13 excellent Latin American restaurants from the 101 Best Restaurants guide
Latin American cuisines are embedded in the DNA of L.A.’s culinary landscape. Drive down the Boyle Heights stretch of Olympic Boulevard, and you’ll see loncheras offering regional Mexican specialties such as crispy, Jalisco-style seafood tacos and spit-roasted tacos arabes that trace back to Puebla from morning until late night. In Koreatown, the El Salvador Community Corridor is a dense collection of street stands that run along Vermont Avenue from West 11th Street down to West Adams Boulevard, where vendors sell everything from Salvadoran pantry staples to pupusas, tortas and frescos.
Beyond those enclaves, there are countless chefs and restaurants proudly touting the vast culinary traditions of Latin America, from a Friday pop-up serving up massive Oaxacan tlayudas to a colorful Colombian spot in Long Beach that weaves in California influence. Here are 13 terrific restaurants from the 2023 101 Best Restaurants Guide that celebrate Latin flavors. — Danielle Dorsey
Bar Amá
Damian
It’s important to mention Damian’s adjacent taqueria, Ditroit, hidden around back with an entrance down an alley, and the primacy of its extra-long fish flauta with a mulchy, piquant filling that evokes Baja’s smoked marlin tacos.
Read the full review of Damian.
Holbox
He quickly began dreaming bigger, though, wishing to articulate a sum expression of the coastal flavors he loved across Mexico — and his own imaginings. Some of his menu’s early scene-stealers grew out of relationships he developed with top-tier seafood suppliers. They include limey kanpachi ceviche, garnished with avocado puree and tongues of Santa Barbara sea urchin, and the pata de mula (Baja blood clams) with more citrus and a sauce of morita chiles blended with balsamic vinegar that reaches a thrilling intersection of smoke, brine and acidity. Then there’s the smoked kanpachi taco buzzing with peanut salsa macha and a stretchy knot of queso Oaxaca, the fried octopus taco anchored by mulchy sofrito stained black from squid ink, and the bisque-like stew showcasing delicate seafood sausage.
Even though he can’t serve alcohol at the Mercado and considered relocating, Cetina decided to stay put and invested in a recent renovation. He gained four counter seats, but critically he expanded the kitchen, allowing him to hire additional staff. Doing so has created more room for community and creativity, and for possibility. Holbox is The Times’ 2023 Restaurant of the Year.
La Diosa de los Moles
La Pupusa Urban Eatery
Mariscos Jalisco
Ortega operates three additional outposts, including a counter restaurant in Pomona, with the same menu, and a lonchera on the Westside. If none of them quite reaches the pinnacles of the Boyle Heights truck, it still might be the most amazing seafood taco you’ve ever had, and a fast-track entry into the city’s culinary culture.
Panelas Brazilian Cuisine
Poncho’s Tlayudas
Read the full review of Poncho’s Tlayudas.
Sabores Oaxaque?os
Selva
Read the full review of Selva.
Sonoratown
Tacos La Carreta
Villa's Tacos
Read the full review of Villa’s Tacos.
Eat your way across L.A.
Get our weekly Tasting Notes newsletter for reviews, news and more.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.