(Kyle Platts)
15 places to eat and drink near the L.A. Coliseum
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The 2026 FIFA World Cup is set to begin on June 11 and will run through July 19, with Inglewood’s SoFi Stadium hosting a share of matches alongside other cities across the U.S., Mexico and Canada.
To kick off the festivities, the Los Angeles Coliseum is hosting a four-day Fan Fest June 11-14, where soccer fans can watch live match broadcasts alongside performances, interactive games and food that represents the 48 countries playing in this year’s tournament, with many cuisines found across L.A.’s far-flung food scene.
From a pan-African cookout on Juneteenth to $1 drink specials every time the U.S. team scores, these L.A. restaurants and bars are going all out for the 2026 World Cup.
For those looking to continue exploring the culinary gems of Historic South Central, here are 15 restaurants and bars near the stadium, including an Argentinian bistro, a Japanese ramen shop, Jamaican soul food and burgers inspired by the city’s diverse food cultures. And if you’re looking for places to watch the games among other fans, plenty of local restaurants are ready with extended hours and food and drink specials.
Showing Place Places
Ebaes
University Park Japanese $
(Angela Osorio / Los Angeles Times)
Located just a mile from USC, Ebaes offers an extensive array of ramen, sushi rolls and colorful rice bowls in a casual, dimly lit space with Japanese lanterns hanging from the ceiling. Since 2014, the restaurant has catered to students with affordable prices and plant-based options, from a spinach-noodle ramen to vegan sushi rice stuffed in deep fried tofu pockets. Try the signature ramen, a creamy, spicy shrimp broth with scallion, tomato, corn and coconut milk, and visit during happy hour (every day from 2 to 6 p.m.) for discounted appetizers and drinks, including Korean soju, Japanese sake and iced teas. On the first of the month, enjoy an $8 ramen special (dine-in, cash only).
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LATTC / Ortho Institute Station
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Fuegos LA
Exposition Park Argentinian $$
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
There’s heart, soul and and even the occasional tango night at Fuegos LA, but most deliciously of all there’s bold flavor winding through these empanadas, asados and milanesas. This Argentine restaurant from owners, partners and Argentinian expats Federico Laboureau and Maximilian Pizzi serves regional cafe specialties such as yerba mate and croissants stuffed with dulce de leche during the day, and in the evening becomes a candlelit wine bar. Whether sun-dappled and chipper or dark and sultry, Fuegos LA always feels like a party as well as a gathering place. Stop in at all hours for Argentinian pizzas, sandwiches, and seasonal specials, but keep an eye on social media for community and cultural events such as tango nights, wine dinners, farmers markets and a storytelling supper club.
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Expo / Western Station
Harold & Belle's
Jefferson Park Creole Cajun Soul Food $$
(Ron De Angelis/For The Times)
This jewel in Jefferson Park has been going strong since Harold Legaux Sr. and his wife, Mary Belle, first opened its doors in 1969. Today it’s operated by third-generation husband-and-wife team Ryan and Jessica Legaux, but you can still expect the same home-style Cajun cooking that put the restaurant on the map. Harold & Belle’s is known for its seafood-saturated menu, with hits such as filé gumbo, Louisiana-style catfish, Cajun-charbroiled salmon and fried oysters, but can make most items vegan upon request. The cocktails follow suit, including New Orleans favorite hurricanes and sazeracs as well as craft options such as the Creole 75 with plum vodka, lemon and a splash of cranberry juice.
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Expo / Crenshaw E-Line Station
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Himalayan House
Adams-Normandie Indian Nepalese $
(Angela Osorio / Los Angeles Times)
Tucked in an unassuming strip mall on Jefferson Boulevard, this restaurant serves a blend of Indian and Nepalese cuisines in a cozy setting with bright yellow walls, framed photos of Mount Everest, instrumental music and comforting plates of chicken tikka masala, lamb curry, momos (Nepalese dumplings), crispy garlic naan, and an array of vegan and vegetarian dishes. Order the thali, a Nepalese combination plate with your choice of lamb, goat, fish, chicken or vegetable, accompanied with rice, daal, salad, raita (yogurt sauce) and rice pudding.
