Last month, my wife Jun and I had a brief weekend trip to Los Angeles for a dear friend’s wedding. It had been ages since either of us had been to the City of Angels, so we really didn’t know how to spend our time there outside of the wedding, including where to eat. After looking through multiple websites and blogs on the latest LA food scene, we decided to check out Holbox inside a Mexican food court called Mercado La Paloma. What initially caught my eye was the restaurant being named the restaurant of the year earlier this year by Los Angeles Times’ acclaimed restaurant critic Bill Addison. I haven’t really been following the LA culinary landscape recently, but could a humble looking Mexican restaurant inside a food court be that good? It turned out to be one of the best meals I had had this year!   

When predicting how good a Mexican restaurant would be, Jun’s typical barometer is the simple guacamole bowl. After we placed our orders, the guacamole came out first and even after a server brought out other dishes thereafter, Jun was pretty much glued to the bowl remarking this could be the best guac she had ever had! I couldn’t agree more and really began to question why other Mexican restaurants couldn’t get out a guac as fresh and delicious as the one from Holbox. As magical as the guac was at Holbox, it was only the beginning. The Mexican seafood dishes that we ordered were all home-runs, starting with tostada of kanpachi and uni that was remarkably fresh, followed by baja shrimp taco with salsa and cabbage that should be a standard-bearer of an ideal shrimp taco. If you are inclined to try a fish taco, do yourself a favor with the one with mesquite grilled baja kanpachi. The highlight of our meal came at the end with mesquite grilled Yucatan octopus. Jun as anyone who has read my reviews before is quite a picky eater when it comes to octopus, and she was very moved by how delicious the dish from Holbox was, showing seductively smoky flavor (which was enhanced even more with great effect by the spicy kick of pipian sauce) and more or less perfect texture (in Jun’s experience, getting the texture right for octopus is deceptively hard). Add a side of cilantro rice, black beans, avocado and pico de gallo, and you have one heck of a dish that is astounding in every way. I have no doubt that going forward the Holbox octopus will set the bar against which every other octopus dish we try elsewhere will be measured!

As the restaurant is located inside a food hall, there is no reservation required. The line came quite long by the time we were almost finished with our early lunch, so if you are one of those people who hate a long wait, try to get to the Mercado as quickly as possible. In addition to the a la carte dining, Holbox is also open for tasting menu on Thursdays and Fridays at 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. Curiously (and I noticed this from other stores inside the food court), there is no alcohol list available (it is not even available for the tasting menu and you are not allowed to even BYOB). Perhaps it is the food court-wide policy, but we definitely would’ve loved some delicious margaritas to go along with the phenomenal food at Holbox. The only regret from our experience at Holbox was that it was just two of us and we didn’t get to try as many dishes as we would’ve been able to eat. As the first restaurant we visited during our trip, it really set the perfect tone for the rest of time in LA, and next time we visit the city, we will make it our mission to come back here.

KenScale: 8.75/10 (Jun’s Score: 8.5/10)

Address: 3655 S Grand Ave #C9, Los Angeles, CA 90007

Website: https://www.holboxla.com/#/

No Reservation (Tasting Menu Reservation via Tock)