I usually don’t have a reason to be out on the westside, but this past week I was there a few times so I decided to try out the HR’s from Loteria Grill, some little stall in the Farmers Market that gets lots of press and adoring fans. Supposedly this is one of the only places you can get “authentic” Mexican food around these parts. That’s gotta suck. On a rainy afternoon I ordered the plate above: I was expecting (maybe even hoping?) to not like the dish but it was quite decent, with a spicy salsa ranchera, properly cooked eggs, and an oil dipped tortilla. The menu says “crisp corn tortilla” but that’s hardly ever true at most places, and it wasn’t here. They also give you a side of mashed potatoes with chiles which is a nice surprise, and some black beans in a styrofoam cup, though I don’t understand why they can’t just put them on the plate. It’s a good dish, but at $8.75 and with no chips and salsa, it’s pricier than it needs to be. There’s nothing authentic about an expensive Mexican breakfast dish. And even though that’s a good enough reason to not come back, I actually did..
..since I noticed they had another HR option, one topped with salsa morita. Morita is a small dry chile you mostly find in those small spice bags, though you can get it in bulk at Ranchito Market on Broadway. I use chile morita regularly in my salsas as it has a unique smoky and earthy flavor that goes well with chile arbol, so I had to come back and give this version a try. It was the same dish, only with the different salsa that was hot and savory, and even though it tastes quite good, it was a bit overwhelming for this dish. Plus they tack on an extra dollar for this option, making this dish $9.75 before taxes. Yowza! Somebody on Yelp called this place “White people friendly” and even though the staff was friendly to a fellow brown person, it was odd eating over-priced HR’s surrounded by so many people of palor (as my gringo friend calls them), talking all loud at each other or to their cell phones about nothing in particular. That shit creeped me out!
Like everyone else has said, the food is good but not worth the cost. There’s gotta be better options on the westside, no?
Loteria Grill 323.930.2211
6333 W 3rd St. 90036
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White People Friendly? What is that code for?
That’s what I was wondering!
As a person of palor I resent the “white people friendly” reference. I do hate being lumped into groups. I’m not latina but cook and eat my share of Mexican fare; sometimes more than my Hispanic friends. I hate it when people assume such.
I really like the food at Loteria but it is terribly overpriced. It’s comparable to the other stands at the Farmers Market, though, and less expensive than other food in the area (which, incidentally, I always thought of as more central than westside). No idea if the prices in the area are a white people thing or something else, though.
Yes, there’s better Mexican food on the westside, but I’ve never had huevos rancheros at any of them. However, I think the price seems about what I’m used to on this side of town. You’ve just been spoiled with $4-5 breakfast in LH.
“There’s nothing authentic about an expensive Mexican breakfast dish.”
Or any Mexican dish for that matter.
You speak The Truth!
I never ever order huevos rancheros, but you have me craving them hard core!
I *love* loteria grill. They have really good tortilla soup.
Awesome place to eat Mexican food on the west side: La Cabana (or something like that. Its in Santa Monica. I have only eaten there once and I was impressed).
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The beans in the styrofoam cup weirds me out. What a waste to put your frijoles in a pinche cup that will then be in a land fill forever.
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Is 3rd and Fairfax considered the west side? I’ve always thought of it as… “somewhere in the middle”.
i think that the prices are based on the area, you get the same plate @ el mercadito for half the price.
i’ve never really been interested in eating huevos rancheros unless i am at a relative’s house and they just so happen to serve me some.
i am now inspired to go out and eat some in the near future.
3rd & Fairfax is like ground zero for the Westside.
Hey now. If you can’t call Echo Park the “east side,” then you can’t call Fairfax the “west side!”
Agreed. I have no idea where the westside is, I’ll leave that for others to figure out. Though maybe I should start making some random designations, give that side of town a taste of their own medicine! 😉
how bout some HR reviews in the S. Bay? too far?
Rolo,
Send me some suggestions, you never know…
I’m going to start calling all of it the south side. 🙂
Have you tried the huevos at any of the La Parrilla locations?
Westside to me was West of Overland, Motor, the 405.
Fairfax is in West Hollywood/Hollywood that is L.A.
For me. For me.
I thought i had a good understanding of the border lines that devide LA county, but now Im completely lost. I no longer know where the South, North, West or East begin or end. It’s getting so overrated, i agree with 5000, lets just call it all the south side, much easier.
Its always a red flag when someone tells my wife & I that “they know of this really good Mexican restaraunt where the food is really authentic”. We know its going to be bad. Really bad. Why can’t they just say the food is good rather than trying to make some claim to authenticity?
Jajaja…chingado I thought that was a cup of blueberries, I said to myself “ah cabron, they serve blueberries with huevos rancheros”….why didn’t they just put the frijoles on the plate? it looks good.
The food here was half the price when they first opened. They also used to give you one airline mile for every dollar you spent if you registered your credit card with American Airlines (no more!). I used to go and get tacos for our entire office (I called them bougie tacos) in Hollywood and collect cash from everyone and charge it on my card. Everyone in the office adored the bougie tacos. I love them but they’re not your standard taco and you can only have them every once in a while. The dishes with rice and beans are so-so and overpriced and weird. The rice is whack (even the bougie mint rice). They have an excellent tortilla soup and an excellent sopa seca de fideos (outrageous at 7.95 though). The best tacos are the carne debreshada, the albondigas and the cochinita pibil. The veggie ones are….meh.
Hey, Chavo!
Muchas felicidades on your blog. I came across it a while back and immediately put in on RSS and haven’t regretted it since. I grew up near L.A. and a lot of what you write brings back memories. I do, however, enjoy the food posts the most. Recently, your writings inspired me and I checked out some Huevos Rancheros out in Fontana. I wrote about it on a food blog some friends and I started a while back. If you have a minute, check out my two cent on the HR topic!
~Julia
About the eastside-westside comments- in the late 60s-early 70s, I remember going with friends to dances at a hall on the “westside” which is roughly where Koreatown is now, maybe further down by Crenshaw and the Santa Monica Freeway. I think at that time, the area was on the edge of, or in, one of the predominantly black sections of town. I don’t think we really ever went anywhere without being in a group as a matter of common sense safety.
It seems that back then, everything west of downtown was the “westside” in our little frame of reference in Lincoln Heights where we were intimately familiar with the area and did not stray far at the time.
But now, I’d say that the conventional references have been adopted for most geographical references. I sure wish I could remember where that place was back then. I also remember that one of our buddies had his Riviera stolen while at a dance, even after his car was blocked in by cars belonging to other friends in order to prevent that precise event.
The nostalgia seems to become greater as the distance in time has grown so much.
Its funny cause a few weeks back i was at the grove to catch a movie. And before that we decided to head over to the farmers market to get a quick “cheaper” bite to eat.
And we ended up at loteria grill because of all the good reviews and things we had heard about it.
the food wasn’t bad but it sure was over priced. Price for lunch for 2 with aguas frescas was like $24 dollars lol.
I felt kind of dumb cause there are so many more better and budget wise alternatives back home in the east side. anyways lesson learned!