(Catherine Dzilenski / For The Times)
14 Latino-owned restaurants from the 101 Best Restaurants guide
- Share via
The significance and influence of Latin foodways in Los Angeles cannot be overstated.
Our city may be best known for the rows of taco trucks that light up our avenues after dark, but dig deeper and you’ll find endless culinary riches that proudly showcase traditions and cultures from all across Latin America.
In North Hollywood, two siblings honor their Dominican heritage with recipes passed down from their grandmother at a 16-seat storefront.
A bastion for Nicaraguan food has emerged in Huntington Park, serving platters of carne asada alongside custardy nacatamales and quesillos bursting with crema and caramelized onion.
In Historic South-Central, a bustling food hall centered around economic development allows diners the opportunity to taste the coastal flavors of Mexico, hearty Yucatecan cochinita pibil, fresh Oaxacan aguas frescas and unexpected antojitos like tlacoyos filled with ayocote beans and suadero tacos topped with potato matchsticks from an heirloom molina, all in one space.
For Hispanic Heritage Month and beyond, consider this list of 14 restaurants pulled from the most recent 101 Best Restaurants guide a primer for discovering the vast contributions of Latin America within our current food scene, from a genre-defying barbecue joint in Lincoln Heights to farmers market pupusas and an edgy El Sereno taqueria. — Danielle Dorsey
Showing Place Places
Alto
Studio City Argentinian Uruguayan $$$
(Ron De Angelis/For The Times)
Alto is one of the most ambitious restaurants to open in the San Fernando Valley in recent memory, with a menu that spans the Rio de la Plata region of South America. Co-founders and chefs Juana Castellanos and Esteban Klenzi celebrate the open-fire cooking of the Pampas, with inspiration from their combined Uruguayan and Argentine backgrounds. Most everything is cooked on the wood-fired grill, the flames providing a warm glow throughout the dining room. Pan criollo is as soft as milk bread, with layers you pull away like a good biscuit. Puffs of chipa are chewy and cheesy. There’s chimichurri butter alongside the classic Uruguayan pan marsellés. The asado banderita is the restaurant’s star meat, a dry-aged short rib full of flavor with a grassy, mineral tang. The steamed corn cakes known as humitas are reimagined as a sweet corn stew, like an ultra-luxurious creamed corn dressed with garlic chile oil and a provolone crisp as big and wide as the serving bowl. If you’re lucky, there will be a torta rogel under a glass dome for dessert. The popular Argentine birthday cake involves layers of smooth caramel between wafer-like pastry and a crown of stiff, glossy meringue. It’s as heavenly as it sounds.
Show more Show less
Member Exclusive
Plan Your L.A. Day
Log in or register for a free account to save L.A. Times recommendations for restaurants, hikes, entertainment and more — all in one place.
Barbacoa Ramirez
Arleta Mexican $
(Andrea D’Agosto / For The Times)
Lamb barbacoa — when cooked traditionally for hours to buttery-ropy tenderness — is such a painstaking art that most of Southern California’s true practitioners sell it on weekends only. In the Los Angeles area, conversations around sublime lamb barbacoa should start at the stand that Gonzalo Ramirez sets up on Saturday and Sunday mornings near the Arleta DMV. You’ll see him and his family wearing red T-shirts that say “Atotonilco El Grande Hidalgo” to honor their hometown in central-eastern Mexico. Ramirez tends and butchers lambs in the Central Valley. The meat slow-roasts in a pit overnight and, cradled in plush made-to-order tortillas, the tacos come in three forms: smoky, molten-textured barbacoa barely hinting of garlic; a pancita variation stained with chiles that goes fast; and incredible moronga, a nubbly, herbaceous sausage made with lamb’s blood. Plenty of customers pick up food to go. There’s a wonderful communion, though, to finding seats at the long table set up under a blue tarp and downing a few tacos dotted with red or green salsa while sipping a cup of lamb consommé bobbing with chickpeas.
Show more Show less
Casa Gish Bac
Pico-Union Oaxacan $
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
Earlier this year, David and Maria Ramos closed the original, 15-year-old location of their Oaxacan restaurant to focus on the new, much larger Casa Gish Bac in Pico Union. Set in a former banquet hall with a full liquor license, the space has a rainbow ceiling covered in papel picado. The menu should be familiar to longtime fans of the Ramos’ Valles Centrales cuisine. Tlayudas blanketed in refried beans, quesillo and cabbage. Chicken buried under mole negro. Enchiladas filled and folded into triangles and doused in a red mole with a deep, almost bitter roasted chile flavor. Go with a group and order generously. And plan to visit on a weekend if you want a taste of the barbacoa blanca; pit-roasted with avocado leaves, it’s tender and succulent, with subtle notes of garlic, cumin and anise. Maria, a third-generation barbacoa specialist, offers her barbacoa roja daily, redolent of tomato and dried chiles. The new Casa Gish Bac is just as charming as the original, only now you can order a cold beer to sip while you demolish that tlayuda.
