Sampa's Gourmet Pizza

🇧🇷 BRAZIL
📍 2413 E. Pacific Coast Highway, Lomita, South Bay
🅿️ Ample parking in plaza
🥤 No Alcohol
🌱 Vegetarian Friendly

If you have ever visited friends in São Paulo, Brazil's largest city and financial center, it is almost a certainty that they took you to a rodizio-style pizza joint. Similar to the churrascaria restaurants serving all-you-can-eat cuts of meat that have become popular in the United States and other places where Brazilian foods are enjoyed, pizza in Brazil is also usually enjoyed in this format.

Instead of grilled meats brought around on skewers to be knifed off on your plate, a pizza rodizio sees servers holding fresh pies hot from the oven. As they circulate, you can grab small slices of as many pizzas as you want or order from a menu, a great way to sample a variety of toppings. In the United States, you are lucky if a pizzeria will deliver you a pie with different toppings on the two halves, but an average pizza night in Sampa (the nickname for São Paulo city) sees diners eating four, six, eight, or even a double digit amount of different slices.

Tiny Sampa's Gourmet Pizza opened in Lomita in 2018 (and expanded to a slightly larger location in Marina Del Rey a year later) with the intentions of hosting pizza rodizio nights, and had successful ones before the pandemic started in early 2020. If you make a reservation and bring a big enough group, you can still ask for this, but for now rodizio nights are still on hold despite the owners wanting to get back to them when possible.

Like many foods in Los Angeles, the pizzeria began because its owners missed some tastes from back home. They put this home in their name, the state of São Paulo is shaded into the logo, and scenes from downtown are printed in a large mural on the wall of the dining room. At the top of the Brazilian Specialty Pizzas menu is the São Paulo ($23, below).

The namesake pie has three main ingredients: shredded chicken, sweet yellow corn, and catupiry (think soft, spreadable, savory cream cheese), which is layered over the mozzarella and tomato sauce at the pizza's base. While there is tomato sauce on many of Brazil's favorite pizzas, it is usually quite thin and not nearly as important a component as the variety of toppings.

Many pizza snobs will furrow their brow at the toppings that can be found on a Brazilian pizza, but diners who enjoy experiencing all the variety the world has to offer will enjoy this just as much as the pies that come from Sweden, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iran, Japan, and Argentina. Corn might seem odd for someone who has never eaten it on pizza before, but start with the São Paulo and see for yourself how well these tastes work together.

Because Brazilian pizza is quite thin and sometimes loaded with many heavy toppings, it is of course best to plan your time around eating inside the small restaurant and not getting your pizza boxed. They have shakers of oregano and Parmesan cheese, but the condiment you will desire most is the hot sauce from Minas Gerais that you will see on most tables in São Paulo. Oregano is already dusted on many pies, so grab a bottle of this medium-spicy bright red sauce and lather your slice up as desired.

When you eat here, you will see quite a few customers coming in to pick up pizzas they have called in to order or placed online. Plenty of pepperoni and marinara pies are made alongside the top Brazilian picks on the menu. While the cities may be seen as rivals, these São Paulo expats also make a version named for Rio de Janeiro ($24, below).

This is a meatless pizza that has a provolone and catupiry mix on top of the mozzarella, making for a supremely cheesy treat. Big meaty hunks of hearts of palm are the star of the show, weighing down the slices enough that it is best eaten with a fork and knife. Oregano balances the taste spectrum, but once again a few shakes from the Mineiro hot sauce are the best finish.

On future visits you can sample pizzas with Portuguese sausages, cooked ham, hard-boiled eggs, and even tuna with olives. To cater to the non-adventurous pizza crowd, they also have an array of Italian classics, but that side of the menu will never seem appealing when you talk to one of the owners and see their passion for the pizza of Brazil.

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El Agachadito

🇵🇪 PERÚ
📍 14725 Wyandotte Street, Van Nuys, San Fernando Valley
🅿️ Street parking
🥤 No Alcohol

EDITOR'S NOTE: This business is located at a private home and only open on Thursday and Friday nights at the time of writing. Find them on Instagram for current information.

