Restaurant Holbox is a casual, Yucatán-style seafood stand in Mercado La Paloma, a food hall just outside downtown L.A. On two evenings a week, chef Gilberto Cetina serves a limited tasting menu at his eight-seat counter, featuring fresh seafood from California and Mexico. We love the tasting menu at Holbox and highly recommend it. But the best part? Even if you don’t snag a reservation, many of these dishes are available on the à la carte menu. Be sure to try Holbox’s signature Northern Mexican blood clams with a smoky chile bonito sauce, and the sea urchin ceviche, where huge, buttery tongues of Santa Barbara uni are plopped on top of a wild-caught white sea bass ceviche. But our favorite dish of all is the bluefin tuna tostada: fatty fish served on a house-made yellow corn tostada with avocado purée and a chile de árbol peanut sauce. We were blown away by the quality of the fish. The chefs are literally cutting open the seafood right in front of your eyes – it truly doesn’t get any fresher than this. Holbox received its first Michelin star in 2024.
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Holbox Address & Contact Information Mercado La Paloma, 3655 S Grand Ave c9, Los Angeles, California Website Instagram Facebook
Holbox: L.A.’s Most Surprising Michelin Star
Holbox has only eight seats, 500 people on the waitlist, and a Michelin-starred tasting menu for $130. It’s the cheapest Michelin meal in America… That is, if you can get a reservation…
Holbox is L.A.’s most surprising Michelin star. By day, it’s a casual Yucatán-style seafood counter inside Mercado La Paloma, a food hall just outside downtown L.A. This stall is so popular that there are lines down the block – you order dishes à la carte at the counter and sit at shared tables. Chef Gilberto Cetina grew up cooking in this very market with his father before opening Holbox on his own in 2017. I first came here that very same year, back when I was doing my challenge of eating at all of Jonathan Gold’s 101 Best L.A. Restaurants in 101 days. And I’ve been coming back ever since.
But a few years ago, something changed – Holbox started serving a limited tasting menu. And in 2024 it was the first Mexican seafood counter in the U.S. to earn a Michelin star! Twice a week, this seafood stand serves an eight-course tasting menu to only eight guests. It’s one of L.A.’s hardest reservations – it sells out in seconds. And if you can’t snag one of those eight seats, don’t worry. We’ll tell you how you can still try Holbox’s signature dishes.
Fine Dining in a Food Hall
So, what does fine dining in a food hall actually look like? It’s basically an edible aquarium! The counter seats are surrounded by tanks of live seafood and face the chefs at work as they shuck oysters, crack open shellfish, slice fish, and pull live lobster straight from the tank. It truly doesn’t get any fresher than this – and you can taste it.
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The Raw Bar
The tasting menu begins with four cold dishes from the ceviche bar: two oysters – one topped with red wine vinegar and uni, briny and ocean-forward, and another with smoked trout roe and cucumber aguachile, which gave it spa-water vibes.
The geoduck ceviche had bright acidity, a little tingle of heat, and an unbelievably fresh avocado purée.
Holbox’s Signature Blood Clams
One of Holbox’s signatures is the blood clam – this was so smoky, with a crazy depth of flavor and a slight afterburn from the chile bonito sauce. Everything was served ice cold – pure, clean, and incredibly fresh.
The second course is another Holbox classic: the sea urchin ceviche. Huge, buttery tongues of Santa Barbara uni are piled on top of wild-caught white sea bass ceviche. There’s bright acidity, creamy avocado, and a fresh tomato-onion punch, like pico de gallo.
Our Favorite Dish: the Bluefin Tuna Tostada
Then came our favorite course of the night: the bluefin tuna tostada. We even got to see the giant tunas they use for this dish – the fish was pure, fatty perfection. Cetina is especially proud of the way they make their yellow corn tostada raspada – it’s only cooked on one side, then the raw masa is scraped off the other, resulting in the thinnest possible fried tortilla. It’s dehydrated overnight, which gives it a slight chicharrón crackle and a deep corn flavor. Topped with avocado purée and a chile de árbol peanut sauce, this was an absolute knockout.
The last raw dish was a Santa Barbara spot prawn ceviche, served Sinaloa-style with a roasted prawn head salsa negra and charred avocado. The prawns were silky and sweet, bathed in a sauce with a bright, tropical tang. And then there was the crispy head – almost tempura-like – with a custardy, fluffy texture. Absolutely delicious!
Hot Dishes
Michelin-Starred Tamales & Tacos
Then we moved into the hot dishes. One of the most impressive and unique servings was the abalone tamal, topped with a plantain and abalone liver mole. Raw masa cooked in seafood stock was poured into an abalone shell, wrapped in a banana leaf and steamed, resulting in a custard-like corn porridge. And that sauce – sweet, salty, and perfectly balanced with dried chiles, nuts, and spices. We loved this dish!
Another highlight was the Dungeness crab taco with Oaxacan cheese and a crab butter salsa macha wrapped in a crispy blue corn tortilla. Clean, buttery crab, incredible heat, vibrant flavors… what’s not to love?
And the flavor party wasn’t finished. Next came a seared diver scallop with a creamy sauce of roasted poblano peppers, garlic, and caramelized pumpkin seeds. The scallop was seared to buttery perfection, and the sauce had a deep caramelized vibe – nutty, rich, and slightly herbal. Scallops are one of our favorite ingredients of all time, and with that pepper sauce, this serving felt distinctly Mexican. What a meal. What a menu.
Mesquite-Grilled Seafood
If you love lobster paella, you’ll love the last course – local spiny lobster gently grilled over mesquite served with lobster and mussel rice cooked with roasted tomatoes, saffron, and lobster stock. The presentation was beautiful, and the flavors were bold and rich. Personally, we prefer cleaner, brighter seafood preparations, so this ended up being our least favorite of the night – but if you enjoy rich, shellfish-forward dishes, you’ll like this one.
But there was one final surprise: churros and chocolate! Perfectly warm, crispy-edged churros with a soft, gooey center, rolled in cinnamon sugar and served with a rich chocolate dipping sauce. The perfect sweet ending to a fantastic meal.
Is Holbox the Best Value Michelin Star in America?
Our meal at Holbox was one of the most fun, high-energy tasting menus we’ve had. Sitting at that counter, watching the team work at full speed while live seafood is being cracked open right in front of you… it’s electric.
The food blew our minds. And at $130, this is easily the best value Michelin-starred meal in the country. We were completely stuffed by the end. When we told chef Cetina the menu felt underpriced, he just laughed and said he wants to keep it accessible. It’s a passion project – and you can feel that.
This is what a Michelin star looks like in Los Angeles. Not white tablecloths. Not hushed dining rooms. Just eight seats inside a buzzing food hall, serving some of the freshest, most exciting seafood in the country. It’s one of L.A.’s hardest reservations, and it’s absolutely worth the effort. And the best part? Even if you can’t snag one of those eight seats, many of these signature dishes are available à la carte for lunch and dinner.
Have you been to Holbox? Let us know how your experience was in a comment below.
