was ridiculously tender- which is no easy feat for a notoriously tough protein- and generously filled each tortilla it was on. Truly guys, these were my favourite tacos in all of Mexico; I was freaking out. The tuna tostadas and the dual coloured grilled fish get all the clout, but man, these tacos deserve more love!!

The Dessert

Okay, so I LOVE seafood, my partner, less so. What he does love though, is dessert- so I knew he’d enjoy this restaurant. Here, they come to your table with a large platter showcasing what desserts they have on offer. The options are plentiful, and very from decadent to lighter.

I did go in with an agenda, and hoped to get the strawberry merengue cake, which had rave reviews. Sadly, they were out- hence why it’s good to go for lunch rather than dinner. It just ensures that you get your first pick + lunch is the biggest meal of the day here. Fear not though, the other options were plentiful, and it was hard to be too bummed when my mouth was watering looking at their offerings. We settled on two desserts, despite only planning to split one.

Cheese flan

Silky. Creamy. Smooth. Cheesecake’s lighter, custardy cousin. This was a perfectly textured flan that satisfied the sweet tooth without weighing us down. It has a sort of syrupy- caramelly top and was so good.

(weirdly lit video, buuut this texture deserve an action shot)

Banana tart

This is the second best version of a banana cream pie I have had in my life. Second only to a decadent slice of pie from my home town - shout out to you, Bridgette Bar.

This whole mini tart is on the richer side, but it’s a decadence worth having no matter how full you think you are. Perfect crispy crust. Generous banana chunks. The filling was more mousse-y than custardy, which worked to keep it lighter. I think they also caramelized the bananas, because it had that sort of earthier sugar flavour, rather than being straight up sweet, ya know?

was too busy DEVOURING to take a better pic

It was topped with a meringue as well, and each bite was pure delicious decadence. What a dream.

In all, our total was $147cad (or $103usd- wow our dollar sucksss lol), which, for four dishes, two desserts, water (which is not free here, given it can’t be tap), and tip isn’t too shabby for a nice restaurant of this kind of reputation! Obviously, we avoided the mains because they were more expensive, but we left STUFFED.

We loved it here so much, we STRONGLY debated going again, but have opted to continue trying new restaurants. For the blog, (ok and me) of course ;)!

I hope to come to CDMX again while not travelling for a year with an increased budget. This way, we can get our favourite dishes AND the fish with red and green sauce. For now, I am happy to report- CONTRAMAR IS WORTH THE HYPE!