If you have ever been to Lima or eaten at night in many cities in Perú, you probably spend an unhealthy amount of time searching for places in Los Angeles to eat anticuchos and picarones. These two foods are best when eaten together, a combination of savory grilled meat and sweet syrup over fried dough. Anticuchos are common on the city's many Peruvian menus, but in a restaurant they lack the same experience, and proper picarones are almost never to be found alongside them.

Vendors around town are doing their best to change this. Even though multiple visits could never locate the picarones specialist, Carrito Sanguchero sometimes has the pair together, and their anticuchos are terrific. When a new home business recently popped up a few months ago in Van Nuys, plans had to be made to eat the pair together, which both seemed to be a permanent fixture on their weekly menu.

When you show up on a Thursday or Friday evening, you will be greeted by one of the two women who run the business, most likely a mother and daughter. The children of the latter will sometimes bring out ingredients to their mother and grandmother, and can be heard playing inside throughout your meal. The familiar gas-fired vat of oil is part of the garage setup, a hint that the picarones (below) were not just an allusion and would be made upon request.

An order of anticuchos (above) gives you three big skewers of beef heart served over roasted potatoes and a side of their house spicy pepper dipping sauce. The thinly cut pieces are nicely charred from the grill and full of flavor from their pepper vinegar marinade. When the picarones are done frying and laid down next to the anticuchos, the salty Pacific air and humidity of Lima can almost be felt on your skin.

The picarones master.

A drizzle of syrup made from chancaca, unrefined sugar made from sugar cane, is put over these doughnut-shaped treats and pools underneath. The dough of picarones is made from squash and sweet potato, so their flavors are quite different than similar sweets. Each one is stretched out and placed in the boiling oil by hand and comes out looking different from the rest just like snowflakes.

While not quite cold enough for snow, last Friday was a chilly night and many of the other diners were ordering bowls of caldo de gallina (not shown) to warm their bones. Families came in together to sit and enjoy dinner, and even one solo diner that came in for takeout soup ended up enjoying his bowl at one of the tables since the whole setup is so inviting.

 

On this night the pollo broaster (above) was the poultry desired more, another typical Peruvian food found and enjoyed after dark. Is it broiled, or roasted, where does this name come from? Bone-in chicken pieces are actually breaded and deep fried, and almost always served over a bed of fries as they are here. You have your choice of mayo-based sauces as well, with a rainbow of colors on offer. The usual orange and green slightly spicy versions are here and good, but also try the purple-hued olive flavored salsa de aceituna.

The chicken itself is hacked into various shapes and sizes, very unlike the standard pieces you get at a Kentucky Fried Chicken, and the batter is full of flavor even before you cover it with sauces. Like the soups available, the portion is very large and more than enough for one person. If you come on your own and can only enjoy one dish, also grab a cup of hot emoliente (not shown), a sweet drink made from barley that is said to have many medicinal benefits.

Despite being plenty filled as a group of two, a bowl of chanfainita (above and below) could not be avoided since it is almost as rare in Los Angeles as picarones. Continuing the theme of cow organs, this cumin-laced soup relies on lung for its protein, and is also full of potatoes and topped with hominy. This food is part of a large group of dishes around the world that are made from people making the best out of what others throw away.

El Agachadito also regularly makes a dessert called "el classico," but on this night it could not be ordered as stomachs were ready to burst. This is made by combining arroz con leche with mazamorra, a purple corn pudding. Next time a little room will be left to enjoy this classic meal ender, but no regrets were hanging over the night with a belly full of sweet picarones.

 

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Panes La Chata

🇸🇻 EL SALVADOR
📍 12004 Vanowen Street, North Hollywood, San Fernando Valley
🅿️ Street Parking
💲 Cash Only
🥤 No Alcohol

If you grew up in El Salvador, the coming winter months would signal the arrival of pan con pollo season, a uniquely Salvadoran sandwich that is often eaten around the holidays and especially during new year celebrations. It is unlike the versions found in neighboring countries like Guatemala and Honduras despite sharing a name, always a long-simmered chicken stuffed in a fat, puffy roll.

