It’s not surprising to find an affordable restaurant inside of a food court. But, what is unexpected is finding an affordable, Michelin-starred restaurant inside of one — and in a city like Los Angeles, no less. Holbox is L.A.’s cheapest Michelin-starred restaurant, located in Mercado La Paloma within the historic South Central corridor. Serving anywhere from 600 to 1300 people a day, Holbox does have its more lavish offerings, with eye-catching dishes such as its live Santa Barbara sea urchin ceviche and aguachile with whole fried, wild Mexican blue shrimp heads, that could easily run you a $100 in one sitting. It’s the $17 lunch special, however, that draws in its line of customers from Tuesday through Sunday.
The special includes two of Holbox’s baja fish tacos and a side of its ceviche mixto — a combination of Yucatan octopus, wild Mexican shrimp, and Baja striped bass. Featuring large cuts of crispy, breaded rockfish, drizzled in a cilantro crema and served on a fresh, warm tortilla, the Baja fish tacos deliver all of the flavor you should expect from a Michelin-starred restaurant. Priced from $6 to $8 at any other time of the day, Holbox’s other tacos do cost more than the Michelin-starred tacos in Mexico City, but they aren’t much more expensive than what you’d find at any other “gourmet” taco spots in the U.S. Only, with Chef Gilbert Cetina’s 2023 James Beard finalist recognition and Yucatan Roots, you know they’re the real deal.
Come for lunch, stay for dinner
At merely $17 for what would run you $30 any other time of the day, Holbox’s lunch special is the perfect place to start. With all of the fresh seafood coming out of that kitchen, you will be tempted to try more — and if you do give into another taco, the Taco de Pulpo en su Tinta should be the one, as the braised and fried gulf of Mexico octopus in calamari ink sofrito is not only one of Chef Cetina’s family recipes, but the top-selling one. Considering the lengths most people go to just to sit down there, or at any of L.A.’s other 20 best restaurants, ordering another taco or an aguachile to share is not really much of a question.
The average wait at Holbox is 45 minutes to an hour, with the majority of that time spent standing to order. While that isn’t all too different from other popular restaurants in L.A., after all that standing, you’ll also have to secure a place for yourself to sit. It is a food court, after all, and none of the seats outside of Holbox are actually reserved. If you do plan to visit, one tip to note is that the 16-top counter seating, or what Chef Cetina calls the ceviche and omakase counter, is reserved for Holbox customers. Even better is that, outside of the tasting menu hours on Wednesday and Thursday evenings, they’re all first come first serve.
Inside of Mercado La Paloma
Should you decide to visit Holbox, another thing to note is that all of the businesses inside Mercado La Paloma are also first generation businesses. So, not only should you stay for more tacos, but you might also consider staying to peruse what the other restaurants are cooking up. Chicken Itza, for instance, is another restaurant Chef Cetina started with his parents, and it’s been serving authentic Yucatan cuisine for more than 20 years. With a menu full of traditional and inspired specials, Chicken Itza might not have a Michelin star but it has been recognized as one of the top Mexican restaurants in the country by multiple publications — and, with a taco trio for $16, the prices are comparable.
Also inside of Mercado La Paloma is Taqueria Vista Hermosa, ran by the multi-generational, Oaxacan “Chef al Pastor,” Raul Morales, who serves his authentic al pastor tacos — a Mexican shaved pork inspired by the wave of Lebanese immigration to Mexico in the late 19th century — following the same recipe he learned while working for his uncle’s street cart in Michoacán as a teenager. As if that weren’t enough taco options, there’s also Oaxacali, which offers a menu of West Coast-inspired Oaxacan food, and Komal, a Mexican street food restaurant ran by Chef Fatima, or “the queen of corn” and a seven year employee at Holbox, along with Thai Corner Food Express — in case you’re not feeling more Mexican food.
