Where a Coco’s Bakery once served bottomless coffee to the downtown 7th Street corridor, a modern Mexican seafood restaurant now serves dozens of oysters, bottles of wine, and rounds of tropical cocktails. Over its entrance, Marisco Boys Seafood Restaurant is lettered in black steel, with “by Taco Boy’s” tucked underneath it in smaller script, acknowledging where it all started.
Marisco Boys is the second act from the families behind Taco Boy’s, Phoenix’s beloved counter-service taqueria, now grown to seven locations. This time, Juan Francisco Cornejo Jr. and his father, Juan Francisco Cornejo Sr., along with father-son business partners Suminder and Harkaran Singh Sodhi, traded fast-casual for a sophisticated concept celebrating coastal Mexico, tracing back to the Cornejo family’s roots in Obregón, Sonora. To bring the vision to life, the owners tapped Chef Jesus Castro Beltran, who spent time at Global Ambassador and Elephante before taking the helm at Marisco Boys. Bar Manager Christian Jenkins leads the beverage program, while General Manager Karim Robles, whom I last crossed paths with as executive chef at Born & Bred, oversees the restaurant.
“It was a fun, out-of-the-kitchen opportunity, and if they get in the weeds, I can jump in to help,” Robles says, grinning about his new front-of-house role. The families’ goal, he explains, was an upscale full-service restaurant, one stocked with seafood delivered weekly from Guaymas on Sonora’s Sea of Cortez coast. “It’s elevated, but not so expensive that it can’t be a neighborhood spot where you can come a couple of times a week.”
The illustrated menu, printed on parchment-toned paper with nautical flourishes, is organized into sections such as Cold Bar, Appetizers, Specialties, Al Carbón, Platos, and Tacos. We start with a half dozen ostiones, plump Savage Blondes from Prince Edward Island, part of a rotating oyster list flown in from regions spanning Japan to California, served with chiltepin hot sauce and salsa negra, a Sinaloa specialty.
Robles points us toward the torre de mariscos, or “tower of seafood,” and it’s a winner. Crabmeat, shrimp, ceviche mixto, scallops, and octopus are stacked and crowned with avocado, then surrounded by more shrimp, crab claws, and curls of octopus tentacles. Don’t skip the creamy-spicy spread that comes with the accompanying tostadas. Made with Kewpie mayo spiked with chiltepin and Salsa Huichol, it creates the perfect bite: cool richness and chile heat balancing the crisp tostada and the bright, tangy seafood piled on top.
For tacos, we order the Baja fish and gobernador. The fish taco arrives with beer-battered tilapia tucked beneath a drape of crema and shredded cabbage, while the gobernador is a crispy shell stuffed with shrimp, bell peppers, onion, and melted cheese. “It’s one of my favorites,” Robles says, and it’s now one of mine, too.
From the Specialties section, we move to caldo de siete mares, or “soup of the seven seas,” a bowl of fish, crab claws, mussels, shrimp, calamari, octopus, and prized callo de hacha (“ax scallops”) swimming in brick-red broth rich with ocean flavor.
The Al Carbón section is where the mesquite wood fire does the talking. Pescado zarandeado lands as a platter meant for sharing, a whole butterflied sea bream coated in a flavorful adobo and grilled over open flame. It comes to the table with cucumbers, tomatoes, cabbage, escabeche, pickled onions, avocado, rice, beans, and tortillas – a spread of accompaniments that makes for some seriously delicious tacos.
By the end of the meal, Robles has already suggested what to order next time: cahuamanta, a Sonoran specialty of stingray stew; pulpo asado, grilled octopus; mojarra frita, a whole deep-fried fish with the fillets removed and cubed into crispy pieces; and the Molcajete Caliente. “It’s not only delicious, but it looks beautiful too, with everything served in volcanic stone,” Robles says of the molcajete, which arrives filled with grilled chicken, steak, shrimp, green onions, jalapeños, and a fire-roasted chile toreado stuffed with shrimp and cream cheese and wrapped in bacon. For non-seafood eaters, Robles has recommendations, too. “I steer them to things like our aguachile NY steak and our fajitas, which are to die for.”
And for dessert? If you can’t decide between one of the city’s best flans and the creamy Biscoff cheesecake made with Belgian cinnamon-spiced cookies, order both.
Jenkins’ cocktail program follows the same coastal-Mexican spirit, with plenty of room to show off his talent, so I staged a coconut showdown. The Coquito, made with pineapple rum, charred pineapple juice, and coconut, arrives crowned with a cloud of piñacoco foam and is the sweeter of the two. The Piña Colada, combining barrel-finished and coconut rums, mezcal, coconut, pineapple, lime, and chiltepin clarified with queso fresco, emerges glassy and pale gold with a smoother, richer depth.
For something “more herbal,” Jenkins points toward the Batanga, made with tequila, Fernet Branca, lime juice, and Mexican Coke, while Buchanan’s & Piña, blending Buchanan’s 12-year Scotch with grilled pineapple juice, is “smoky and refreshing.” The tequila-based La Rosa is bolstered with strawberry, tamarind, and grapefruit, and is “nice for somebody who’s not a big drinker,” he says, and the La Toxica mixes Diega Rosa strawberry and rose-infused gin with rum and elderflower to create something “similar to a Strawberry Daiquiri.”
As our lunch interview winds down, Robles is thinking ahead to every diner who hasn’t walked in yet. “I just want people to know how good our food is,” he says. “We’re here, and we’re ready to serve you. You’re going to be wowed with pretty much every dish. We’re going to make it worth your while. And we’re going to take care of you.”
written by: christina barrueta
photographed by: luke irvin
𖡡 2026 north 7th street, phoenix, az 85004
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