Contramar

Contramar is a seafood restaurant on Calle Durango in Roma Norte built around long, shared lunches. It was opened in 1998 by Gabriela Cámara, who later took her cooking to San Francisco with Cala in 2015, was named in Time's list of the 100 most influential people in 2020 and appeared as one of the Iron Chefs in Netflix's reboot of the show. Contramar keeps daytime hours: the restaurant opens at 12:00 on weekdays and 11:00 at weekends, and closes at 20:00 every day, so think of it for lunch or an early dinner rather than a late night. The menu follows seasonal availability.

Two dishes are the restaurant's signatures and are listed prominently on its menu. The tostadas de atún, tuna tostadas, come in servings of four, which makes them easy to share as a starter. The pescado a la talla, grilled fish, is priced by weight, so ask about the size of the fish when you order and decide how many people it should feed.

Book ahead. Contramar takes reservations online through OpenTable, by phone and by WhatsApp, and the reservations desk works every day from 10:00 to 20:00. Groups of more than seven should email the restaurant directly. The website lists two landlines as well as the WhatsApp number, so there are several ways to change or confirm a booking on the day, which helps if your sightseeing plans shift. If you are not sure how hungry the table is, start with the tostadas and add the fish once you know your appetite. Because the restaurant only opens for around eight hours a day, booking is the safest way to get the time you want, particularly at weekends.

Allow around two hours if you are ordering the fish and sharing several plates. The restaurant also handles catering requests through a form on its website, and invoices for business meals through a separate link, which is useful for work lunches.

Contramar is at Durango 200 in Roma Norte. Rosetta, on Colima in the same neighbourhood, is close enough to plan a seafood lunch one day and dinner there the next, and the cafés of Roma Norte make it easy to continue the afternoon on foot.