Mariscos El Muelle 8 Delivers a Sensational Taste of Culiacán in Downey

Culiacán-based Mariscos El Muelle 8 has closed its East LA food truck and upgraded to a brick-and-mortar restaurant in Downey that opened on Friday, October 30. The owner of Mariscos El Muelle 8 USA, Jay Orozco, had launched the food truck in Garden Grove in 2025 after closing a previous brick-and-mortar location of Mariscos El Muelle 8 in Downey. His new 95-seat restaurant has a full liquor license and big-screen TVs for sports events. 

Founded in Culiacán in 2020 by Orozco’s cousin, the late Abel Martínez, Mariscos El Muelle 8 launches its new Downey restaurant with an extensive menu of barra fría (cold bar) dishes such as ceviches, aguachiles, and seafood cocktails, as well as barra caliente (hot bar) items like seafood tacos and soups. The bright cantina is ideal for sipping margaritas, micheladas, and carajillos while catching a variety of sports events (especially a Canelo fight). Mariscos El Muelle 8 delivers a unique Sinaloan seafood experience as the only Mexico-based mariscos franchise in Los Angeles. 

What to order

• Tostada lovers are in for a treat. The tostada chavita — a very Sinaloan take on the popular tuna tostada — piles cubes of sweet and sour marinated tuna on a fried wonton, with a scattering of black sesame and a crown of crispy fried onions on top. It’s a little inspiration from the sushi bar that Sinaloan chefs learned in culinary school and working at sushi bars stateside. The tostada chavita is compact and leaves plenty of room for other dishes.
• The shrewdest scheme to get a taste of pricey callos de hacha (pen shell clams) is in an order of Ceviche Muelle 8, a mix of cooked shrimp, raw shrimp, cooked octopus, and those prized callos de hacha in a medium spicy salsa roja.   
• One of the hallmarks of any barra fría is a number of variations on aguachile, a dish consisting of raw, high-quality shrimp, cured à la minute in a spicy lime juice blended with chile serrano or chile jalapeño. Ordering an aguachile negro made with the restaurant’s umami-rich salsa negra is the move; pair it with a michelada.  
• The best seafood taco selection in town announces itself with the Taco Gaxiola, a seared strip of tuna rubbed in adobo, topped with guacamole and pico de gallo, and dressed with a chipotle-mayo.
• Everything zarandeado is en vogue north of the border, and camarones zarandeados are a noteworthy plate on any barra caliente. Here, large shrimp are grilled in a spicy marinade and served with undressed salad and coleslaw. 

The vibe

The roar of crowds and booming sportscaster voices transmitted on flat-screen televisions displaying rival matches reverberate off the walls and tavern-style ceiling. The nautical-themed dining room, white with navy blue trim, features a mural depicting a day at the beach in Sinaloa. Diners are casually dressed — snapbacks are a sharp accessory for young sinaloenses — and it’s best to come with friends or family to enjoy sharable ceviches, aguachiles, and botanas (snacks).

Insider tip

If you want spicier, just ask when you order dishes from the barra fría. And check out the shellfish behind the bar on your right as you walk in for the day’s selection, which can include pata de mula, reina, and chocolata clams as well as Pacific oysters.