While you will find Salvadoran tortas and sandwiches that kill children on the streets of any city, panes con pollo are a bit more rare and usually made at home. They require extensive cooking of the chicken, which spends a lot of time simmering on the stove made as a guisado (stew). This makes finding Panes La Chata in North Hollywood all the more special, offering panes con pollo (below) three evenings a week since spring on the corner in front of the proprietor's residence.

Translated as "bread with chicken," this celebratory sandwich is much more than that, served with a mountain of vegetables on top of the stewed chicken and a side cup of gravy straight from the pot it was cooked in. While it might not seem like it from a small photo, the sandwich is gigantic, filling a regular styrofoam takeout container from corner to corner.

A pan con pollo is assembled when ordered so the bread does not get soggy from the delicious guisado. The gravy is served on the side and should be poured on when you are ready to eat. You do not see chairs or seating here at the tent, so take this home, pull up a chair at the table, and lean in. It is going to be messy. Once you find pieces of dark meat underneath the garden of beets, tomatoes, carrots, and more, be careful as some are still on the bone.

Sometimes you will see a sandwich board set out on the sidewalk with other options, but on this day the Santa Ana Winds were howling through the Valley so a conversation needed to take place to see what was on offer. The lid of a metal tray was lifted to reveal canoas de plátano (above), a dessert of ripe sweet plantains fried and filled with a cream made from milk, condensed milk, sugar, and eggs.

These "canoes" show up in bakeries all over El Salvador and can be ordered in many typical casual restaurants, a favorite for those that need to take care of a sweet tooth. A syrup or liquid sugar drizzle of some kind is put over the top and spooned into your takeout container, as well as raisins and cinnamon lined up in the boat.

On many weekends you can also find small Salvadoran-style tamales pisques (above), a corn masa treasure stuffed with refried beans and steamed in banana leaves. Using these instead of corn husks makes the final product very moist, as none of the fats or oils from the beans can escape while steaming and gets infused into the masa. It is just a few bites and should be combined with their homemade tomato salsa, which comes on the side.

If you see a row of brown paper bags, you know you are in luck and there are still quesadillas available. Quesadilla salvadoreña (below) is a sweet bread that is cooked with hard white cheese inside of it, a combination of flavors that are all subtle enough to be enjoyed especially well with coffee. Make sure to take one home for the next morning, as it makes the perfect companion to your favorite hot beverage.

Look for the stand during evenings on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, in front of the Park Vanowen Apartments at the corner of Vanowen Street and Ben Avenue. This is also the residence of the three generations of women you will find operating the stand (and four if you count the family inside), so the freshly cooked guisados and baked goods are ready to go close to the source.

They are also really good people, and a joy to chat with and learn more about these foods. The pride they show in their cooking, especially if you can speak a bit of Spanish with the older two, is as clear as a day the Santa Anas blow away the smog out of Los Angeles.

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La Manaba

🇪🇨 ECUADOR
📍 Academy Road Parking Lot, Elysian Park, Central Los Angeles
🅿️ Parking Lot
💲 Cash Only
🥤 No Alcohol (although industrious drinkers will find beer for sale nearby)

EDITOR'S NOTE: Saturday only, check with vendor for exact lunch hours.

As you cruise down Stadium Way through Elysian Park on a weekend, you will see many birthday parties and family outings, sometimes with bouncy castles and always with tables full of food. On Saturdays near the volleyball courts you could mistake another gathering under the large tree as a private affair, but it is actually Chef Yanine and her crew who bring a few tables for customers and run an operation serving the coastal Ecuadorian food from Manabí province.

La Manaba promotes specifically the city of Portoviejo, the capital of Manabí which is known as "Ciudad de los Reales Tamarindos" or City of Royal Tamarind Trees. While many of the tamarind plantations are no longer around, the tree and fruit still mean a lot to its residents. The flag of the state is on the business's logo next to that of Ecuador, and while no flags are hanging to tip you off at the park, just look for the row of large pots and good smells.

The food will have a lot of rotation depending on the day you arrive, so take a look at the plates and bowls on other tables or ask Yanine in Spanish what she is cooking. You may see viche de cangrejo, a thick crab soup, or caldo de bola, the namesake ball of which is made from mashed plantain and placed in more hearty soup. Stews and soups in big bubbling cauldrons are perfect for this park setup, so as chilly weather sets in for winter this stand is now in the business of warming bodies.

