Mariscos El Tambo: Compton’s Nayarit Seafood Gem

Mariscos El Tambo, a popular Nayarit-style seafood restaurant in Compton, offers traditional dishes and a lively botanero atmosphere. Started as a food truck, it now thrives in a permanent location, drawing crowds with its fresh, spicy seafood and unique offerings, boosted by TikTok fame.

The barra caliente sets this botanero apart, using crisp, golden empanadas de camarón made with masa and grilled camarones zarandeados, basted with a piquant sauce. Soto’s house specialties consist of an earthy pozole de camarón readily available only on weekend breaks, zesty sopa de jaiba (blue crab soup), and tixtihuil, an Aboriginal Totorame mole (often called mole de camarón or atole de camarón). Soto spices an atole (ground, prepared corn) with dried red chiles, an exclusive natural herb mix, and stewed tomatoes. The food selection also supplies a handful of guisados, consisting of spicy camarones a la diabla and fatty momias kora (cheese-stuffed, bacon-wrapped shrimp). While not normal of the botanero, the Linares-Soto household additionally serves pescado zarandeado cooked over mesquite. “We obtain robalo (snook) and barramundi from our distributor,” states Ximena. Plump, scored fish covered in a burnt-orange adobo gets simply plated together with tomato, red onion, and cucumber pieces; salsa roja; and warm corn tortillas for tacos.

From Food Truck to Family Restaurant

Mariscos El Tambo began as a food truck in 2021 before the City of Compton shut it down over noise grievances; that exact same year, Linares Navarro and Soto relocated the operation to their home, setting up a handful of benches along their driveway to serve recipes such as mojarra frita. Inside the cooking area at Mariscos El Tambo, a scruffy, laser-focused Jesús “El Tambo” Linares darts to and fro in between the barra fría (raw bar) station and a deep fryer, squeezing by household participants hurrying to send out dishes to a ferocious group. Mariscos El Tambo likewise uses a BYOB arrangement, which has ended up being a guest fave: the restaurant sells Clamato mix and the crowd does the remainder.

The food has actually advanced since the backyard pop-up, driven by the needs of a business kitchen, a setting Jesús is acquainted with. “We turn stations to keep up with the crowd.

The Heart of the Kitchen

Inside the cooking area at Mariscos El Tambo, a scruffy, laser-focused Jesús “El Tambo” Linares darts to and fro in between the barra fría (raw bar) terminal and a deep fryer, pressing by family participants rushing to send out dishes to a ravenous group., fills in wherever to help my mama and papa; we all do,” states Ximena.

Mariscos El Tambo started as a food truck in 2021 before the City of Compton closed it down over sound grievances; that same year, Linares Navarro and Soto relocated the operation to their home, establishing a handful of benches along their driveway to offer dishes such as mojarra frita. At the time, the crowd was mostly regulars who flowed in throughout the mid-day, alerted by the jumper erected in the Linares’s front lawn to signal they were open. Over the last couple of months, Mariscos El Tambo has found a brand-new target market on TikTok. On a Sunday a few weeks after opening, all 50 seats were taken, and there was a 20-minute wait for tables. “The majority of our customers are new and have actually been available in because they saw my sis Jaqueline’s videos on TikTok,” claims Jesús Linares’s little girl, Ximena Linares.

A Taste of Tuxpan, Nayarit

Mariscos El Tambo, Compton’s Nayarit-style backyard mariscos dining establishment established in 2021 throughout the coronavirus pandemic, opened its initial permanent area on August 22 in Compton. The dining establishment comes from seasoned chef Jesús Guadalupe Linares Navarro, who operated at Mariscos Nayarit for 24 years prior to co-founding the pop-up with his better half Adriana Soto. In a stucco store front east of the Rosecrans walkway at Alameda that used to house Honduras Dining establishment Mi Sabor area, Mariscos El Tambo has actually grown into a buzzing, high-spirited botanero (Nayarit-style alcohol consumption establishment with fish and shellfish) that attracts a crowd for fresh, spicy mariscos and traditional dishes from the couple’s home town of Tuxpan, Nayarit.

Mariscos El Tambo likewise provides a BYOB arrangement, which has actually ended up being a guest fave: the restaurant offers Clamato mix and the crowd does the rest. “Initially, I say thanks to god due to the fact that this has been my dream ever before given that I began cooking: to have my very own dining establishment.

Authentic Nayarit Flavors

Mariscos El Tambo, Compton’s Nayarit-style yard mariscos restaurant founded in 2021 during the coronavirus pandemic, opened its first long-term location on August 22 in Compton. In a stucco shop eastern of the Rosecrans overpass at Alameda that utilized to house Honduras Dining establishment Mi Sabor space, Mariscos El Tambo has actually expanded right into a buzzing, high-spirited botanero (Nayarit-style drinking facility with seafood) that attracts a crowd for fresh, zesty mariscos and typical dishes from the couple’s hometown of Tuxpan, Nayarit.

The food selection resembles nothing else in Los Angeles and offers a taste of Nayarit located just at its botaneros, where barra fría, barra caliente (warm bar), and cool chelas continue to be a method to invest a mid-day with loved ones. Sourcing fish and shellfish from Puerto Peñasco Inc. in Midtown Los Angeles, Jesús prepares intense ceviches and fiery aguachiles to get, combined with rough-chopped veggies and plated much like in Tuxpan. Fish and shellfish alcoholic drinks obtain offered cool or hot, consisting of a campechana (mixed fish and shellfish cocktail) teeming with cooked shrimp and octopus, imitation crab sticks, and oysters from Mexico that stand up on their own.