A self-described “order-at-the-counter seafood stand” in South L.A. made it to the top of Yelp’s Top 100 Places to Eat for 2025.

Holbox is located near the entrance of a food hall called Mercado La Paloma in the Figueroa Corridor of Los Angeles. Customers wait for more than an hour to order “some of the freshest seafood around,” according to Yelp.

Eleven other eateries in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties made it onto the list as well. Most are quick service eateries tucked into shopping centers.

It was created by Yelp’s data science team drawing on individual reviews users post on its platform as well as the overall restaurant activity in each business area.

Thirty-seven of the 100 restaurants are in California, reflecting a trend the Yelp researchers spotted toward global cuisine “with Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cuisine rising to the top.”

Here are the Southern California restaurants that made the cut.

No. 1: Holbox

Mercado La Paloma, 3655 S. Grand Ave., C9, Los Angeles; 213-986-9972, holboxla.com; 11:30 a.m.-9 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday

Holbox is named for an island off the Yucatán Peninsula.

Yelp’s report calls it “a continually rising star among Yelp diners” with more than 1,000 5-star reviews. Dining professionals have also taken notice. Michelin gave Holbox star status in its 2024 California guide last summer and called it “a distinctively Angelino phenomenon.” And its founder Gilberto Cetina is a semifinalist for outstanding chef in the 2025 James Beard Awards.

The Yelp honor is meaningful because it comes from his diners, Cetina wrote in an email.

“We strive to deliver an unforgettable dining experience to both new and returning guests, sharing the rich story of Yucatecan seafood with every dish.”

Popular dishes include Taco de Pulpo en su Tinta, made with octopus from the Yucatan, and Sea Urchin and Scallop Ceviche, made with sea urchins from Santa Barbara, according to Cetina.

He wrote that he thinks of Mercado La Paloma as home.

No. 11: Shlap Muan Wings

2150 E. South St.,105, Long Beach; shlap-muan.com; 11:30 a.m.-7 p.m. daily

The shop’s name means chicken wings in Khmer, the language of Cambodia, according to its website, and that’s basically what it offers. There are 24 flavors, including the “wok-kissed” Dirty Elvis and Tamarind Tiger. The menu also features garlic noodles and fries. Prices are around $11.50-$31.50.

No. 15: Berry Brand

Tustin Crossings, 12932 Newport Ave., Tustin; loveberrybrand.com; 9 a.m.-8 p.m. daily

This is a place to build your own açaí or pitaya bowls with the choice of about two dozen toppings. Yelp reviewers praise the Coconut Dream base

No. 18: West Coast Cheesesteaks

Lone Hill Shopping Center, 1832 B E. Route 66, Glendora; westcoastcheesesteaks.com; 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m.-7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday

This sandwich shop boasts house-made sauces made with blocks of cheddar cheese and heavy cream. Choices include cheddar, poblano or chipotle. Sandwiches cost about $11.50-$21.50.

No. 23: Sunbliss Café

Sycamore Canyon Plaza, 701 S. Weir Canyon Road, No. 115, Anaheim; sunblisscafe.com; 7 a.m.-6 p.m. daily

This juice bar also serves coffee, açaí bowls, bagels and items such as Japanese Avo Toast.

No. 27: Tai He Ju

10333 Garvey Ave, El Monte; 626-672-0299; 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday and Wednesday through Sunday, closed Tuesday

Fried dumplings are a specialty here. Fillings that won praise from Yelp reviewers include beef with vermicelli and chive and egg.

No. 42: Lord Empanada

1540 S Myrtle Ave., Monrovia; lordempanada.com; 9 a.m. Tuesday through Sunday, closed Monday

This restaurant has its roots in Argentina and serves many kinds of empanadas, from meat-filled to vegan, as well as house-made chimichurri. Prices are around $3.95 each.

No. 45: Cardelli’s Italian Market Deli & Catering

De Anza Plaza, 7786 Limonite Ave., Riverside; cardellisdeli.com; 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday through Friday, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday, closed Sunday

Yelp reviewers praise sandwiches such as hot pastrami, meatball and the Sgobba, which is Black Forest ham, pepperoni, Parmesan and provolone cheese on toasted garlic bread. Prices are in the $10 range. Desserts include cannoli, spumoni and tiramisu.

No. 48: North Shore Plate Lunch

2429 Hamner Ave., Norco; 951-444-6774; 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday, closed Monday

This is a Hawaiian barbecue place with such favorites as chicken katsu, loco moco, kalua pork and mac salads.

