Winning a Michelin star brought some new challenges to Gilberto Cetina’s life.
But it also saved Mercado La Paloma, arguably L.A.’s best food hall and a 30-year-old institution in the heart of South Central L.A. that pays homage to Mexico’s legendary open-air markets.
The head chef and proprietor of a tiny seafood kingdom called Holbox and a Mayan food temple known as Chichen Itza, Cetina recently admitted that the success can be overwhelming.
“It has been kind of crazy,” Cetina said, wiping his face and smiling. “I went from managing a small team to almost 100 employees.”
Today, most of Cetina’s army of highly skilled line cooks, bussers, servers, washers, meal prep specialists, and shuckers, who crack open fresh clams and oysters like they’re dealing playing cards, can be seen gliding around, dealing with the non-stop crowds at Holbox, a seafood counter where octopus simmers in its own ink and wild bluefin glistens behind glass like precious art.
The rocketship really took off in the summer of 2024 when Holbox became the first Mexican marisquería in the U.S. to earn a Michelin star. Before that, Cetina’s seafood stall languished in the red for a number of years before finding its footing in 2019, just before the 2020 pandemic nearly ruined everything.
Holbox survived on heart and hustle, pivoting to taco kits and take-home seafood feasts until the dining room reopened and word of mouth turned into a roar. Then the star hit and everything changed. Suddenly the food court’s once-sleepy aisles were swarmed by diners who had watched Cetina accepting awards next to Thomas Keller and Dominique Crenn.
The other five restaurants at the Mercado will tell you they felt that star in their pocketbooks, too. The lines for ceviche mean new eyes on Yucatecan cochinita pibil, handmade pupusas, and Thai classics served with a smile. Holbox shines, and everyone glows brighter.
Aritsa Elliott, who runs the only non-Mexican puesto at the hawker center, says every day in the restaurant industry since COVID has been a struggle, but Holbox’s Michelin star makes it way easier.
“It’s been good for everyone,” she says. “It’s still a struggle but it’s been a lot better.”
Thai immigrant Elliott, who speaks very decent Spanish and can dance a bit of cumbia when the mood strikes, says Holbox winning so many accolades probably kept a lot of the other puestos in Mercado La Paloma from closing.
“We rely so much on walk-up business as a collective, primarily from USC and the surrounding businesses,” she says. “But now people only work a few days a week. They’re home all the time. So Holbox winning was like all of us winning, bringing in more walk-up business.”
Gilberto Cetina wasn’t supposed to be the guy redefining what Mexican seafood could look like on the world stage. He was a kid from the Yucatán Peninsula who spent summers diving for conch and octopus in waters so clear you could see every ripple of the tide.
He crossed into the U.S. as a child, undocumented for most of his life, and while other celebrated chefs trained in Paris or New York, Cetina earned his stripes scrubbing pans and learning in the kitchen at his father’s iconic Chichen Itza, just steps from where Holbox stands now.
When he took over his dad’s joint in 2010 and later opened Holbox in 2017, some Mercado regulars thought the idea of fine-dining mariscos here was a joke. Now the joke is how long you’ll wait—sometimes an hour or more—just to taste that inky octopus taco that critics and TikTokers won’t shut up about.
In fact, so much of L.A. can be found at the mariscos specialist that it’s become common to run into people you haven't seen in years standing in line at Holbox.
It’s like a reunion line: the college roommate who ghosted you, your cousin’s ex-husband, that guy who DJ’d your quinceañera, all waiting patiently, refreshing their parking meters, united by seafood cravings.
But there are three ways to avoid standing in the Holbox line.
No. 1: If there’s a seat at the counter, you can just pull up. There is no need to wait in line to sit at the ceviche bar.
No. 2: You can order online ahead of time and just roll up, pick up your to-go bag, and have a seat at one of the tables.
No. 3: You can opt to try another one of the other incredible vendors at Mercado La Paloma.
But the best move is to go to one of the other spots, order, and then go stand in line. They will bring you your tacos while you wait.
To that point. Here’s your guide to the single best bite at every vendor inside Mercado La Paloma—yes even Holbox.
Thai Corner Food Express ~ Drunken Noodles
Elliott’s drunken noodles are spicy and smoky, wide rice noodles stir-fried until gooey and slick, tangled with basil, chiles, and your protein of choice. It’s that perfect Thai alchemy: spicy enough to make you sweat, savory enough to keep you chasing one more bite.
Chichen Itza ~ Torta de Cochinita Pibil
Long before Holbox’s superb seafood dishes stole L.A.’s culinary heart, Chichen Itza’s cochinita pibil was the star at Mercado La Paloma. It’s slow-roasted Yucatán pork that spent hours basking in achiote and sour orange. You can have it in tacos, as a plate or tucked into a soft French roll that soaks up every drop of that tangy, brick-red marinade. The pickled red onions on top give it that bright, electric snap.
Taqueria Vista Hermosa ~ Tacos Al Pastor
Carved fresh from a spinning trompo, the adobo-marinated pork hits the plancha with a little sizzle, getting those crisp lacy edges before being placed into a handmade blue corn tortilla.
Komal ~ Sonia Taco
Komal provides most of the tortillas for the vendors at Mercado La Paloma. But it perhaps does its best work with the “Sonia” taco. Named after co-owner Sonia Ruiz, this standout taco takes simple ingredients and turns them into a little miracle that feels like your mom or grandma made it for an afterschool lunch. A hand-pressed blue corn tortilla becomes a stage for braised beef shoulder and hand-made pork longaniza, topped with mashed potatoes and salsa roja.
Oaxacalifornia ~ Cafe de Olla Ice Cream
Oaxacalifornia’s artisanal nieves aren’t just ice creams. They’re edible postcards, spun from the flavors of mezcal country, honoring owner Juan Antonio’s own grandma who made ice cream by hand in their home town in Tlacolula, Oaxaca. Antonio and his late wife started selling ice creams door-to-door before opening in the Mercado in 2003. Their cinnamony cafe de olla ice cream is my personal favorite but all their small batch ice creams are excellent.
Holbox ~ Tostada de Kanpachi & Uni
It’s really hard to pick the best bite at Holbox. For me, the tostada de kanpachi topped with uni always makes the endless wait in line worth it. It’s a Baja California dream-meeting-Santa Barbara luxury on a crispy corn disc known as a tostada raspada. I’m talking clean, fat-striped kanpachi, kissed by citrus, then crowned with 20 grams of Santa Barbara uni so creamy it practically melts in your mouth. It’s so good, that every time I take a bite, I want to scream, “give that man another Michelin star!”
Mercado La Paloma ~ 3655 S. Grand Ave. # 280, Los Angeles, CA 90007