Show more Show less
Thoughts on our guides? Let’s hear it!
We’re gathering feedback on how our guides can better serve you and help you find the next great restaurant, hike or activity in Los Angeles.
Damian
Downtown L.A. Mexican $$$
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
Angelenos often talk of the synergy between Mexico City and Los Angeles. A shared vibrancy and appreciation for our people and cultures. That connection is ever palpable in the dining room at Damian, the sprawling downtown restaurant opened by Mexico City’s acclaimed Pujol chef Enrique Olvera. During a recent dinner, my server explained that the carrot aguachile is an homage to the fruit cups sold by street vendors all over both cities. Gossamer ribbons of carrot, pickled pineapple and jicama are layered to create a mountain of sweet fruit on the plate. Hidden like buried treasure are pieces of shrimp and scallop sourced from Sinaloa, dressed in a mandarin kosho with splotches of habanero oil. There’s a wallop of acid and a rumble of heat, each spoonful balanced with the sweetness of the fruit. The street-food reference clicks and I’m reminded of the countless cups doused with fresh lime and Tajín purchased over the years. There seems to be an “ah-ha” moment with many of chef de cuisine Jesus “Chuy” Cervantes’ dishes, the yin-yang of flavors and textures sparking memories of thick, oblong huaraches in an outdoor market in Mexico City alongside visions of the ones I love best in South Gate. Damian is the best of both worlds, in a converted warehouse in the Arts District with valet parking.
Show more Show less
Delmy’s Pupusas
Atwater Village Salvadoran $
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
Patience is a virtue when you’re sitting under the tarp of Delmy’s Pupusas at the Silver Lake farmers market, waiting for your food to reach a temperature that won’t burn your tongue. The walls of the pupusa look like they’re ready to collapse, with bits of cheese and loroco already seeping out the seams. One bite and the pupusa gushes with a molten, gooey mess of cheese and the bitter flower buds native to Central America. You tear away big pieces of the masa, like soft corn cake with crispy brown bits strewn across the surface. With a scoop of curtido and a drizzle of red salsa, it’s pure pupusa nirvana. Ruth Sandoval’s pupusas can be found at numerous weekly farmers markets around Los Angeles, including Atwater Village and Echo Park to name a few. When she started popping up at farmers markets in 2007, Los Angeles was already a city rich with El Salvador’s national dish. Sandoval’s stand apart from the rest, filled with ingredients she often plucks from a surrounding market. And though often brimming with vegetables, chicharron or whatever else is on offer, the ratio never overwhelms the delicate flavor and texture of the masa.
Show more Show less
El Bacano
North Hollywood Dominican $
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
Siblings Deany Santana and Jonathan Santana worked together years ago in their family-run Dominican restaurant in Anchorage; in summer 2023 they reunited to serve their mother’s and grandmother’s recipes from a 16-seat storefront in a North Hollywood strip mall. Deany often can be seen through the kitchen window tending pots of various meats infused with lime juice, onions, garlic, oregano and other spices. The first one to try: Santana’s chicken, Jonathan’s renaming of the classic Dominican pollo guisado. The bird, richly browned, simmers with thinly sliced peppers in liquid that becomes a brothy, intense gravy. El Bacano unlocks its doors at noon, but a quintessential Dominican breakfast plate awaits any time of day: mangú (mashed plantains) with los tres golpes, or “the three hits” — two fried eggs, slabs of griddled salami and thin rectangles of queso frito. A staffer will ask if you prefer the plantains green or ripe, and my answer is the one the Santanas recommend: a smooth yet textured mixture of the two. As a side order, the queso frito also makes a munchy, salty midday snack. So does a hot empanada, its half-moon shape shattering to unloose a magma flow of stretchy yellow cheese and diced salami.