One stew you will usually find each Saturday is encebollado de pescado ($15, below), which arrives looking like a pond whose surface is covered in algae. It is actually cilantro covering everything, moving it to the side reveals big hunks of meaty whitefish cooked with onions as the name suggests.

It is easy to close your eyes, put your nose to the bowl, and smell the Pacific Coast of Ecuador as if you were sitting in a seafood shack near Manta, the closest coastal city to Portoviejo. Often the soup is served with a big plate of Ecuadorian-style white rice, so make sure to ask for a side of this if you are eating it alone as it goes together so well.

Besides fish, the broth is fortified with chunks of yuca and some pickled goodies here and there along with plenty more sliced up onions. A lot of lime is used to make this tart, but you might find other people squeezing more in as desired so do not feel shy to ask for one to do the same.

When you walk up to the chef's table and cooking area, you will likely see a stack of pre-made but still uncooked cheese empanadas de viento (below). These are placed in the frying oil when they are ordered and show up scalding hot, everything inside melting slightly. It will be asked if you want a dusting of sugar and the only acceptable answer to this is yes.

The sugar combines with the oil for the perfect sweet fried treat, with the cheese bringing the whole creation back to the savory side. Initially you might be skeptical of the idea of sugar on your empanada, but try it at least once and you are likely to never go back when enjoying empanadas de queso ecuatorianas. Game changer.

If you order multiple items and choose one of the stews, you are likely to get that white rice discussed earlier. Ecuadorian rice has the addition of finely diced onions sauteed in butter being added while cooking, leaving a shiny layer of oily goodness. It could be eaten on its own it is so good.

This seco de chivo (below) had all the bones of a delicious meal, but unfortunately on this day the meat of the goat itself was far too bony and half the meat was not tender at all, making it hard to eat. The stew was delicious and full of so many flavors, and was eaten down to the last drop with the rice. people at other tables seemed to be more in the know, and were ordering the seco de pollo instead. Next time.

Chilly Saturdays during winter might be far from the tropical climates these dishes are naturally eaten in along the coast of Manabí province, but trips to Yanine are going to have to be worked into itineraries. You could even visit another weekends-only pop-up five minutes away in Solano Canyon if you were extra ambitious.

The tables she sets up are in a constant ebb and flow of Ecuadorians arriving for lunch, and others taking a break from their volleyball games to eat. Spaces will be made if necessary, and the whole thing feels like a big community gathering for someone visiting the first time. For Yanine and her regular customers, it is just another Saturday in Elysian Park.

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Eat the World Los Angeles is and always has been free. It is a hobby born of passion and never solicits money or free food from restaurants. No advertisements block the content or pop over what you read. If this website has helped you explore your city and its wonderful cultures a little better please tell your friends about us and if you have the means to contribute, please consider doing so. Eat the World Los Angeles is a labor of love, but also takes a lot of money and time everyday to keep running.

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La Troca Catracha

🇭🇳 HONDURAS
📍 Wilshire Blvd. & S. Ardmore Avenue, Koreatown, Central Los Angeles
🅿️ Street Parking
💲 Cash and Zelle only
🥤 No Alcohol

It was not so long ago that El Troca Catracha was a nondescript shade of dull green that might be called pistachio, a color that was easier to miss than see and drew no attention. Nowadays the street-facing side of the truck is an unmissable bright yellow and adorned with a large blue and white flag of Honduras that covers more than half the length of this kitchen on wheels.

While Koreatown and further east have no shortage of Honduran and Central American restaurants, the reason for this specific location is of course the Consulate General of Honduras located just a block away. In addition to Hondurans taking care of passport and visa business, these blocks are busy with the consulates of Ecuador, Kenya, Indonesia, Philippines, and Paraguay with others a few blocks farther down the boulevard. It is always a fascinating mix of humanity coming together around the high rises of Wilshire Center.

While waiting for an order, you are likely to see Hondurans come over after exiting the consular building; smiles returning to their faces as breakfast or lunch starts to heal the awfulness of dealing with paperwork and immigration bureaucracy. On the back of the truck the flags of four other Central American nations are joined by the waving Honduran flags, a beacon to any of the nation's neighbors. Hondurans at home eat pupusas just as much as they do here in Los Angeles, so the truck has always offered these to provide a broader base.

