Fran Ultramarinos, Ostras y Vinos

What Fran Ultramarinos is

Fran Ultramarinos, Ostras y Vinos is a Spanish restaurant inside Casa Basalta at Calle Colima 159, in Roma Norte, Mexico City. Colima is the street that carries more of the city’s current restaurant openings than any other, and this one is easy to miss: the restaurant is hidden in the garden of Casa Basalta, behind a gourmet shop, and the tables sit outdoors under the sky rather than in a dining room. Walking in off Colima and finding a Spanish garden at the back is the closest thing the street has to being moved to Madrid for an evening.

The format is three things at once. A shop at the entrance sells Spanish tinned seafood, cured meats, cheeses and wine to take home. A bar takes walk-ins. Behind both, the garden is the restaurant proper, where the menu is tapas and Spanish classics built for sharing, with oysters and a long wine list.

It opened in 2026 and is the third restaurant from the chef Fran López Abad. His own summary of the cooking is cocina veraz y sin tapujos, honest cooking without disguise, which in practice means recognisable Spanish plates done with good product rather than reinvented.

Who cooks here

Fran López Abad is Spanish and has been cooking in Mexico City for years. His best-known restaurant is La Barra de Fran, a tapas bar at Emilio Castelar 185 in Polanco, modelled on the Spanish bars where everything is sized for sharing. That one is listed in the MICHELIN Guide Mexico 2026 selection.

He tells the story of his own start as an unserious one: he began cooking to impress girls. The trajectory since then has been the opposite of unserious, and the Roma Norte opening is the third venue in the group.

Awards and press

• Fran Ultramarinos itself holds no Michelin distinction. Do not go expecting one.
• La Barra de Fran, the chef’s separate Polanco restaurant, appears in the MICHELIN Guide Mexico 2026 selection as a Guide listing, not as a starred or Bib Gourmand restaurant.
• The opening was covered in mid 2026 by Mexican outlets including Capital CDMX, The Happening, Guía de Lujo, Glits and MonchiTime, all of which frame it as a Casa Basalta arrival rather than a fine-dining opening.

How the menu works

Everything is shareable, and the order of the menu follows a Spanish bar rather than a three-course structure.

• From the shop counter: hand-cut Iberian ham, chorizo ibérico de bellota, Manchego, house olives, fried salted almonds.
• Cold tapas: boquerones en vinagre, white anchovies in vinegar, served with chips; tomato carpaccio with anchovies.
• Hot tapas: ham croquettes, Padrón peppers, tortilla de patata, huevos rotos with gulas.
• Oysters: the ostras of the name, from the raw bar.
• Rice: arroz de rabo de toro, oxtail rice, and arroz negro with prawns and squid, both portioned for two.
• Meat: Prime-grade steak, and solomillo, beef tenderloin, in a creamy pepper sauce with fries.
• Dessert: tarta vasca, the Basque cheesecake, and ate con queso.
• Drinks: a long wine list, cocktails, and non-alcoholic options that are made properly rather than bolted on.

What I ate in September

The Padrón peppers were the right kind of juicy and blistered, and the boquerones with chips were the plate I would order again first: sharp vinegar against the crisp potato. The solomillo in creamy pepper sauce with fries was the substantial dish of the meal. The Iberian ham is cut fresh by hand in front of you and served with a high quality olive oil.

The dessert is the one to plan for. The Basque cheesecake was cooked precisely to the point where the centre is still loose, which is the whole difficulty of the thing.

What it costs

These are menu prices from September 2026, taken from the restaurant’s published delivery menu, which tracks the dining room closely. Prices move.

Item	Price
Croquetas de jamón, 150 g	223 MXN, about 12 USD
Pimientos de Padrón, 150 g	235 MXN, about 13 USD
Boquerones en vinagre con chips, 130 g	240 MXN, about 13 USD
Chorizo ibérico de bellota, 50 g	325 MXN, about 18 USD
Queso manchego semicurado, 50 g	335 MXN, about 18 USD
Arroz de rabo de toro, 300 g, for two	555 MXN, about 30 USD
Arroz negro con camarones y calamares, for two	565 MXN, about 31 USD
Tarta vasca, 300 g	339 MXN, about 18 USD
Flan, 150 g	208 MXN, about 11 USD

Two people ordering three tapas, one rice dish, one dessert and a bottle of wine land in the region of 1,600 to 2,400 pesos in total. The cured meat and cheese plates are sold by 50 gram portions, which reads cheap on the menu and adds up faster than expected.

How to book

• OpenTable: Fran Ultramarinos, Ostras y Vinos is listed and bookable there.
• Instagram: @franromamx for messages and for schedule changes.
• Walk in at the bar: the bar is designed for people without a reservation.
• Hours: Monday to Saturday 12:00 to 22:00, Sunday 12:00 to 21:00 according to listings.
• Timing: Colima fills from about 20:00 on Thursday to Saturday. A late lunch is the easiest table to get.

Getting there

• Address: Casa Basalta, Calle Colima 159, colonia Roma Norte, 06700 Cuauhtémoc, Mexico City.
• Metro: Insurgentes on Line 1 is about eight minutes on foot, Sevilla about twelve.
• Metrobús: the Durango and Álvaro Obregón stops on Line 1 along Insurgentes are both close.
• On foot: Colima runs through the middle of Roma Norte, a few minutes from the Fuente de Cibeles and from Plaza Río de Janeiro.
• Finding the door: the restaurant is at the back of Casa Basalta, in its garden. The gourmet shop at the front is the landmark, not a restaurant sign.
• Parking: difficult on Colima at any hour. Take a taxi or a ride hail.

Before you go

• Walk through, do not stop at the shop. The restaurant is in the garden at the back of Casa Basalta, and first-timers walk past it from the street.
• It is an outdoor room. The tables are in the open garden, so check the forecast in the rainy months and bring a layer after dark.
• Weights, not portions. The tapas are priced by gram. Read the number next to the dish before ordering three of them.
• The rice serves two. Order one between two people, not one each.
• Save room for the tarta vasca. It is the strongest dessert on the list.
• Non-alcoholic drinkers are covered here, which is not true of every Spanish wine bar in the city.
• Pair it with the rest of Colima. Fuego is on the same street, and URSO is a few minutes away.
• Check the hours before you go. The hours on this page come from the venue’s public listings, which drift, so confirm on Google Maps or the venue’s own channels before a special trip.

Watch the visit

The short from this visit sits above this article once it is published, covering the garden, the ham and the cheesecake. For everywhere else I have filmed in the city, open my map or browse the rest of the Mexico City recommendations.