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Expo / Vermont Station
La Barca
University Park Mexican $
(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times )
Every day at La Barca is a celebration, with half the dining room toasting a birthday, a promotion or the happy hour priced margaritas. It’s a longtime USC student hangout with lunch specials, a free parking lot in the back and moderately priced plates of every imaginable dish in the vast Mexican-American culinary lexicon. Slabs of carne asada threaten to overtake their plates. The enchiladas are served swimming in ranchera sauce and smothered in cheese. There are burritos teeming with Chile Colorado or Chile Verde. It’s the sort of place you can spend all afternoon in the dimly lit dining room, forgetting the hour while you sip a frozen margarita. Just don’t miss your kickoff.
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Langer's Delicatessen-Restaurant
Westside Deli $$
(Shelby Moore / For The Times)
If you have any appreciation for a great sandwich, I implore you to take a short 10-minute drive north of the Coliseum to Langer’s. The decades-old deli is home to a pastrami sandwich worthy of comparison to whatever stuff-between-bread you hold near and dear as your favorite. The double-baked rye is equal parts crusty and plush, with enough luscious, thick-cut hot pastrami in the middle to hit your protein goals for the week. A little dollop of Russian dressing. Or perhaps a smear of nose-tingling hot mustard. Definitely a heap of coleslaw. This is the sandwich of all sandwiches.
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Westlake / MacArthur Park Station
Maydan Market
West Adams Global $$
(Juliana Yamada/Los Angeles Times)
A catchall term like “food hall” doesn’t quite capture the essence of the multi-vendor project that restaurateur Rose Previte opened in October after six years of planning. Within 10,000 square feet of a former factory in West Adams, Previte has created a space for her sit-down, broadly “Middle Eastern” restaurant Maydan L.A. and six counters each with their own visual and culinary identity, serving customers either right in front of them or at tables collected in the room’s central court. A QR-code system allows you to mix and match. Where to start? Perhaps with a crackling, cheese-slicked tlayuda from Lugya’h and a soul-warming pozole flight from Maléna. Golden Mountain Chicken highlights a fresh direction for the married team behind some of the city’s most innovative Thai restaurants. Sook, a combination corner shop and wine bar, and Compass Rose, an all-day cafe, express Previte’s Lebanese heritage and the regions between the Eastern Mediterranean and the Caucasus where she culturally centers much of her cooking.
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Farmdale Station
Mercado La Paloma
Historic South-Central Mexican $
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
First-timers visiting the 35,000-square-foot Mercado La Paloma, take heed: The line likely trailing out the door and into the parking lot is specifically for Holbox, the most decorated and popular among the market’s seven food vendors. Chef Gilberto Cetina’s mariscos creations are revolutionary in their freshness and jigsaw-intricate flavors. Tuna tostada, scallop aguachile, coctel mixto and smoked kanpachi taco number among must-try dishes. Other wonderful options in the mercado await without the Holbox queues. Begin at Komal, where Fátima Juárez’s quesadillas and tacos, as beautiful as they are delicious, showcase the earthy-fragrant masa she crafts daily from heirloom corn varieties, and Chichén Itzá, where the Cetina family serves lush, orange-scented cochinita pibil and other specialties from the Yucatán. The mercado is such a vital sanctuary for the city that fellow critic Jenn Harris and I ranked it number one on our recent guide to the 101 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles.
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Jefferson / USC Station
Paseo San Miguel
Vermont Square Salvadoran $
(Angela Osorio / Los Angeles Times)
Choose from over 10 pupusa flavors at this family-owned restaurant of over 15 years, with an additional location in Pico Rivera. In a burgundy-brick building with indoor and patio seating, you’ll find large breakfast, lunch and dinner plates of casamiento (plantains, rice and beans, cheese, and avocado), asado con camarones (grilled steak accompanied by grilled shrimp), sopa de pata (cow’s feet soup), and a wide variety of pupusas, from beans and cheese to chicharrón and ayote (squash). Wash down your meal with a range of aguas frescas and the classic Salvadoran ensalada — a fruity drink with a pineapple juice base, topped with diced apple, mango, pineapple and nance.
