Holbox by Chichen Itza

Hi @Nemroz,

Skip Sonoratown and 1986, unless you’re going after the Mushroom tacos. Holbox had Live Santa Barbara Spot Prawns and Uni in last night (and still had plenty). Not sure if it’s sold out or not. :slight_smile:

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I love both taco places but ya point taken about holbox. Tho it’s a bit of a dif area

1986 is awesome. Ymmv.

Obviously the only answer is bang^4

Yep. I’m obsessed with sonoratown’s tortillas too

Holbox

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First choice: Holbox. Mercado La Paloma is rad and you can also bangx2 with Chichen Itza.

Second choice: Guerilla. They have alcohol and also there is a great wine shop across the street.

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Holbox x Chichen Itza x Burritos La Palma (The Fields)

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This is the correct answer. You even get a nice brisk walk in to settle things down…

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It turned out to be Holbox bar seats with Chichen bang bang. So so good. This was after quick visits to Modern Times, Mikkeller and Mumford

We really wanted to and hurt ourselves with this fun morsel

Fish tacos and ceviche combo was lovely. Grilled kampachi tacos really nice as well. Sauces are fantastic.

Think we liked Chichen Itza just as much. J Gold was right, that linganiza is great and chicken pibil plate too

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Looks great @Nemroz. I want that Kampachi Taco.

Our recent visit…

Torta de Camaron


The beauty of this Torta is the balance of perfectly battered & fried shrimp, fantastic, fluffy, crusty bread, creamy avocado & schmear of mayo, fresh texture from mixed greens & pico de gallo. BUT the avocado was a little sparse and unevenly distributed. My half had most of the avocado. :grimacing: Big A wasn’t impressed.


The baby tomatoes in the side salad are bursts of tomato-y goodness, but the pepitas are the real yum, roasted w/a dusting of tasty, flavor shake. It’s the little things…

Small Ceviche Mixto - Rockfish (not sure what kind), Pulpo (octopus), Wild Mexican Shrimp


The seafood was pristine as usual. I especially liked the rockfish, but too much pico de gallo for my taste.

Smoked Fish Tostada w/Baja Half Moon Scallops, Shrimp, Avocado Purée, Arbol-Peanut-Soy Sauce


I saw it being made on my last visit and it became the stuff of my dreams. Unfortunately, it didn’t live up to the dream. :frowning_face: It was mildly interesting. The seafood, of course, is excellent. I liked the hominy(?) garnish and the arbol-peanut is my favorite of the sauces. But there was too much smoke, almost an artificial taste that overpowers. Plus, I’m not a big fan of the tostada shell. But A is more of a smoke lover and he liked it. To me it doesn’t compare to their other smoked fish dish…

Chiles Rellenos de Pescado - Breaded & Fried Spicy Yellow Chiles, Stuffed w/House Smoked Fish, Morita Sauce & Mayo :heart_eyes:


The real stuff of my dreams!

I think (but am not sure) their newly minted Bib Gourmand (prominently and electronically displayed) has resulted in an uptick in biz and possibly an uptick in ego. They seemed really busy (overwhelmed), but there wasn’t many more customers than usual, so. Things were off and the server apologized for the really slow pacing. But the biggest bummer was getting big-timed by Chef. I think we now qualify as familiar faces and have had conversations with Chef Gilberto about seafood, Mexico, L.A. He loves talking about his sourcing. :wink: On this occasion I wanted to ask a couple of quick questions - Are you doing more guest chef-ing? Would you be interested in doing something private? If so, we could talk when you’re not busy working the restaurant. I got one sentence out “May I ask you a question?” He barked at me, blew me off then avoided our table. WTH? Okay, there was a polite way to handle that. I chalked it up to stress and decided to go the email route. Crickets. F ‘em. Why offer Catering & Private Tastings on your website? This was a far cry from experiences reaching out to Howlin’ Ray’s - the kings of customer appreciation. So, no FTC meetup with Monsieur Gilberto. Not one I’m interested in pursuing, anyway. I’m wondering if I even want to eat there again. I mean, hey, La Cevicheria got a Bib too and they’re warm, gracious and in my zip code.

