Inside Mercado La Paloma, a former factory turned Downtown community gathering space and food hall, sits Holbox, a family-run food stall that serves fresh, inventive seafood that’ll have you questioning all the other seafood you’ve ever eaten. Don’t you dare leave without getting an order of the scallop tacos - each one comes with four perfectly-seared scallops wrapped in a thick house-made corn tortilla before being topped with fennel, caramelized onions, and spicy chile sauce.

Run by the chef behind Cosme in NYC and Mexico City’s Pujol, Damian is an upscale experience, but if you’re looking to splurge a little, this Arts District spot more than backs up its high price point. The menu is filled with dishes like smoked clams with cucumbers, fish tempura tacos, and an extra-smoky pescado a la brasa served with tortillas. But perhaps the most impressive element here is the back patio complete with a mix of concrete walls and jungle-like plant arrangements.

Loreto in Frogtown is a particularly good choice for anyone looking to have a baller seafood meal. Get the butterflied whole fish that comes with rice, beans, escabeche, salsas, blue corn tortillas, and tiny quesadillas. The whole package—which costs somewhere between $60 and $80 depending on the day—will easily feed three adults. For a more casual entry point, stop by Loreto's incredible, daytime-only mariscos window Za Za Za.

106 Seafood serves mariscos that will reboot your tastebuds in a residential South LA backyard. Sure, the restaurant’s bathroom is technically located inside a person's home, but these dishes—like a shrimp ceviche punched up with tart green apple—have stuck with us longer than 90% of what we've eaten in restaurants with dedicated lavatories. (Not so surprising, considering the person in charge used to cook at Coni’Seafood.) Just bring cash and prepare to flip out.

La Casita Mexicana’s Jalisco-style menu has turned this neighborhood Bell restaurant into a true LA dining destination. There’s rich, chocolate-y mole and steak served over grilled cactus, but the dish that you must order is the chile en nogada. This giant green chile comes stuffed with beef, spices, dried fruits, candied cactus, pecan cream sauce, and topped with pomegranate seeds. It’s sweet, savory, profoundly herbaceous, and a dish we would happily eat as an appetizer, entree, or dessert.

Coni’Seafood in Inglewood (with a second location in Del Rey) is a neighborhood institution that’s been serving Nayarit-style seafood since 1987. This mariscos spot is particularly famous for its whole grilled snook that comes generously marinated in their salty house sauce, as well as with warm tortillas and caramelized onions served on the side. But our favorite thing here is their mighty tostaditos platter.

Owned by the same family as Holbox, this tiny vendor inside Mercado La Paloma serves traditional Yucatan cuisine. You’re going to want to start with the sikil-pac, a tomato and pumpkin seed-based dip, and end with their signature cochinita pibil, slow-roasted pork that’s been marinated in achiote and sour orange and wrapped in a banana leaf. It’s the perfect balance of sweet, sour, savory, and earthy.

Besides serving various dishes from Oaxaca’s southern Costa Chica region, Sabores Oaxaqueños has excellent tlayuda tortillas that are imported from Oaxaca every week. Their tlayuda mixta is a personal favorite and comes topped with the three traditional meats: Oaxacan chorizo, cecina adobada, and tasajo. The asiento provides a savory undertone that pairs perfectly with the creamy bean paste, and their spicy salsa roja offers great contrast to the tlayuda’s mild avocado and hearty meat toppings.

You won’t need to see a menu at this down-home spot in Boyle Heights. The specialty here is birria: earthy, tender Zacatecas-style goat birria prepared with a third-generation family recipe that's more prized than the Colonel’s eleven herbs and spices. Unlike some specialists that are only open weekends, Nochistlan serves daily. They do great birria tacos, but what you want is their birria plate served in a pool of rich, fragrant consommé.

It's easy to feel pampered during a meal at Ceviche Project. This stylish mariscos spot in Silver Lake is intimate, with only a few tables and a white marble bar where you watch owner-chef Octavio top oysters with housemade chile oil in a white suit. Everything you eat here has a surprising twist to it, like a "Mayan-style" octopus tostada with a punch of burnt habanero salsa, or kanpachi sashimi with ponzu and sweet bursts of diced melon.