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Expo / Western Station
Rock & Reilly's USC
University Park Coffee $
(Danielle Dorsey / Los Angeles Times )
The USC Village outpost of this Irish pub chain buzzes from day to night, with fresh-baked sourdough bagels from Bagels by Kneady and coffee and matcha drinks from Eruta Nature offered from the morning through the afternoon. With mounted TVs screening live sports, the sports bar is sure to come alive when the four-day Fan Fest touches down at the nearby L.A. Coliseum. From noon until close, the menu expands with burgers, pizzas, nachos and wings, plus beer, wine and cocktails on the beverage side.
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Jefferson / USC Station
Softies Burger
University Park Burgers $
(David Rho)
The closest smashburger to the Coliseum? That would be a 15-minute walk to Softies, the USC Village burger joint opened by partners Josh Kim and Sam Hong, who started their venture as a pop-up. Softies’ bestselling Cali burger is their take on a classic In-N-Out burger but with roasted garlic and caramelized onions; order it as a single or double, each patty’s edges lacy and crisp. A Japanese Peruvian-inspired burger is topped with pickled jalapenos and cilantro-garlic-lime aji verde. And a vegetarian smashburger made with tempura-fried enoki mushrooms comes with pickled red onions and yuzu mayonnaise. The yuzu mayo and yellow pepper ranch are musts — better than ketchup for your fries.
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Jefferson / USC Station
South LA Cafe
Exposition Park Coffee $
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Husband-and-wife team Joe and Celia Ward-Wallace built one of L.A.’s favorite local cafe chains, and they did it for the community. Both raised in South L.A., they saw a need for fresh, affordable food and third spaces, so they launched South LA Cafe in 2019, less than two miles from the Coliseum. Find classic and specialty drinks — such as horchata lattes, smoothies and iced teas named for local legends like Kobe Bryant — along with bagel sandwiches, empanadas and pastries made by another community-forward L.A. operation, Homeboy Industries. Supporting disenfranchised groups with inclusive hiring practices, weekly grocery giveaways, business mentorship and events such as farmers markets and art nights, it’s a cafe that wants to see the neighborhood thrive. It’s also spread to multiple locations, with four of its five in South L.A. — including multiple found within minutes of the Coliseum.
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Expo / Western Station
Tev's & Family Kitchen
Vermont Square Caribbean $$
(Danielle Dorsey / Los Angeles Times)
In a fire-engine red home in South L.A. about 10 minutes from the Coliseum, Tevin Love’s restaurant is not-so-quietly serving some of the best Jamaican soul food in the city. With daily specials that span jerk salmon, yaki-glazed lamb chops and wings glazed in sweet chili or lemon pepper sauce, all served with generous sides of mac and cheese, roasted garlic mashed potatoes, cabbage and perfectly sweetened Kool-Aid, it’s no wonder that the unassuming outpost went viral and recently expanded to a second location in Gardena. Check the Instagram for daily specials and place your order via the link in bio to expedite service, though orders can also be placed in person and enjoyed on site — just be prepared for a wait.
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Tire Shop Taqueria
Historic South-Central Carne Asada Puesto $
(Bill Addison/Los Angeles Times)
Follow the charcoal-tinged smoke on this stretch of Avalon just south of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard for juicy, glistening asada in some of L.A.’s best Tijuana-style tacos. Also known as Taqueria San Miguel or Taqueria El Jarocho, this L.A. street-taco favorite — located in a parking lot between a former tire shop (El Jarocho Llantera) and a car wash — draws a line as soon as the sun begins to set. That’s when the mesquite-burning grills are fired and the masa is mounded next to the comal near the front of the stand, where it’s mesmerizingly hand-pressed into tortillas while you wait to place your order. You’ll soon hear the thwack of cleavers chopping meat. Choose between asada and chorizo from the grill (mixta for both), or al pastor from the trompo, and occasionally pollo or cabeza. Strung lights, oilcloth-lined communal tables, plastic chairs, L.A.’s blue hour ... it’s a quintessential taco experience. The line can be long but moves quickly. Cash only.
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Tracey's Belizean Restaurant
Exposition Park Belizean $
(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times )
This Exposition Park restaurant has been serving traditional Belizean food since the early 80s, with pillowy fry Jacks and beans in the morning and plates brimming with stewed chicken, garnaches and tamales. Don’t miss the meat pies, with handheld pockets of flaky golden pastry filled with seasoned ground beef. It’s a modest place with only a handful of tables, so plan accordingly. You can always take the meat pies and fry Jacks to go.
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Expo / Western Station
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