Food in Pasadena

A walk-up burger stand on Arroyo Parkway that opens at five in the morning and serves until midnight, 363 days a year. The breakfast burrito is the thing most people come for and it is sold all day. You order at a window, take a number, and eat at the picnic tables out front. The Walnut Street branch keeps shorter hours, so the Arroyo one is the late stop.

Daily, 5am to midnight. Closed Thanksgiving and Christmas

Jesucita Mijares started this as a tortilla factory in 1920 and her family still runs it, which makes it the oldest Mexican restaurant in Pasadena. It sits in a low building on Palmetto Drive off Fair Oaks with a walled patio and a cantina at the back. Closed Mondays, open from ten on Sunday.

Closed Mon. Tue to Thu, 11am to 9pm. Fri and Sat, 11am to 10pm. Sun, 10am to 8pm

A Formica counter on California Boulevard that has been grinding its own beef and building the same burger since 1963, with a paper-wrapped patty, iceberg lettuce and Thousand Island. The pies are made in house and sold whole or by the slice. It is cash only and there is an ATM by the door. Caltech is two blocks away, so the counter fills with students and contractors at the same time.

Daily, 8am to 9pm

A tonkotsu counter on Arroyo Parkway just south of Colorado that stays open until two in the morning from Thursday to Saturday and midnight the rest of the week. You order at a tablet, pick a bowl and a spice level, and it arrives fast. There is outdoor seating and free parking near enough that nobody circles. It is the one place near the Civic that is reliably still serving food when a show lets out.

Mon to Wed, 11am to midnight. Thu to Sat, 11am to 2am. Sun, 11am to midnight