Show more Show less
Evil Cooks
El Sereno Mexican $$
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
Husband-and-wife team Alex “Pobre Diablo” Garcia and Elvia “La Bruja” Huerta moved their black-metal-inspired pop-up into a permanent space in El Sereno late last year. Their love of this extreme subgenre of music is evident in the restaurant’s black walls, black skulls and black angel fountain that cries red tears. It’s also palpable in their rebellious, maximalist menu of tacos, burritos and tortas. Huerta’s recado negro is the dark heart of the menu, dubbing the Yucatan-inspired marinade his “black magic.” He burns chiles secos, cacao, tortillas, onion and a handful of spices. The charred pile of ingredients is ground into an ink-black paste that’s smoky and sweet with a murmur of heat. To make his octopus al pastor, he rubs the marinade onto the whole mollusk, then layers the octopus onto the trompo. The visual effect is striking, with torch flames licking the dark sea creatures as they hungrily consume the spit. Called the Poseidon, Huerta piles the chopped octopus onto a fresh corn tortilla with guacamole, pineapple and purple onions pickled Yucatan-style with citrus. It’s the metal music equivalent of a taco, the volume dialed all the way up, with the jolt of the recado negro mimicking a frenetic tempo and shrieking vocals.
Show more Show less
Las Segovias
Huntington Park Nicaraguan $
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
Indio viejo is a hearty stew with strands of beef nestled in a masa-thickened, velvety gravy that will cling to your spoon and most likely your ribs. “It’s so good, right?” My server beams with pride as he watches me scrape the edges of the bowl. “This dish is very special to me.” That pride radiates from every wall mural and flag in the dining room and from the small marketplace at the rear that advertises snacks and clothing in the official blue and white colors of Nicaragua. The restaurant offers an expansive menu of dishes specific to the Central American country. The nacatamal is custard-like in the center, every bite a surprise of bone-in pork ribs, tomato, rice and potato tinged with sour orange. The carne asada platter is enough for two, with a handsome cut of marinated beef, a triangle of fried cheese, gallo pinto and crispy or soft plantains. Quesillos are served in plastic bags that barely contain the thick corn tortillas, crema and caramelized onion. Even if you experience a fullness not previously imaginable, find room for the buñuelos de yuca y queso. The pucks of cassava and cheese are fried until crisp and served in a cinnamon-and-clove syrup that tastes like the holidays.
Show more Show less
Los Sabrosos Al Horno
Cudahy Mexican $
(Bill Addison / Los Angeles Times)
Most weekends on an industrial block of Cudahy, in view of the 710 Freeway following the course of the Los Angeles River, David Delfín sets up a simple stand among other street vendors. (Check the weekly schedule on Facebook or Instagram.) His whole roasted suckling pig tacos, a style regionally specific to Nayarit, are like nothing else I know in Southern California. A taquero will chop one of two combinations — a mix of yielding cuts of meat and crackling skin, or pure pork belly — and pile it on two small corn tortillas with sliced cabbage and a duo of thin salsas, one spicier than the other and both twanging with mustard. Try one of each, and be sure to give them a bracing squeeze of lime. At first the salsa flavors slice like Bertman Original on a ballpark hot dog, but soon they mellow and meld with the pork. (My Southern roots compel me to mention the chance similarity between Delfín’s masterpiece and South Carolina whole-hog barbecue, also traditionally served with mustard-based sauce.) He doesn’t make any other kind of taco. He doesn’t need to.
Show more Show less
Macheen
Boyle Heights Mexican $
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
The stellar breakfast burritos at siblings Ana and Jonathan Perez’s restaurant inside Milpa Kitchen in Boyle Heights start in a single pan on the stove. It’s a medium-size skillet similar to the one I favor at home, its handle and sides just as weathered. I watch as the cook uses the spatula to fold the eggs over low heat, the pillow-like texture visible from across the room. There’s a flurry of cheese, then the eggs are whisked from the heat at the exact moment the two fuse into a single, perfect cloud. The eggs are tumbled onto a fresh tortilla along with chile-dusted tater tots and your choice of meat. I’m partial to the way the strands of birria intertwine with the cheesy eggs, creating a series of cohesive bites infused with fruity guajillos, garlic and bay leaf. The tortillas are stuffed until nearly bursting, the egg, potato and meat bulging and visible through the surface of the burrito. For lunch, there are a handful of tacos built on blue corn tortillas, reminiscent of the masterful creations Jonathan first presented years ago while operating a roaming taqueria. Mushrooms are marinated in al pastor-style spices and kissed with smoke on the grill. A smear of choribeans supplies a soft landing for ropes of brisket and a salsa de aguacate that pulses with brilliant acidity. These are tacos — and burritos — as art. The kind you can consider, admire, then consume in 90 seconds.