You are just as likely to see faces light up coming from the opposite direction from the adjacent Wilshire/Normandie D Line station as many riders get off the train to do business here on the boulevard. The truck keeps hours that generally mimic those of the consulates, getting going mid-morning and gone by mid-afternoon.

Baleada "La Especial" con carne molida.

A baleada is probably the standard bearer of Honduran cuisine, and from the outside looks pretty harmless. In its most simple form it is a thick and chewy handmade flour tortilla with thin layers of beans and cream, and a dusting of crumbled cheese. This truck's baleada "La Especial" ($6.50, above) adds to those three ingredients with avocado, scrambled egg, and your choice of ground beef, carne asada, chicken, chorizo, or pork chop.

It is big enough to fill most bellies on its own, and the special version allows the tastes of the truck's delicious meats to shine through as most ingredients of a baleada are decidedly subtle. The ground beef is spiced thoroughly and wonderful, going back to the simple version might be difficult for meat eaters. Next time the bold chorizo will probably be chosen.

Since they are sitting in sauce, the taquitos dorados de pollo (above) are a good option for those that want to eat immediately at the truck. While still crisp, the fried tortilla rolls shatter loudly with each bite, giving way to the shredded chicken stuffed inside. Make sure to get that sauce, plenty of the cabbage garnish, and mayonnaise in each bite to round out the flavors and moisture.

After baleadas and depending on your mood for breakfast or lunch, the truck offers two platos tipicos (typical plates) which each offer a wide selection of items that are common on Honduran plates during any meal. The desayuno tipico (below) centers around two eggs cooked any way you prefer and two thick corn tortillas that are made to order.

Along with most plates, there will also be beans, a square of cheese, and a slice of avocado. The breakfast includes fried sweet plantains and sweet cream to dip them in, and despite not looking like much is about the perfect combination of tastes. The upgrade to these tasty tortillas from boring toast might be an adjustment for those that grew up on American-style diners, but it is hard to go back once you get hooked.

The almuerzo (below) is also a plato tipico and is designed to get much more meaty during lunch and replace those eggs. You can choose a pork chop or pan-fried chicken, but the move here is the carne asada. Whatever your choice, it will be joined by a small link of chorizo, beans, cheese, rice, and a pepper and onion that have been blistered by the grill.

The cut of carne asada will surprise you coming from a truck, perfectly marinated and generous. White rice is cooked in Honduran style, oily and full-flavored with butter and a pinch of salt. This is definitely easier to eat at home with a real knife, and thankfully travels pretty well as long as the tortillas are still warm when you get back.

Round out any meal here with a bag of Zambos (below), plantain chips that can come with or without various types of flavoring. The zesty ceviche option is perfect with lime and chili flavors. After a bag of these at the end of a meal you will start feeling the "Soy 504" that the truck emblazons on its side. Just like people from various parts of Southern California use the 818, 626, and other area codes to take pride in their home, Honduras's country code is used just the same.

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Karibbean Cuisine

Hidden within El Bronco Taqueria

🇩🇴 DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
📍 5427 Venice Blvd., Mid-City, Central Los Angeles

(Located inside El Bronco Taqueria)
🅿️ Plaza has a small parking lot
🥤 No Alcohol

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article was written about a Thursday-Sunday operation in El Bronco Taqueria. The chef now has a food truck as of February 2023 that parks 1831 S. La Cienega Blvd. behind the Jersey Mike's on 18th Street.

And so the trend continues of having only one or even zero Dominican spots available to Los Angeles eaters. For a very brief time in late 2020 and early 2021, a self-proclaimed New York City-style chimis spot opened in Bellflower, but it seemed to disappear almost before it started. Now after another year and a half break with zero, Santo Domingo-born chef Ilonka Garcia is once again trying to prepare her foods for the city, this time in a part-time deal inside another restaurant.

Based on some shared information online, it appears that this little Dominican fix has been operating since sometime around April, but the only hint of it outside of the chef's circles and Dominican community is a neon sign that lights up in the window during open hours. Unfortunately this would be impossible to see driving by on Venice Blvd., so hopefully the word can continue to spread from patron to patron.

