Mariscos El Aguachiles 8 is a seafood trailer wrapped in a giant, chile-red octopus tucked away in a small, bustling Mexican neighborhood a few minutes from Downtown San Jose. Its main attraction? Aguachile served in 12 heat levels — ranging from tickle-in-the-back-of-your-throat to capsaicin-induced hysteria — that might be the single spiciest dish in the entire Bay Area.
Even if you’re not a heat seeker, the business has become a community hub for all seafood lovers. During my visit on a cold Sunday morning, a couple huddled up in front of a bowl of soup swimming with mussels, crawfish and shrimp. Meanwhile, a group of rowdy friends passed around a glass chalice overflowing with octopus, shrimp and pata de mula to treat their hangovers. Meanwhile, the owner, Jose “Pepe” Rodriguez, made the rounds, giving customers tips on how to best enjoy their meal — like spooning the spicy aguachile liquid onto their oysters — and bantering with the ones panting and sweating from the chile heat.
Rodriguez started selling mariscos from his San Jose home in 2018. His recipes are inspired by his grandmother, who taught him to make traditional seafood dishes like ceviche and Mexican-style shrimp cocktail when he was growing up on the coast of Michoacán. The decision to actually sell his food came after years of family and friends hyping Rodriguez up during the weekly aguachile feasts he hosted in his backyard. “I started with five pounds of shrimp,” he recalls of the early days of his home business. “And I didn’t sell them.”
But business wasn’t slow for long. Rodriguez became known for his fresh, flavorful aguachiles — a raw seafood dish made by marinating shrimp in chiles and lime juice. By 2023, he’d built up a large enough customer base that he invested in a food trailer and started selling 300 to 400 pounds of seafood every weekend. At the end of last year, he moved to his current location, which has a tented outdoor dining area, and started opening on weekdays too. Even as he’s gotten more successful, the food truck still feels like an extension of those early, informal backyard seafood bashes. Rodriguez often sits down to chat with his regulars while they eat as if they were guests at his home.
The growth of the business can be attributed in part to Aguachiles 8’s reputation as the spiciest aguachiles spot in all of San Jose. But those 12 heat levels are more than just a clever marketing hook. They also help create a lively sense of camaraderie among the customers, who tend to come together in groups to share a spicy dish, poking fun at each other’s reactions to the heat. The option to tweak the spice level is also what keeps many regulars coming back for a new experience on each visit. For the more mild versions, the marinade is made with serranos and chiles de árbol, while the highest levels are laced with a frightening amount of ghost peppers and Carolina Reapers.
Rodriguez says one customer even worked his way up through the ranks to complete all 12 levels. Anyone who dares take on that final level 12 challenge does so to both chuckling onlookers and, usually, an audience on Instagram Live.
