Fresno Mexican mariscos restaurant stands out with this regional dish
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- El Botanero emphasizes fresh Mexican-sourced shrimp and zarandeado grilling.
- Its zarandeado fish showcases fire-grilled preparation and a family-made marinade.
- Generous avocado portions and patio grilling distinguish El Botanero locally.
If you listen just right, the buzz of cars on Highway 99 sounds like ocean waves from the outdoor patio at Fresno mariscos restaurant El Botanero.
Opened in January 2022 by Pedro Ceja and his wife Georgina Lopez, El Botanero, at Shaw and Barcus avenues, takes great care to source only the freshest shrimp from Mexico for the casual, mariscos eatery, inspired by Mexico’s pacific coast.
The restaurant is an ode to the “coctelerías” along Mexico’s Pacific coast, a type of casual eatery that serves a mix of seafood dishes – from shrimp cocktail to ceviche to oysters and aguachile.
When describing his food, Ceja is cautious not to claim a particular state, such as Nayarit or Sinaloa-style, out of respect for those regional cuisines.
Rather he calls his food a “mix of marisco culture.”
“I’m so proud about the food that I offer,” Ceja said. “What I like most is that people like my food.”
Ceja grew up in a restaurant family in Uruapan, Michoacan, where his mom prepared seafood dishes. His wife, who originally hails from the Mexican state of Sinaloa, also has years of restaurant service experience.
The duo loves to eat mariscos and try different restaurants around town. So when Ceja saw the property for sale, which use to be a Subway and a barbecue restaurant, he jumped at the opportunity.
Fresno has its fair share of mariscos restaurants, serving shrimp cocktail, fish tacos, ceviches and fried fish. But what sets El Botanero apart is the freshness of its shrimp, octopus, oysters and scallops. Ceja tries to source his shrimp, oysters, avocados and bottled salsas from Mexico as much as possible. He insists the taste of Mexican shrimp is different than others, more salty like the ocean, he said.
“I’m always focused on providing high quality shrimp,” he said. “Always.”
Weekdays tend to be slower for business. But the restaurant comes to live on the weekends, when El Botanero serves one of its signature dishes: grilled fish, octopus and shrimp marinated in a special zarandeado adobo sauce, made to order over a fire on the restaurant’s outside patio.
Fresno’s triple-digit heat didn’t keep customers from dining on the restaurant’s shaded, tree-lined patio on a recent Sunday in early August. The atmosphere was festive: a sizzling grill, the rancheras of Mexican musician José Alfredo Jiménez playing overhead and groups of families and friends sharing platters of seafood and fish.
“Nobody in town makes zarandeados on the grill,” Ceja said.
Weekend specialty: grilled pescado zarandeado
According to the Mexican government, pescado zarandeado has its pre-hispanic origins on an island in the Mexican coastal state of Nayarit.
The name derives from the “zaranda” or metal utensil used to butterfly and then cook the fish directly over a wood fire. The dish is typically prepared with sea bass, snapper or northern red snapper (pargo, robalo or huachinango).
In the coastal states of Nayarit and Sinaloa, fisherman rise at dawn and take their panga boats out in search of the catch of the day.
In the small surf town of Chacala, Nayarit, for example, open-air beachside restaurants have coolers filled with the daily catch. Customers walk over to the cooler to show the cooks which fish they’d like to filled and grilled.
This regional coastal specialty, common in the states of Nayarit, Michoacan and Sinaloa, is what Ceja has brought to life in Fresno, using his own personal twists.
“The marinade we use is my mother’s recipe,” Ceja said, made up of a mix of dried chiles, a touch of mayonnaise and mustard, and fresh orange juice.
Ceja said he uses sea bass and whichever firewood is in season, from local citrus, nut or peach trees. Customers should be prepared to wait 45 minutes to an hour for the dish.
Another point of pride for El Botanero is its generous servings of avocado.
In addition to running the restaurant, Ceja distributes avocados from his home state of Michoacan — considered the world capital of avocados — to small grocers and restaurants in Fresno.
That’s how he got connected to other marisquerias around town. Before opening El Botanero, he apprenticed at Mariscos El Pescador, a popular seafood restaurant on Blackstone Avenue.
And local competitors are taking notice. He said with a laugh that his colleagues and peers in the local marisco industry say, “this guy puts a lot of avocado on his dishes.”
Smells like home, customer from Sinaloa said
Juan Carlos Lopez was driving through Fresno for business on Aug. 6, a Wednesday. He visited El Botanero for lunch at his brother’s suggestion and ordered the “El Botanero Cocktail,” which includes shrimp, octopus, aguachile, scallops and oysters.
Lopez, a Sacramento-area grocer originally from a small town near Culiacán, Sinaloa, usually cooks mariscos at home because it’s hard to find quality seafood, he said. But he enjoyed the cocktail at El Botanero.
He said he knew the restaurant would be good as soon as he entered and smelled the mix of lime, cucumber and cilantro.
“From the outside, I could smell that, and I liked it a lot,” he said. “The freshness.”
This story was originally published August 23, 2025 at 5:30 AM.