Show more Show less
Mercado La Paloma
Historic South-Central Mexican Belizean Oaxacan Thai American $$
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
The line at Holbox during the midweek lunch hour has become a cultural sensation, a queue of locals and visitors trailing past the automatic doors and around the parking lot like devotees angling for the latest iPhone series or limited-release sneakers. Believe the lauds, including ours when we named Holbox as The Times’ 2023 Restaurant of the Year. Gilberto Cetina’s command of mariscos is unmatched in Southern California — his ceviches, aguachiles and tostadas revolutionary in their freshness and jigsaw-intricate flavors. The smoked kanpachi taco alone — clinched with queso Chihuahua and finished with salsa cruda, avocado and drizzles of peanut salsa macha — is one of the most sophisticated things to eat in Los Angeles.
Holbox could be considered for the top ranking on its own strength. But in a year when disasters tore at our city, honoring the power of community feels more urgent than ever. Cetina’s seafood counter doesn’t thrive in a vacuum. Holbox resides inside the Mercado La Paloma in South L.A. The mercado is the economic-development arm of the Esperanza Community Housing Corp., a nonprofit organization founded in 1989 that counts affordable housing and equitable healthcare among its core missions. When the mercado was in the incubation stage, Esperanza’s executive director Nancy Ibrahim interviewed would-be restaurateurs about their challenges and hopes in starting a business. Among the candidates was Cetina’s father, Gilberto Sr., who proposed a stall serving his family’s regionally specific dishes from the Yucatán. Their venture, Chichén Itzá, was among the eight startups when the mercado opened in a former garment factory nearly 25 years ago, in February 2001.
Step into the 35,000-square-foot market today, and the smell of corn warms the senses. Fátima Juárez chose masa as her medium when she began working with Cetina at Holbox in 2017. Komal, the venue she opened last year with her husband, Conrado Rivera, is the only molino in L.A. grinding and nixtamalizing heirloom corn varieties daily. Among her deceptively spare menu of mostly quesadillas and tacos, start with the extraordinary quesadilla de flor de calabaza, a creased blue corn tortilla, bound by melted quesillo, arrayed with squash blossoms radiating like sunbeams.
Wander farther, past the communal sea of tiled tables between Holbox and Komal, to find jewels that first-timers or even regular visitors might overlook.
Taqueria Vista Hermosa, run by Raul Morales and his family, is the other remaining original tenant. Order an al pastor taco, or Morales’ specialty of Michoacan-style fish empapelado smothered in vegetables and wrapped in banana leaf. The lush, orange-scented cochinita pibil is the obvious choice next door at still-flourishing Chichén Itzá, but don’t overlook crackling kibi and the brunchy huevos motuleños over ham and black bean puree. The weekends-only tacos de barbacoa de chivo are our favorites at the stand called Oaxacalifornia, though we swing through any time for the piloncillo-sweetened café de olla and a scoop of smoked milk ice cream from its sibling juice and snack bar in the market’s center. Looking for the comfort of noodles? Try the pad see ew at Thai Corner Food Express in the far back.
The everyday and the exquisite; the fast and the formal (just try to score a reservation for Holbox’s twice-a-week tasting menu); a food hall and sanctuary for us all. Mercado La Paloma embodies the Los Angeles we love.
Holbox could be considered for the top ranking on its own strength. But in a year when disasters tore at our city, honoring the power of community feels more urgent than ever. Cetina’s seafood counter doesn’t thrive in a vacuum. Holbox resides inside the Mercado La Paloma in South L.A. The mercado is the economic-development arm of the Esperanza Community Housing Corp., a nonprofit organization founded in 1989 that counts affordable housing and equitable healthcare among its core missions. When the mercado was in the incubation stage, Esperanza’s executive director Nancy Ibrahim interviewed would-be restaurateurs about their challenges and hopes in starting a business. Among the candidates was Cetina’s father, Gilberto Sr., who proposed a stall serving his family’s regionally specific dishes from the Yucatán. Their venture, Chichén Itzá, was among the eight startups when the mercado opened in a former garment factory nearly 25 years ago, in February 2001.
Step into the 35,000-square-foot market today, and the smell of corn warms the senses. Fátima Juárez chose masa as her medium when she began working with Cetina at Holbox in 2017. Komal, the venue she opened last year with her husband, Conrado Rivera, is the only molino in L.A. grinding and nixtamalizing heirloom corn varieties daily. Among her deceptively spare menu of mostly quesadillas and tacos, start with the extraordinary quesadilla de flor de calabaza, a creased blue corn tortilla, bound by melted quesillo, arrayed with squash blossoms radiating like sunbeams.
Wander farther, past the communal sea of tiled tables between Holbox and Komal, to find jewels that first-timers or even regular visitors might overlook.
