Tucked away in backyards throughout Los Angeles are regional Mexican enclaves representing tiny pueblos. Endless culinary possibilities abound in these unassuming neighborhoods, including some of the best Mexican seafood from the state of Nayarit. The latest notable operator on the underground scene is Mariscos El Tambo in Compton from Tuxpan natives Jesús Guadalupe Linares Navarro and his wife Adriana Soto.

Linares and Soto opened the original Mariscos El Tambo at the corner of Willowbrook and Winona in Compton in October 2020, sourcing seafood from Puerto Peñasco in Downtown LA. When the city of Compton shut down the location earlier this year, the couple started operating from their backyard on Willowbrook just north of Alondra this past summer. Linares worked as a cook at Mariscos Nayarit for 24 years, while Soto developed recipes she originally learned from her mother, M.A. Reyes Soto Ortiz, back in Mexico. The middle school sweethearts have been together for 29 years and first came to Los Angeles in 2000.

LA’s backyards have long been the site of excellent regional Mexican cooking, especially from Nayarit. In 1987, Vicente “Chente” Cossio opened Mariscos Chente from his Inglewood home serving botanero (seafood and beer hut) recipes from Acaponeta, Nayarit. Though he went on to open Mariscos Chente El Original and Coni’Seafood with his daughter in Inglewood, Cossio’s original backyard service inspired others in the community to open Nayarit-style seafood businesses from their homes. Cossio’s former cook, Sergio Peñuelas, earned the title of “Snook Whisperer” from Los Angeles Times restaurant critic Jonathan Gold in 2017, and opened 106 Underground Seafood in 2019 from a backyard in Inglewood. It closed in October 2022 and reopened as Checo’s Seafood this past June in a different Inglewood backyard. In Riverside, chef Anthony Plascencia of Mariscos Los Corchos might be serving the best pescado zarandeado in town from his home.

On weekend mornings, Linares inflates a large, colorful jump house in his front yard to signal that the fish are fully stocked and that doors are open. Then Linares and Soto begin preparing spicy aguachiles, pozole de camarón, and pescado zarandeado grilled over charcoal. Their children Ximena, Jaqueline, and Jesús Linares Jr., as well as nephew Alberto Soto, help with prep and service. Behind a dog-eared fence, jovial conversations take place over ceviches from the barra fría (cold bar), which Linares oversees. Dishes from the barra caliente (hot bar) are prepared by Soto’s seasoned hands. Between the whirrs of traffic and the distant rumbles of the A Line, one can almost conjure up the merriment of a beachside botanero.

The scruffy, often tacit Linares answers questions with nods and soft smiles, and earned the nickname of El Tambo (the barrel) for his stocky build. El Tambo’s signature sampler plate goes by the same moniker. For $50, the plate includes ensalada de camarón (shrimp salad), ceviche mixto, camarón a la diabla (spicy shrimp), sopa de jaiba (crab soup), camarón empanizado (breaded shrimp), empanadas de camarón, and tixtihuil de camarón (shrimp soup) all separated into a hulking divided tray.

Hunkered down behind a refrigerated prep table, Linares prepares spicy, well-seasoned ceviche de camarón, blending freshly ground green chiles and lime juice, before mixing in chopped tomato, red onion, cucumber, and cilantro. The same preparation is available with octopus and fish, or all three as a combo. Aguachiles come in a spicy green or red liquid base and are made to customers’ preferred spice level. Mariscos El Tambo uses surimi and tilapia to keep costs in check in their raw bar items, so stick with shrimp and octopus.

Like other Nayarit-style seafood specialists operating in LA backyards, Mariscos El Tambo grills a very solid pescado zarandeado (grilled snook) and seafood tacos, but the best dishes come from Linares’s barra fria and Soto’s barra caliente (hot dishes), which transport customers to the botaneros and ramaditas (thatch covered huts) in Tuxpan.

Matthew Kang

The abundance of high-quality Pacific shrimp caught in Nayarit and Sinaloa has led to a wealth of regional shrimp dishes, many of which are served at Mariscos El Tambo. One specialty is the pellizcadas de camarón con queso, or masa boats topped with melted cheese and cooked shrimp that come out as quesadillas and empanadas. The celebratory tixtihuil, or atole de camarón, is attributed to the Indigenous Totorame group. The shrimp soup with a light red broth of tomatoes and dried red chiles thickened with masa is served across southern Sinaloa and northern Nayarit. Soto’s tixtihuil is thick, spicy, and complex with a consistency similar to Vietnamese cháo (rice porridge). It’s as piquant as Oaxacan mole amarillo but less herbal, allowing for the toasted chiles guajillos to shine. Soto’s other standout is the pozole de camarón, a soup of nixtamalized cacahuazintle corn and shrimp served with a light red broth of blended tomatoes, chile guajillo, and chile de árbol.

During the week, Linares maintains the automated dumpling machines at CJ Foods in Commece that cranks out Bibigo dumplings. But looking toward the future, Linares and Soto are close to achieving their dream of owning a restaurant and sharing something special from their hometown of Tuxpan with their community. “I’ve always wanted to open my own restaurant and be known for my food, for my spice,” says Linares.

Mariscos El Tambo is located at 711 S. Willowbrook Avenue, Compton, California, 90220. (323) 251-2328. It’s open on weekends only from 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.