Los Angeles is now home to the only Michelin-starred Mexican-style seafood restaurant in the country: Holbox, Gilberto Cetina’s genre-pushing mariscos stall in the Mercado La Paloma food hall in Historic South Central.
Last night, the restaurant received this recognition at the Michelin awards ceremony in Half Moon Bay, California. Matthew Kang, editor-in-chief of Eater L.A., unofficially live-streamed the event after the broadcast crashed on YouTube. The mariscos shop is the only star recipient in L.A.’s vast Mexican food scene.
“It’s surreal,” Cetina tells L.A. TACO the morning after the ceremony. “A Michelin Star was never in our plans. It didn’t seem attainable for a restaurant as casual as ours, but I’m so proud of my team and grateful for all the love they pour into every task."
Holbox was opened in 2017 by Gilberto Cetina Jr., a second-generation chef who had taken over his father’s neighboring restaurant stall, Chichen Itza, which was among the first to specialize in Yucatán-style food in the city.
Since opening, Holbox has received multiple accolades, with inclusions in the Michelin’s Bib Gourmand guide—a category created to highlight “good quality and good value cooking”—for 2019 and from 2021 through 2023. Two years ago, Cetina revamped Holbox to include fish hanging racks to dry-age his local tuna and make their seafood charcuterie like kampachi sausage.
Last year, the L.A. Times recognized Holbox as their “Restaurant of the Year” for “the swath of people it reaches, the balanced brilliance of the food, [and] how perfectly the setting embodies L.A.” Cetina’s pan-seared Maine diver scallop taco with chile x'catic salsa, caramelized onions, tomato, and marinated fennel has also been recognized as one of L.A. TACO’s best 69 tacos for two years in a row.
Holbox is also the only mariscos shop in Los Angeles that uses heirloom-grown corn from Oaxaca and the state of Mexico for all their tacos and tostadas raspadas, nixtamalized by Fátima Juarez, a former Holbox employee who is opening Komal Molino next door to Holbox later this year. Holbox is the name of the Mayan-named island of Holbox—pronounced “hole-bosh”—off Mexico's northern Yucatán Peninsula.
Holbox getting an esteemed star for its tacos and tostadas arrives just couple of months after Michelin dropped its stars in Mexico, including issuing one star to a taquería specializing in seared steak tacos. That stand in Mexico City grew to have long lines shortly after. These two stars defy the Michelin Guide's usual type of restaurants in their list, which tend to be Euro-centric or Japanese-focused restaurants.
“We are incredibly proud to represent the South Central L.A. neighborhood and be recognized amongst this exemplary list of Chefs and restaurants." Holbox also stands out for being perhaps the only star recipient with no alcohol on its menu.
Last year, The New York Times published an investigative report showing how city tourism boards pay for the Michelin guide to include their city. In 2019, it was disclosed that Visit California paid half a million dollars to be part of the guide again.
The criteria for stars is disclosed in the Frequently Asked Questions section on the Michelin website: “MICHELIN Stars are awarded only on the basis of the quality of the cuisine served by a restaurant at a given time. They do not take into account the service, the tableware or the atmosphere at a restaurant; these aspects are documented by inspectors but are not part of the decision to award a restaurant a Star.”
3655 S Grand Ave #C9 Los Angeles, CA 90007 (Inside Mercado la Paloma)