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I visited twice recently.
Excellent food and great service on both visits.
I recommend arriving before the rush to ensure service, speed, and availability of menu items.

Our favorites are the raw items: pata de mula, spot prawn and scallop aguachile, giant surf clam, etc.

I love this place.

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Yep, me too. We’ve been all over this place (chichen itza too) - early, late, busy, slow. Yes, we’ve had the scallop aguachile, spot prawns (posted on a weekend rundown), dreaming of dishes yet to be had on that tight little menu. It is (was) my favorite spot for this food and everyone should enjoy it. It’s a BIG bummer for me… but rude is rude and we don’t do rude.

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How did he bark at you? what did he say?

I went yesterday and it was great as usual, super busy. Also, I went one time a while back and the food took a while to get to us, so Sergio personally gave us a free ceviche tostada and apologized for the abnormal wait even though we didn’t ask for anything. Seems a bit odd considering my experiences, although anyone could be having a bad day at any given time.

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What can I say? We got none of that love you received. We got a snarl and a way too late tostada.

Here’s the thing. I’m not trying to sway anyone. It’s why I’m not getting into detail. And if one of you had our experience I doubt it would stop me from going. I’d probably think “what a bummer” and continue to eat there. I love the place too much. But unfortunately we did have a bad experience and aren’t likely to return and I’m noting it in my report as I would anything else.

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tacos, coctel, and tostada were fantastic. i can do without the ceviche.

wood grilled fish taco - wood grilled kanpachi, cabbage, handmade corn tortilla, morita sauce, mayo & pico de gallo

baja fish taco - battered and fried wild rock fish, cabbage, crema, mayo & salsa roja on handmade corn tortilla

scallop taco - pan seared maine diver scallop, handmade corn tortilla, chile x’catic sauce, caramelized onions and fennel

baja shrimp taco - battered & fried wild gulf shrimp, cabbage, crema, mayo & salsa roja on handmade corn tortilla


ceviche mixto - wild rock fish, mexican octopus, wild mexican shrimp, cilantro, tomato, lime, onion & salsa roja

coctel de camaron - wild mexican shrimp, cocktail sauce, avocado, onion & cilantro

uni for scale

kanpachi & uni tostada - premium santa barbara uni, baja kanpachi, tomato, onion, lime, cilantro, avocado & salsa roja

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Smoked fish, shrimp and scallop tostada :heart_eyes::heart_eyes: - loved this. Smokey, refreshing, balanced and so many textures and flavors. Excellent!

Octopus and squid ink taco - crunchy exterior octopus and tender interior with a lovely sea flavor from the squid ink.

Scallop taco - excellent as usual.

Pulpo asado :heart_eyes::heart_eyes: - another hit, same tender and crunchy octopus but served with different flavors from the taco. Making make-shift tacos was great, and the saffron rice had a punch of seafood flavor, paella like and adding my favorite mixture of kut/morita together on top of the rice is pure bliss.

They also had the seafood stew @PorkyBelly, they put up the specials chalkboard afterwards.

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I.Can’t.Take.It! :stuck_out_tongue: :angry:

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Chef Gilberto and holbox are back in business. They’re selling everything from fresh raw seafood, to cook at home meal kits, to ready to eat meals.

early on, seafood paella was a very limited special that i missed out on, so i had to try it when i saw it on the takeout menu. and it was fantastic. The aroma from the saffron and seafood emanating from my passenger seat as I was driving home was intoxicating. it’s amazing how chef nails every piece of seafood in this dish, not one item was overcooked. this man knows his seafood. and yes there was some scorched rice, but the crispiness didn’t hold up during transit. but i didn’t mind because everything was so good. the portion was huge with lots of seafood and can easily feed four people. @Chowseeker1999, @TheCookie, @NYCtoLA, @JeetKuneBao, @attran99, @butteredwaffles, @J_L, @Ns1, @A5KOBE

seafood paella - shrimp, octopus, saltspring mussels, scallops, kanpachi #covid15

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Hi @PorkyBelly,

Thanks for the great report back again. :slight_smile: Wait, why didn’t you utilize your “personal 4 person dining room” (your car) and try the prized scorched rice immediately?! :smile:

Can’t wait to try this, thanks!

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