{"id":467359,"date":"2026-09-18T00:56:28","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T00:56:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/467359\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T00:56:28","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T00:56:28","slug":"los-angeles-is-in-a-golden-age-of-mexican-seafood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/467359\/","title":{"rendered":"Los Angeles Is in a Golden Age of Mexican Seafood"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cMexican seafood does not get any better than San Dami\u00e1n.\u201d I felt somewhat surprised to hear my friend Bill Esparza<\/a>, one of the most respected Mexican food writers in the country, make this proclamation recently \u2014 about a Los Angeles restaurant. But why should I be? San Dami\u00e1n<\/a> is the latest from Enrique Olvera, the celebrated chef behind Pujol and other restaurants across Mexico as well as Dami\u00e1n in Los Angeles\u2019s Arts District. When I brought Esparza along to shoot a video<\/a> at San Dami\u00e1n within a few weeks of its opening, the minimalist 60-seat space in Venice\u2019s Abbot Kinney and its tight menu of tostadas, ceviches, and grilled fish were still pretty unsung. But Bill\u2019s comment snapped something into focus for me:<\/p>\n

We\u2019re living in a golden era of Mexican seafood in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Kang Town newsletter<\/p>\n

Esparza and I have had our adventures eating seafood in Mexico. He showed me the glories of Ensenada\u2019s La Guerrerense<\/a> in the late aughts, arguably the most impressive seafood stand in the world<\/a>. Last year, I had a revelatory lunch in Popotla, in Baja California, gorging on uni cocteles and Martian spider crab tossed in garlic sauce. And in Los Angeles, we\u2019ve scoured Compton backyards for superb pescado zarandeado<\/a> and picked clean plates of raw shellfish in strip malls<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Baja California,<\/a> due south of our city, provides an abundance of bluefin tuna, sea urchin, lobster, crab, clams, and abalone. Jonathan Gold covered Los Angeles\u2019s passion for Mexican seafood going back to the days of Mariscos Chente<\/a> and Mariscos Jalisco<\/a>. For decades, chefs here have offered thoughtful takes on tostadas, cocteles, and ceviches balancing the freshness of the seafood with distinctly Mexican seasonings. Vibrant aguachiles. Octopus tostadas laced with dangerously spicy salsa. Achiote-painted grilled snook<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Esparza thinks mariscos have gotten a boost stateside thanks to the popularity of Contramar, chef Gabriela C\u00e1mara\u2019s influential Mexico City restaurant; C\u00e1mara opened a Contramar outpost earlier this year in Las Vegas\u2019s Fontainebleau<\/a>. Tourism to Baja California<\/a> and its Valle de Guadalupe<\/a> has introduced American diners to more innovative approaches to mariscos.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

Uni and kanpachi tostada. Rebecca Roland<\/p>\n

A number of new players have really leveled up restaurants here in Los Angeles, too. The most noteworthy, Holbox, from chef Gilberto Cetina, earned a Michelin star in 2023 for serving an inventive set of Yucatan-inflected tostadas, grilled seafood, and tacos for ultra-reasonable prices (making it certainly the most affordable Michelin-starred restaurant in the U.S.). At a tasting last week, Cetina wowed me with a Dungeness crab taco with salsa macha-infused crab butter and scallop ceviche served right out of an emptied Santa Barbara uni shell picked that morning. Cetina credits the groundwork laid by chefs Wes Avila and Ray Garcia, whose respective restaurants Guerilla Tacos and Broken Spanish taught Angelenos to zag with inventive Mexican American flavors on a tortilla. Cetina took that approach and applied it to seafood: \u201cThey made me realize that our cuisine is worthy of sea urchin and Hokkaido scallops \u2014 high-quality ingredients. We\u2019re blessed because of all the quality seafood across the [California] coast, from the Bay Area to Baja.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2025, chef Francisco Leal \u2014 formerly of Del Mar Ostioneria<\/a>, which received the Eater Award in 2023 for Best New Food Truck \u2014 took to the streets of Vernon, set up covered benches and a sidewalk kitchen, and called it Mariscos Chiltepin<\/a>. His specialty there is Sinaloan barra fr\u00eda (raw bar) \u2014 callos de hacha (scallop-like pen shell clams); tender surf clams; sweet, meaty chocolata clams; chiltepin-and-ghost-pepper-laced<\/a> aguachile using gorgeous Mexican white shrimp.<\/p>\n

\"Tacos<\/a><\/p>\n

Mariscos Jalisco. Matthew Kang<\/p>\n

Also last year, Downey\u2019s Muelle 8<\/a>, helmed by master Sinaloan chef Luis Cortez, moved into an East Los Angeles food truck serving surf-and-turf tacos filled with grilled chiles, shrimp, and beef; and Nobu-level sashimi plates employing pristine tuna, red onions, avocado, and salsa negra. The move to East Los Angeles takes it into the city\u2019s hotbed of street seafood, including the legendary Mariscos Jalisco (which itself expanded to La Cienega Boulevard, greatly broadening its audience). Mariscos El Tambo, which Esparza first covered for Eater Los Angeles<\/a>, moved out of its backyard and into a permanent restaurant in Compton<\/a> just a few weeks ago. Rialto-based Mariscos Los Corchos<\/a>, which flirted with a Smorgasburg gig<\/a> and start-stopped a permanent location<\/a>, just announced it\u2019s working out of the same lot<\/a> as Sonoran carne asada specialist Tacos Royale in Silver Lake<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Mango<\/a><\/p>\n

Matthew Kang<\/p>\n

At San Dami\u00e1n, chef Jesus \u201cChuy\u201d Cervantes worked with his mentor Olvera to create dishes like minced bluefin tuna tostadas seasoned with shiro dashi and fried leeks (in perhaps a subtle nod to Contramar\u2019s iconic tostada<\/a>), and queen clams with chopped cucumbers over a nugget of sushi rice. A drizzle of nutty, spicy salsa macha takes that clam ceviche to the next level. The kanpachi al pastor, dusted with adobo seasoning and served on paper-thin corn tortillas with a smear of pineapple butter, is the perfect nod to Los Angeles\u2019s love of tacos al pastor, but in fish form.<\/p>\n

When you\u2019re getting inventive and fine dining\u2013level seafood on the street, at a food hall, or in a swanky Westside neighborhood, it\u2019s clear Mexican seafood has no bounds in Los Angeles. Chefs like Cetina, Leal, and Cervantes take dishes they know well and morph them into a distinct Angeleno style. We\u2019re at the point where mariscos have become a hallmark of the city\u2019s diverse dining culture, and every bite of aguachile, pescado zarandeado, and salsa-laced ceviche convinces me Angelenos are eating some of the most luxurious seafood on earth.<\/p>\n