27 April 2026
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Bowtied waiters passed around oysters spooned over with caviar, Casa Dragones swirled inside electric margaritas and an all-female ranchero band blared celebratory tunes. The queen of Mexican seafood had arrived in Las Vegas.
In March, Gabriela Cámara, the chef behind the Mexico City institution Contramar, opened her new Cantina Contramar in the Fontainebleau Las Vegas hotel with a blowout party — glamour dialed to a 10 in true Sin City fashion.
The restaurant is the ace in a hot streak for the chef, who’s debuted two more spots in the Mexican capital in the past two years alone, each with her signature elegant service and menu of saltwater favorites.
At Cantina Contramar, the Mexican Pacific seafood cuisine that she’s helped popularize around the world remains the star: fans will recognize the exact same tuna tostadas and bi-color grilled fish that her earlier outposts are known for. But the new venue, with its dark tiling and wood walls, has the mood of a cantina, the classic Mexican style of restaurant given to rollicking, boozy affairs.
“I think the notion of a cantina is perfect for Las Vegas, to be able to play with this concept of traditional Mexican, but with a slightly naughty twist,” Cámara said in an interview.
Cámara grew up squarely inland, outside of Mexico City in the mystical mountain town Tepoztlán — but annual winter trips to the beaches of the Pacific left their mark.
With her grandparents visiting from Italy, she would fish in the sea, and the family would eat what they caught.
“That taste of fresh seafood — clams, oysters, and simply grilled fish, with those salsas they make, the rice they cook there, the beans, the freshly made tortillas, those are the flavors that bring back happy memories. And the truth is, I think ever since I was little, I've had wonderful memories of eating that food,” she said.
In 1998, with her then-boyfriend and a group of friends, she opened Contramar on a tree-lined boulevard in the stylish Roma Norte neighborhood. It was a zag for Cámara, who had never imagined becoming a restaurateur, and a gamble in the city, where fish at the time was just served in markets or in European preparations at fancy sit-downs.
The early menu was pioneering and its fingerprints are unmistakable in restaurants across Mexico City’s uber-hot scene today.
Recipes like the pescado a la talla, a whole white fish that’s butterflied and grilled, then color-blocked in rich red and green salsas, were dressed-up tributes to the beach huts along the Pacific that sold it for pennies.
Contramar’s tuna tostada, a precious fried tortilla topped with chipotle mayonnaise, avocado and fried leeks, has become a staple recreated by every young chef across town.
“I always think that Contramar is something that hasn't necessarily been very fashionable, and that's why it has always been able to be a little bit fashionable,” Cámara said.
If not trendy, Cámara’s style of dining is certainly in demand. Itacate del Mar, a more casual concept, opened earlier this year in a wealthy residential zone of Mexico City. Caracol de Mar debuted in the city's Condesa neighborhood in 2024, in a dramatic glass-walled space befitting its more elevated offering.
With Cantina Contramar, Cámara is expanding her empire internationally, planting a Mexican flag but ready to court a global audience.
The menu has been glitzed up — more caviar arrives on top of sopes (thick discs of fried masa) — and gentrified: she now serves steak.
Still, if her track record in Mexico City is any indication, the flavors of the Mexican Pacific are poised for a U.S. takeover.
“I love this idea of people expanding their understanding of Mexican food beyond just moles and tortillas,” she said.
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Hero image: Seafood Platter © Marcus Nilsson
Thumb image: Chef Gabriela Cámara © Melanie Dunea