No. 64: Daddy Ji

201 N. Indian Hill Blvd., suite A100, Claremont; orderdaddyji.com; 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday, closed Monday

This Claremont Village restaurant boasts Indian street food such as tandoori chicken, tikka masala, samosas and mango lassi.

No. 70: La Copine

848 Old Woman Springs Road, Yucca Valley; lacopinekitchen.com; 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Thursday through Sunday

This restaurant near Joshua Tree serves seasonal menus made with farm-fresh, sustainable ingredients. Yelp reviewers praise the fried chicken.

No. 91: Heritage Barbecue

31721 Camino Capistrano San Juan Capistrano;  heritagecraftbbq.com; 11 a..m.-6 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday, 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, closed Monday and Tuesday

This Texas-style barbecue is in growth mode and has a growing reputation in Southern California. Its owners are moving a 19th century barn to its premises. Yelp users praise the spare ribs.

San Diego County

Nine San Diego County restaurants made Yelp’s list. They incluce Phonomenal, National City (No. 4);  Beyer Deli, San Diego (No. 14); Shawarma Guys, La Mesa (No. 26); GONZO! Ramen, Carlsbad (No. 31); Big Jims Roast Beef, San Diego (No. 33); Baba Kabob, San Diego (No. 37); Rosemarie’s, San Diego (No. 46); Chuyz Taco Shop, San Diego (No. 64); Single Fin Surf Grill, San Diego (No. 84).

LOS ANGELES — They returned home from an East Coast slump bruised, and limping, and sick. Really sick. Just a few hours before a critical Tuesday night matchup with Big Ten basement-dweller Penn State, USC’s Wesley Yates III and Chibuzo Agbo Jr. were both listed as questionable, both guards having missed practices since the return from a loss to Purdue on Friday. So, too, was point guard Desmond Claude, his knee still yelping from a collision against Michigan State in early February.

Suddenly, USC faced the possibility of playing without its top three scorers in a game it simply couldn’t afford to lose.

There was a world, on Tuesday, in which Claude or Yates or Agbo might not have played, or faced a minutes restriction. This was not Eric Musselman’s world. For years, the USC coach has belonged to the Tom Thibodeau School of Heavy Minutes. And for years, dating to Arkansas and Nevada, Musselman had followed his late father Bill’s teachings: when in a tough spot, play your toughest guys.

Yates got smacked in the face in the first half, snatching a towel to cover his nose and heading straight for the locker room for minutes. Claude wrapped a bulky black brace around his right knee in rare stretches on the bench. But Musselman’s guys were plenty tough, on Tuesday, as USC’s offense looked as healthy as it had all season in a 92-67 blowout of Penn State.

Claude played 36 of 40 minutes, finishing with a brutal eight turnovers but sparking USC’s attack all night with 14 points on 5-of-6 shooting. Yates played 36, himself, never coming off the court outside of that first-half blow and finishing with 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting. Agbo went nuclear, in a flu game to be remembered, teeing off from the corners with 21 points and a career-best seven 3-pointers on a night when the Trojans shot 67% from the field.

And USC (14-10 overall, 6-7 Big Ten) reset its course after a tough road trip, pouncing on the last-place Nittany Lions and living to see another possible day come March.

For a week, USC had been dealt a curveball with Claude’s injury, initially not serious enough to keep him from playing an entire second half against Michigan State but scratching him from losses to Northwestern and Purdue. And Musselman’s offense, flickering like a half-broken string of Christmas lights without Claude to initiate, got an immediate first-half jolt with the point guard’s return.

The knee looked plenty fine, on a Euro-step a couple of minutes in, Claude darting around a big to flip up an and-one layup. The knee looked plenty fine, too, on a shot-clock-beating 3-pointer a couple of minutes later, dodging a defender’s contest and letting fly. Penn State hounded Claude for much of the first half, throwing a full-court trap at him in an effort to slow momentum; he committed three turnovers, but finished 4 for 4 from the field for 10 first-half points, including one pretty step-through reverse a minute before the break.

“When he’s really aggressive offensively,” Musselman said after USC’s victory over Michigan State, “we’re really good.”

Really good couldn’t even begin to encapsulate what took place in the second half on Tuesday, Claude’s slash-and-dash momentum suddenly caving the floor in on Penn State (13-12, 3-11). For 11 minutes, the Trojans didn’t miss a single shot from the floor. Agbo, a senior and the streakiest of shooters, busted a six-game slump with an early-second-half 3-pointer that doinked off the front of the rim and dropped home. It was a nod from the basketball gods, and a harbinger of the onslaught to come.

