RESTAURANT NEWS | MIAMI
Cantina Leon Brings a Big Mexican Cantina to Coral Gables
By Eric Barton | Photos by Ruben Cabrera
6:18 a.m. ET, May 14, 2026
AUTHOR BIO: Eric Barton is editor of The Adventurist and a freelance journalist who has reviewed restaurants for more than two decades. Email him here.
Coral Gables has a new Mexican restaurant with enough mezcal, seafood, velvet, and tableside flame to make a dinner feel like it has been politely derailed.
The 7,500-square-foot, multilevel Cantina Leon comes from chef Gerardo B. De Negri, Jorge Barrera, and The Rabbit Group, the Miami hospitality company behind Bagatelle Miami River, Sala de Despecho, and others. The idea is a contemporary Mexican gathering place inspired by the country’s cantina culture, where a restaurant can be a place for eating, drinking, music, and conversation.
“At Cantina Leon, every dish is meant to bring people together,” De Negri said. “This restaurant is deeply personal to me because it reflects the way I grew up experiencing food in Mexico, around family, friends, music, conversation, and celebration.”
Born in Mexico, De Negri brings a background that runs from Mexico City to kitchens in Paris. At Cantina Leon, he works with chef de cuisine Jorge Delgadillo, from Hidalgo, Mexico, on a menu built around seafood, wood-grilled meats, raw bar dishes, and Mexican classics.
The opening menu includes shrimp aguachile tatemado, tuna tostadas, ceviche mexicano de pescado, and a torre de mariscos layered with shrimp, octopus, tuna, and avocado. From the grill, there’s pescado zarandeado, a whole grilled red snapper with coastal spices; giant black tiger prawns flambéed tableside with mezcal and garlic butter; a 24-ounce USDA Prime tomahawk; and filete flameado al tequila.
The bar follows the same path, leaning hard into tequila and mezcal without treating the margarita like an afterthought. The cocktail list includes a classic margarita, an Oaxacan Jarrito made with 400 Conejos Joven, tamarind Jarritos, agave, and lime, and a carajillo with Licor 43 and espresso.
The space was designed by Maxielle De Jesus of DesignXtudio, working with De Negri on a space inspired by 1920s Mexico and old Mexico City cantinas. The restaurant includes a main dining room, a central bar, an upstairs VIP and private event space, and a tequila and mezcal tasting room. Brass accents, marble finishes, green velvet banquettes, chandeliers, and layered lighting give the place the feeling of a cantina that dressed properly for Coral Gables.
Cantina Leon also includes Mercadito Cantina Leon, a casual sister café serving breakfast, specialty coffee and teas, tacos, and grab-and-go items. The main restaurant serves lunch, dinner, Sunday brunch, cocktails, happy hour, and live entertainment Wednesday through Sunday.
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