Taqueria Vista Hermosa, run by Raul Morales and his family, is the other remaining original tenant. Order an al pastor taco, or Morales’ specialty of Michoacan-style fish empapelado smothered in vegetables and wrapped in banana leaf. The lush, orange-scented cochinita pibil is the obvious choice next door at still-flourishing Chichén Itzá, but don’t overlook crackling kibi and the brunchy huevos motuleños over ham and black bean puree. The weekends-only tacos de barbacoa de chivo are our favorites at the stand called Oaxacalifornia, though we swing through any time for the piloncillo-sweetened café de olla and a scoop of smoked milk ice cream from its sibling juice and snack bar in the market’s center. Looking for the comfort of noodles? Try the pad see ew at Thai Corner Food Express in the far back.
The everyday and the exquisite; the fast and the formal (just try to score a reservation for Holbox’s twice-a-week tasting menu); a food hall and sanctuary for us all. Mercado La Paloma embodies the Los Angeles we love.
Show more Show less
Moo’s Craft Barbecue
Lincoln Heights Barbecue $$
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
Splicing Mexican flavors into central Texas’ beefy traditions, Andrew and Michelle Muñoz lead the school of thought around modern Los Angeles barbecue. Andrew’s brisket, perfumed by smoldering California white oak and slowly rendered to an ideal trembling texture, sets the local standard. Michelle’s sausages, particularly the one speckled green from roasted poblanos and oozing queso Oaxaca, follow closely. Street-corn-style esquites and mac and cheese are each creamy and punchy. Four years have flown by since the couple opened Moo’s in Lincoln Heights, and I come as often to share a tray of meats and sides with a group as I do for a solo meal at the bar, choosing perhaps a triple IPA among over a dozen styles of beer on draft. Alone, I’m fixating on the burger, a blend of smoked brisket, short rib and other cuts ground and formed into thick patties crusted with crushed black pepper. The classic version sports a crunching slice of white onion and melting American cheese; the “Rampart” arrives with cumin-scented chili and diced onions sliding down its deliciously wobbly circumference. Either one requires fries.
Show more Show less
Sonoratown
Mid-Wilshire Mexican $
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
The single food item I consume most frequently in Los Angeles? Sonoratown’s Burrito 2.0, a sum fashioned from the greatest parts. As with most everything served at Teodoro Díaz Rodriguez Jr. and Jennifer Feltham’s outstanding taquerias in downtown, Mid-City and Long Beach, the excellence begins with the flour tortillas. Master tortillera Julia Guerrero oversees production of gold-standard exemplars, made using Sonoran wheat and pork lard for maximum flakiness and pliability. I jump between four meat options: costilla (a mix of boneless short rib and chuck) or chicken grilled over billowing mesquite, chile-stained chorizo from the Chori-Man in San Pedro and occasionally tender-ropy cabeza braised with cloves and other spices. Melting pintos, slicks of Monterey Jack, roasted poblano (optional but wonderful) and flickers of guac and smooth chiltepin salsa complete the smoky, mingled bundle. If I’m feeling extra-hungry, or greedy, I’ll throw in a chivichanga, mini packages of chicken or beef guisados, laced with cheese, that in bulk are perfect party food. For lingering, head to the Mid-City location: it’s the only Sonoratown outpost with a bar for limey, spicy micheladas and Modelo on tap.
Show more Show less
Tacos Los Cholos
Huntington Park Mexican $
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
Tacos Los Cholos is a place for carne asada lovers. For the people who require nothing more than salt and a hot grill. It’s a temple of meat of the highest order, where the intoxicating perfume of the mesquite grill and a cloud of smoke greet you as you enter. What began as an Anaheim pop-up in 2019 has grown to encompass a handful of locations across Southern California, including this two-story restaurant in downtown Huntington Park. The Santa Maria-style grill is directly opposite the door, hissing and crowded with beautifully marbled slabs of meat over hot, glowing coals. The menu boasts more than a dozen fillings for tacos, burritos and even baked potatoes. There’s a lot to consider, but direct your attention to the “prime” section of the menu. The rib-eye taco plops what could be half of a steak onto a pair of corn tortillas. It’s enough filling that when you attempt to fold it, half the contents spill from the back. The asada has not been hacked with a cleaver into oblivion, and it’s cooked exactly to your desired doneness. The mesquite smoke clings to the meat, permeating the bite-sized pieces and the bits of char that cling to the edges. A bite of taco. A bite of chile güero. This taco may be why humans discovered fire.
Show more Show less
No matching entries.
Please reset filters to see all entries.
No matching entries.
Please reset filters to see all entries.
More From the Los Angeles Times
Top
