Food in Mid-Wilshire

An Ethiopian kitchen in the unit next door to The Mint, serving doro wat and vegetarian combinations on injera at a handful of tables. Portions are built to share and the bill stays low. It is a family operation with no bar and no hurry.

Tue to Thu, noon to 9pm. Fri and Sat, noon to 9:30pm. Sun, noon to 8pm. Closed Monday

Canter's has been on Fairfax since 1948 and in this building, the former Esquire Theater, since 1953. The deli case, the bakery counter and the pastrami sandwich are the same trade the Canter family started in Boyle Heights in 1931. Attached to it is the Kibitz Room, a cocktail lounge opened in 1961 that still books live music most nights and runs until 2am. Saturdays the deli does not close at all.

Mon to Fri, 6am to 11:30pm. Sat, open 24 hours. Sun, 5am to 11:30pm. The Kibitz Room runs 11am to 2am daily

A diner counter that has been in the Farmers Market since 1938, with its own door on the Third Street side and its own hours, later than the market around it. Pancakes and pies come from a full breakfast menu at any hour it is open. The booths are vinyl, the coffee is refilled without asking, and on a weekend it runs past midnight.

Sun to Thu, 6am to 9pm. Fri and Sat, 6am to midnight

A walk-up window on the southeast corner of La Brea and Olympic, in what used to be a roast beef stand. The Hong family brought back the hand-drawn doodles on the paper plates when they took the brand over. This address opened in March 2023 and is the second Irv's, not the 1946 original out on Route 66.

Sunday to Thursday 10am to 1am. Friday and Saturday 10am to 2am.

A truck parked in the gas station lot on the southwest corner of La Brea and Venice, with a vertical spit of al pastor turning beside the window. The Martinez family came from Oaxaca and started with one truck; there are fifteen now across greater Los Angeles. This corner is one of the few where the spit runs all day instead of only in the evening.

Sunday to Thursday 10am to 2am. Friday and Saturday 10am to 3:30am.

On the block of South Fairfax the city designated Little Ethiopia, Messob has been serving since 1985 and stays open to 11pm every night. Combination platters come on a single sheet of injera and the vegetarian spread is as substantial as the meat. The dining area is plain and the service is unhurried.

Daily 11am to 11pm

A walk-up stand at La Brea and Melrose that has been selling chili dogs from the same window since 1939. You order outside, you wait outside, and you eat at one of the tables behind the building. The menu is longer than the building is wide and the signs explaining it have not been redesigned in decades.

Sun to Thu, 9:30am to midnight. Fri and Sat, 9:30am to 2am

Garlic chicken with black beans, rice and plantains, served fast in a dining area with the lights up. The garlic sauce is the reason people have been coming to this La Cienega address for decades and the plate still costs less than twenty dollars. Walk in, get seated, eat, leave.

Sun to Thu, 11am to 10pm. Fri and Sat, 11am to 11pm