Mariscos El Tambo, the popular Nayarit-style backyard seafood spot in Compton, officially opened its first permanent restaurant on August 22. Founded in 2021 by veteran cook Jesús Guadalupe Linares Navarro and his wife Adriana Soto, the new location marks a significant step for the establishment that began as a pandemic-era pop-up.
The new Mariscos El Tambo now occupies a stucco storefront east of the Rosecrans overpass at Alameda, in a space that previously housed Honduras Restaurant Mi Sabor. The restaurant has quickly transformed into a bustling, high-spirited botanero, a Nayarit-style drinking establishment known for its fresh, spicy mariscos and traditional recipes from the couple's hometown of Tuxpan, Nayarit.
The journey to a permanent home was a winding one. Mariscos El Tambo initially launched as a food truck in 2021, but operations were cut short when the City of Compton shut it down following noise complaints. Undeterred, Linares Navarro and Soto relocated their business to their home later that year, setting up benches along their driveway. For a time, their signal of being open was a jumper erected in their front yard, drawing mostly familiar regulars who trickled in throughout the afternoon.
Over the past few months, the family business found an unexpected new audience. Jesús Linares’s daughter, Ximena Linares, attributes much of their recent growth to social media, noting that “Most of our customers are new and have come in because they saw my sister Jaqueline’s videos on TikTok.” This surge in popularity means that on a recent Sunday, all 50 seats were occupied, and there was a 20-minute wait for tables.
Inside the kitchen, Jesús Linares, known to some as “El Tambo,” navigates the space between the raw bar station and a deep fryer, working alongside his family. Ximena Linares explains the family dynamic, with her brother Adrian Linares managing the grill, her aunt Cinthia Tinoco assisting her parents, and Ximena handling customers. The demands of a commercial kitchen are different from their backyard operation. Ximena Linares shared, “There’s a lot of fast-paced work, so we have to move. We rotate stations to keep up with the crowd. At home it was a little slower, but now you need two to three people on deck because people want the food fast.”
The menu at Mariscos El Tambo offers a distinctive taste of Nayarit, rarely found elsewhere in Los Angeles. Drawing seafood from Puerto Peñasco Inc. in Downtown Los Angeles, Jesús prepares fiery aguachiles and bright ceviches, mixed with roughly chopped vegetables and plated in the traditional Tuxpan style. Seafood cocktails are served hot or cold, including a campechana teeming with cooked shrimp, octopus, imitation crab sticks, and oysters from Mexico.
The hot bar further distinguishes the botanero, featuring crisp, golden empanadas de camarón made with masa, and grilled camarones zarandeados coated in a piquant marinade. Adriana Soto's house specialties include an earthy pozole de camarón, available only on weekends, a tangy sopa de jaiba, and tixtihuil—an Indigenous Totorame mole often referred to as mole de camarón. Soto creates this dish by spicing a ground, cooked corn base with dried red chiles, a proprietary herb blend, and stewed tomatoes. The menu also includes guisados like zesty camarones a la diabla and momias kora, which are cheese-stuffed, bacon-wrapped shrimp. Additionally, the Linares-Soto family serves pescado zarandeado, cooking robalo and barramundi over mesquite with a burnt-orange adobo, simply plated with tomato, red onion, cucumber slices, salsa roja, and warm corn tortillas for tacos.
Mariscos El Tambo also embraces a BYOB setup, which has become a favorite feature for guests. While the restaurant sells Clamato mix, customers bring their own beverages, with beers covering tables and some even bringing large coolers to keep the party lively.
For Jesús Guadalupe Linares Navarro and his family, this new restaurant is the culmination of a long-held ambition. “First, I thank god because this has been my dream ever since I started cooking: to have my own restaurant. I’m thankful to my wife and children that it’s finally happened and that they are here with me,” he expressed.