The chef is currently sharing space and a kitchen with the operators of El Bronco Taqueria, who have a big, colorful dining room and spacious cooking area to make it all possible. El Bronco has been around for decades, a local spot that still sees a decent stream of regular customers coming for lunch. During this visit, their owner was a couple hours late to get things set up and Chef Ilonka had to give some customers the bad news.

While there does not seem to be a lot of cross-pollination yet, hopefully this can change as regulars coming in for El Bronco's food discover what Dominican guisados are all about. It is a cuisine that Los Angeles has not had much of over the years, but as more and more Caribbean people choose Southern California instead of Florida and the east coast, Los Angeles County keeps seeing a wider variety of Caribbean flags being flown.

There are complimentary bottles of water for diners at Karibbean Cuisine, but also grab a fresh jugo de chinola ($4, above), which puckers your cheeks with an unexpected tartness. Chinola (and sometimes parcha) is the word Dominicans use for passion fruit instead of maracuya, and this juice tastes more like eating the actual sour fruit than most. Just a touch of sugar is added, it is excellent.

When you get close to the counter and talk with the chef, you are likely to see big pots of bubbling and steaming guisados, especially if you arrive near the beginning of service when she is setting up. For those new to Dominican cuisine, guisados are the place to start at this restaurant, make sure to ask what is available on the day you show up.

Pollo guisado ($13.99, above) is dark and rich, and looks full of flavor. On first bite, there is even more bold taste than you expect and the wooden chair you are sitting on suddenly feels like a comfortable fluffy sofa. Some recipes throughout the world just have a way of holding you like grandma would, and this chicken stew is a warm embrace.

The cuts of meat are also good and prepared well, the only thing you might be lacking is an extra scoop of gravy which the chef will be more than happy to provide. Once it starts to get sucked up by the rice, you will feel there is never enough.

On this day there was also chivo guisado ($17.99, above), and seeing as how the first guisado was an expression of love, the goat version was ordered to go so it could be enjoyed later. Like most plates here, a big portion of white rice and a cup of red beans comes with the meal. The beans (which Dominicans call habichuelas and never frijoles) are nothing like a can of Goya Dominican Red Beans, so you can thankfully put that out of your mind. Instead, it is like another guisado and has enough ingredients to be as flavorful as if an entire pig had been stewed in the pot.

The guisado itself is also just about perfect, combined with the habichuelas it is almost like getting a two-handed slap in the face from deliciousness. The goat has likely been stewing for at least a couple hours, tender meat that has barely a hint of the gaminess that makes many avoid this choice.

If you are more in the mood for beef, ask the chef to prepare a plate of bistec encebollado ($15.99, above), a thin cut of good steak sauteed with red onions. The dish hums loudest when you combine the sweetness of these onions with the savory bistec, lightly rubbed with salt before cooking. Bites of these together with the beans and rice, and sometimes sweet plantain, are like being back on one of the island's many tropical beaches.

You can usually find seafood options like shrimp in coconut sauce or fried whole fish served with tostones, but also grab some Dominican-style fried empanadas if she has those available. In fact, get enough to take home. Stop by and welcome chef Ilonka back to the Los Angeles restaurant scene. Hopefully for everyone, this one will last a long time.

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Eat the World Los Angeles is and always has been free. It is a hobby born of passion and never solicits money or free food from restaurants. No advertisements block the content or pop over what you read. If this website has helped you explore your city and its wonderful cultures a little better please tell your friends about us and if you have the means to contribute, please consider doing so. Eat the World Los Angeles is a labor of love, but also takes a lot of money and time everyday to keep running.

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Costa Rica Restaurant

🇨🇷 COSTA RICA
📍 2500 W. Lincoln Avenue, Anaheim, Orange County
🅿️ Plaza Parking
🥤 Full Bar

For as long as many can remember, the tropically-planted corner of this plaza on Lincoln has been home to everything Costa Rica in Southern California. The tall palms were unfortunately chopped in the middle of 2017, but the trunks and surrounding vegetation still create a pleasant portal into the cavernous space. Inside, you are just as likely to find an empty dining room as you are a dance party.

