Seafood main courses in Cancún

8 November 2026 · Menu guide · MERO 18

Say "sea bar" and most people picture ice: oysters shucked to order, ceviche, aguachile, thin sheets of tuna. True enough — that is where a meal here starts. But the half of the menu nobody talks about is the other half: the seafood main courses in Cancún that come out of the hot kitchen, where the fish and the shrimp meet a flat-top or a stone oven. Here is that section dish by dish, with the exact prices from the November menu.

A cold bar that also runs a fire

The section is called Main courses and there are six: four from the sea, one chicken, one beef. The idea is that after a lap through the cold side — a fresh oyster ($70), a catch-of-the-day ceviche ($190), a shrimp aguachile ($200) — there should be one plate that needs a knife and a fork and closes the meal without repeating the temperature or the texture. It is all in the main courses section of the menu.

Some bearings first: we are on Avenida Carlos Nader, in downtown Cancún, inside Mezcal Boutique Hotel and open to everyone — you don't need to be a guest. The place is a jungle hidden in downtown Cancún. And the product is the same one sitting on ice at the bar — catch of the day, shrimp, calamari — only here it gets cooked.

Charred shrimp: stone oven and zarandeado sauce ($280)

This is the dish that explains the whole section: the charred shrimp ($280) are stone-oven roasted with spicy zarandeado sauce, and both halves of that line matter on their own. A stone oven does not cook like a pan — it works by radiant heat, far above what a home burner gives you, so the outside of a shrimp blisters and browns in seconds while the centre is only just setting. Hence the Spanish name, chamuscado, singed: that gold crust with dark edges you cannot get over medium heat.

The zarandeado half comes from Mexico's Pacific coast, from Nayarit and Sinaloa, where a fish is butterflied, rubbed with chilli paste and laid on a rack over embers, then shaken — zarandeado — so it toasts instead of burning. What survives of that here is the sauce: red, smoky, properly hot. Probably the most Mexican flavour on the menu, and what we order for anyone who says raw seafood isn't their thing. The word "spicy" is not decoration.

Shrimp in filo pastry: crunch without a deep fryer ($290)

The shrimp in filo pastry ($290) arrive wrapped in filo with sweet-and-sour sauce. If the last dish was the most Mexican here, this is the most Mediterranean.

Filo is dough stretched until almost translucent — from the Greek phyllo, "leaf", the same sheets used for baklava. In the heat it puffs into layers and shatters like puff pastry without the weight of it: texture without burying the shellfish in breadcrumbs or oil, and the shrimp kept juicy inside its own parcel of steam. The sweet-and-sour sauce picks up the kitchen's other thread, the Japanese one. It is the main course for people who don't do heat, and the one to order with children at the table.

Grilled salmon fillet: the one that comes complete ($290)

The grilled salmon fillet ($290) comes with sriracha sauce, rice and salad. It is the only one of the six that arrives already built as a full meal, which is why people order it when they come in alone, eat and get on with their day.

The flat-top is the hardest technique to hide behind. No batter, no sauce thick enough to cover anything: one side of the fillet against hot metal, and about thirty seconds between right and overcooked. When it lands, the underside is deep gold and the inside is still moist and flaking apart — an honest test of a piece of fish. Sriracha brings warmth without the smoke of a Mexican chilli, and the rice and salad make this the most balanced plate in the section.

Seafood fettuccine: the house plate of hot shellfish ($290)

If you want hot seafood in Cancún in its most generous form, the seafood fettuccine ($290) is the plate: mussels, clams, shrimp and calamari in tomato sauce with Parmesan cheese. Four species in a single order.

The clams are the detail worth knowing. They give you something shrimp cannot: their own salty liquor, which opens with the heat and runs into the tomato. The mussels do the same, and between them the sauce stops being tomato and turns into something closer to a sea broth. This is the main course that gets shared most, and the easiest one to put in front of somebody who won't touch raw fish.

The two that aren't from the sea: tempura chicken and rib eye

Not every table comes for fish. The tempura chicken ($270) is served with sweet-and-sour sauce and gohan rice; Japanese tempura is a very thin, very dry fry, nothing like a thick breading, and it is the friendliest plate on the menu for a child.

And November's newcomer: the 250 g rib eye ($390), served with patatas bravas. It is the most expensive plate in the section and it settles the argument every mixed table has — half of you want oysters, somebody wants steak. Same question we worked through in our guide to seafood and sushi in Cancún, now with one more answer.

Which main course is yours

• You want heat and Mexican flavour: charred shrimp ($280).
• You want texture, not chilli: shrimp in filo pastry ($290).
• You're alone and short on time: grilled salmon fillet ($290) — rice and salad included.
• A table that shares: seafood fettuccine ($290).
• With children, or no fish: tempura chicken ($270).
• Somebody wants steak: the 250 g rib eye ($390) with patatas bravas.

How to build the full meal: start cold, finish hot

The menu is written to be read in that order. Start at the cold bar, while your palate is clean and grateful for acidity: a couple of fresh oysters ($70 each) or the hot ones ($90), then a catch-of-the-day ceviche ($190), a shrimp aguachile ($200) or a tuna tostada ($160). If there are four of you, put a guacamole ($150) and a tuna tartare ($180) in the middle.

The jump to the hot side is what makes it a meal rather than a run of snacks: after all that lime and ice, a toasted plate reads almost like a different restaurant. Order one main course per two people if you've already done the cold bar, or one each if you came straight for the hot kitchen. To close: fried plantain ($165), Catalan cream ($165), chocolate cake ($210) or Basque-style cheesecake ($250).

A Mexican white carries both halves: L.A. Cetto Chenin Blanc ($150) or Casa Madero Chardonnay ($240). For the rib eye or the charred shrimp, go red with XA ($150) or Casa Madero 3V ($300). More in our guide to Mexican wine with seafood; first visit, start with what to order at MERO 18.

Where to eat these seafood main courses in Cancún

You'll find us on Avenida Carlos Nader, in downtown Cancún, inside Mezcal Boutique Hotel and open to everyone. We serve every day from 7:00 am to 11:00 pm, with breakfast from 7:00 to 12:30 — so the main courses run from midday right through to close. There's an air-conditioned glass dining room for the heat of the day and a jungle garden with a cenote-style pool for sunset. On TripAdvisor we hold 5.0 stars; on Google, 4.9.