He hit three more, within the span of four minutes, the floor suddenly wide-open off of drives from Claude and wing Saint Thomas. Yates added a nasty step-back 3-pointer, flashing a youthful grin on his way back down the floor. Center Josh Cohen, tabbed again as a starter after losing the job to backup Rashaun Agee, played his most minutes (21) since Jan. 4 in holding Penn State’s 6-foot-10 Yanic Konan Niederhauser, the team’s second-leading scorer, to one point and one rebound.

Midway through the second half, USC’s attack had morphed from banged-up bludgeon to buzzsaw, ruthless in its precision. On one inbound, Claude broke a trap to find Yates, who touch-tapped to a streaking Thomas, who tic-tac-toed right back to Yates, who dashed down the lane to find a cutting Cohen for a layup on a play that would have made James Naismith smile somewhere.

Agbo banged home a few more 3-pointers, and USC walked away from the Galen Center with a banner offensive performance.

More to come on this story.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The UCLA men’s basketball team staged a furious rally in the final minutes but could not complete the comeback and saw its seven-game winning streak come to an end.

Kasparas Jakucionis scored 24 points and Tomislav Ivisic scored 16 points as Illinois held off UCLA, 83-78, on Tuesday night. Kylan Boswell scored all 11 of his points in the second half and reserve Will Riley added 10 for Illinois (17-8, 9-6 Big Ten), which shot 51% from the field (27 for 53) and outrebounded the Bruins 36-23.

Tyler Bilodeau made seven 3-point shots and scored 25 points to lead UCLA (18-7, 9-5). Kobe Johnson scored 14 despite foul trouble and reserve Sebastian Mack added 11 points, six rebounds and five assists. Dylan Andrews had nine points and a team-high seven assists. Skyy Clark also had nine points.

Ben Humrichous made one of two free throws to give Illinois an 81-78 lead with seven seconds left. He missed the second shot, and off the carom, Ivisic deflected the miss which ended up in the hands of Boswell. Forced to foul, UCLA sent Boswell to the line where he made a pair with 4.2 seconds left to secure the win.

Jakucionis, who also grabbed a team-best eight rebounds, made an improbable step-back shot just inside the 3-point arc for a 78-73 Illinois advantage with 38 seconds left. Former Illinois guard Skyy Clark, who was heckled for much of the night, answered with a 3-pointer 10 seconds later to get UCLA within two points for the first time since the opening three minutes.

Illinois cracked UCLA’s full-court pressure to get Ivisic an uncontested dunk with 17 seconds left, but Mack made a pair of free throws to get UCLA within 80-78 with 11 seconds remaining. That set up the final moments at the free-throw line.

Illinois opened a 26-13 first-half lead that forced UCLA to burn two timeouts to figure things out. Bilodeau swished two 3-pointers to fuel a 12-3 run over the final 5:20 of the first half that pulled the Bruins within 31-25 at the break.

Every time Illinois tried to pull away in the second half, UCLA worked its way back into the game.

Six minutes into the second half, UCLA pulled within 45-40 on Mack’s circus-shot layup over the 7-foot-2 Ivisic while getting knocked to the floor. Mack missed the subsequent free throw, then was called for fouling Ivisic on what UCLA believed to be a clean steal.

Illinois answered with Morez Johnson Jr.’s putback dunk after he discarded slender Aday Mara in the paint. Then UCLA coach Mick Cronin, irked over the Mack call and the Mara non-call, was whistled for a technical as the teams headed up the court. Boswell made the technical free throws to boost Illinois’ lead to 49-40.

After Bilodeau made his fifth 3-pointer to get UCLA within 58-51, Ivisic answered with back-to-back 3-pointers and Jakucionis slashed for a layup to push Illinois’ lead to 66-51 with 7:34 left.

Illinois seized a 76-60 advantage on Ben Humrichous’ 3-pointer with 4:51 to go, before UCLA reeled off its 13 consecutive points. Johnson hit two 3-pointers during the run and William Kyle III’s dunk with 1:08 left got the Bruins within 76-73.

That’s when Jakucionis and Clark traded big baskets to set up the final moments.

Illinois leads the nation with a +11.3 rebounding margin.

UP NEXT

UCLA travels to face Indiana on Friday at 5 p.m. PT.