Only open during evenings Thursday through Sunday, there is always something happening, whether it be a DJ for those dance parties or a tame karaoke night attended by regulars. On Friday and Saturday night you are likely to find a live band entertaining the crowds while the kitchen is still open. Eventually people start to move towards the dance floor as the finish their hearty Costa Rican plates.

Sundays are for karaoke

A couple wall-mounted surfboard advertisements for Cerveza Imperial combine with Costa Rican flags on just about every surface to show off the pride of the place. The restaurant and the people that run it take their job as a community hub very seriously, and customers all appreciate this very much. On any given night, it seems like everyone that comes for a drink or a meal is one big family and know each other well.

Besides music and food, the main passion of Costa Rica is football, a sport in which the small nation punches well above its weight. The Ticos are going to their third straight World Cup and sixth overall, and this will be the place to watch them. "Of course, guaranteed!" is the answer received when inquiring about the restaurant opening for matches, one of which starts at 2am Pacific time. For that you can expect a party starting many hours in advance, while the 8am and 11am matches will see the place open early for big breakfasts and probably big amounts of booze if things go well.

Live music and dancing

Before and after Qatar 2022, coming to Costa Rica Restaurant is still rewarding for big plates of the nation's staples, grilled meats served with rice, beans, and plantains. Grab an Imperial ($3.50, above) or two, ask for some ice like you might do in Central America as well, and cool down the more malty than hoppy lager to pair with your meal.

Also order an empanada de queso ($4.50, below bottom), a fried pastry filled with melted cheese and paired with a salsa verde. Some various hot sauces are also on the table, and it is fun to mix and match these into bites.

At the top of the menu and a great introduction to what a workaday meal in Costa Rica is like is the casado ($15, below), a platter that gives you many different items at once. This word meaning marriage is used in many Spanish-speaking countries of Central and South America, but in Costa Rica it refers to a specific meal that includes rice, beans, plantains, salad, a fried egg, and meat.

For this plate the carne asada was requested, thin strips of lightly marinaded beef that are sauteed with onions. The salad is crisp and zippy with citrus, the plantains are ripe, and the rice and beans are just right. It is a well-rounded order that satisfies just about everything you are craving.

Especially if you come as a group, order a plate of gallo pinto ($9, above), a dish of rice and beans cooked together that you can never get away from when in Costa Rica and Nicaragua. It is usually served in some way with every breakfast, lunch, or dinner eaten out at restaurants or at home. When cooked together, the rice soaks up all the bean juice, while additional tastes come from garlic, bell peppers, and herbs.

If you are feeling like chicken, try a plate of polla a la plancha ($14, below), a seemingly tame cut that surprises with full flavors. This dish includes many of the contents of the casado minus the egg, but lets you focus more on the meat, grilled with plenty of pepper and garlic.

You may have noticed from earlier that imported Costa Rican beers were only $3.50. Glasses of the house wine are only $4. People at the bar are enjoying frozen mixed drinks and cocktails made with Costa Rican guaro, the main spirit in the country. The spot really does have everything to make the experience here just right, and it is hard to find such an economical choice these days.

If you end up staying long enough with those cheap drinks to get hungry again, the menu continues with well-prepared grilled fish and olla de carne, a very Costa Rican stew made with beef, corn and root vegetables that will be craved again when temperatures are lower.

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Eat the World Los Angeles is and always has been free. It is a hobby born of passion and never solicits money or free food from restaurants. No advertisements block the content or pop over what you read. If this website has helped you explore your city and its wonderful cultures a little better please tell your friends about us and if you have the means to contribute, please consider doing so. Eat the World Los Angeles is a labor of love, but also takes a lot of money and time everyday to keep running.

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Churrasquitos Los Panfilos

🇬🇹 GUATEMALA

📍 3223 Venice Blvd., Arlington Heights, Central Los Angeles

(Friday and Saturday evenings only, check with vendor for details)

🅿️ Street Parking

💲 Cash and Zelle only

🥤 Cans of Gallo

Underneath a hand-painted sign for MTC Motorcycle Services and surrounded by all the bikes they are working on and selling, a weekends-only Guatemalan churrasco specialist has bloomed. The charcoal grill gets fired up after business is over on Fridays and Saturdays, sending smoke and delicious aromas out onto Venice Blvd. If the blue and white flag went unnoticed by passing Guatemalans, the familiarity of those scents hitting the nose are enough to stop traffic.

Even as temperatures made being outside almost unbearable last weekend, the stand had a constant stream of customers enjoying meals under the red tents and even more getting takeout. Cans of Gallo were kept on ice to keep customers cool, and spirits were up amongst everyone sitting here and the family running the place.

You will immediately notice that the small makeshift outdoor dining room seems like a community center, where families and friends plan to meet for a specific taste they miss from back home. The proprietors greet everyone they know like they are old friends, and newcomers are welcomed no differently. If space is tight, people shift to make room for all without being asked.

It was with pleasant surprise that those cans of Cerveza Gallo (below) were spotted, as trademark reasons have caused this name to not be allowed in the United States. Guatemala's largest beer producer has had to label their products "Famosa" when exported here, so drinking an actual Gallo somehow seems to taste better and bring back even stronger memories. Homesick folks will find this detail even more rewarding, hopefully it was not just a one time thing.

Despite having the name churrasquito (little grill or barbecue), the charcoal grill here is large enough to take many orders at a time. Guatemalan churrasco is an event that is difficult to avoid when you spend any time in cities or small towns of the country, smoke from cooking carne asada, longaniza, chicken, and just about anything else fills the evening skies.

The term is also used for the namesake dish churrasquitos (below), a type of Guatemalan taco served on thicker-than-Mexican homemade corn tortillas that are patted out as an order is placed. The cut of already marinated beef is also thrown on the grill, large enough to require two of these large tortillas once it is plated and served. As would be standard anywhere that the dish is sold, a section of potato and some onions are also grilled and served on the plate.

Make sure to ask for the final product to be spicy, as this unlocks a blanket of their housemade salsa over the entire thing. If you do not have the built-in tolerance in your fingertips to heat from manual labor and/or cooking, it may take a few minutes before you can pick the whole thing up and start tearing into it with your hands and teeth. Do not ask for a fork and knife, they probably do not have them anyways. The wait just makes the already delicious antojito that much better.

Ten years ago the shuco was mostly unfamiliar outside of the Guatemalan community, but now this ultimate antojito can be found in so many locations that it has gained more notoriety by all in Los Angeles. This is sometimes (mistakenly it could be argued) referred to as a Guatemalan hot dog, but while you can eat this with salchicha, it is nothing like what you find at a Dodgers game.

The bread is a crisped roll instead of a limp steamed bun, and the toppings are much more ample. A shuco usually has the option to have that salchicha, an even more tasty link of longaniza, or more of that carne asada. If you appreciate a glorious mix, the move here is to get a shuco mixto (above), a combination of all three. It seems not that they divide the same amount of overall meat into three, but take that portion of each and pile it on.

Another common antojito in Guatemala is a plate of crispy fried taquitos (below), filled with a small amount of meat and smothered in tomato salsa. While both the churrasquito and shuco are tasty enough to want to hurt someone, the taquitos seem like an afterthought unfortunately.

Better for next time if a third plate is necessary would be the enchilada, an antojito in Central America that more resembles a Mexican tostada. Oh and what they call a tostadas, which are also available here? Those use the same base but are covered in the simple salsa or black beans rather than being piled high with meat and other toppings.

No matter what you order and enjoy, it is that namesake carne asada delight that will linger in your mind all week after your visit. So what are your plans this Friday night?

🇬🇹🇬🇹🇬🇹

I COULD USE YOUR HELP

Eat the World Los Angeles is and always has been free. It is a hobby born of passion and never solicits money or free food from restaurants. No advertisements block the content or pop over what you read. If this website has helped you explore your city and its wonderful cultures a little better please tell your friends about us and if you have the means to contribute, please consider doing so. Eat the World Los Angeles is a labor of love, but also takes a lot of money and time everyday to keep running.

Thank you!

VENMO: @JAREDCOHEE

CASH APP: $JaredCohee

PAYPAL: (no account necessary, use link)