Pico-Union

A Pico-Union restaurant whose menu is almost entirely goat birria, sold as stew or by the pound, plus an asada plate and menudo on weekends. It has been on this stretch of Pico for decades. Cash only.

Mon to Fri 9am to 8:30pm. Sat and Sun 8am to 8:30pm

An Oaxacan restaurant on Vermont that opens at six in the morning, which puts it ahead of everything else nearby. The mole negro and the tlayudas are what people order, and the menu also runs a full Oaxacan breakfast. Tables, waiters, paper placemats, no wait.

Mon to Thu and Sun, 6am to 9:30pm. Fri and Sat, 6am to 10pm

A family bakery on Hoover that has been making Yucatecan food since 1971, and the cochinita pibil is the reason to walk in. You order at the counter from a case of pan dulce and a short hot menu, and there is a handful of tables if you want to sit. Tamales colados come wrapped in banana leaf. Most people leave with a bag of marquesitas as well.

Daily, 8am to 7pm

A pupuseria on Washington between the Salon Playa block and the freeway, doing the standard revueltas and loroco alongside plates of carne asada. The space is small and plain with a handful of tables. It is the kind of place where the order is taken at the counter and brought out to you.

Daily, 9am to 9pm

A Salvadoran place four doors from Salon Playa Las Tunas on the same block of Washington, doing pupusas revueltas, yuca frita and a pollo encebollado. The griddle is visible from the counter and the pupusas come with curtido in a jar on the table. It is a working neighborhood restaurant with a television on, not a project.

Mon to Thu, 8am to 10pm. Fri to Sun, 8am to 11pm

One of the few Nicaraguan restaurants in Los Angeles, on Venice Boulevard near Pico-Union. The plate to get is the carne asada nicaragüense with gallo pinto and fried cheese, and there is nacatamal on weekends. The family that runs it says plainly that the point is to keep Nicaraguan cooking going for a generation that grew up here.

Mon to Thu, 8am to 8:45pm. Fri to Sun, 8am to 9:45pm

The bar attached to Pulgarcito on Vermont, open until half past one every night of the week. Beer, micheladas, the game on, and the full Salvadoran menu from the restaurant it shares a wall with, so pupusas and sopa de res arrive at the bar if you want them. It is a neighborhood bar with a Salvadoran crowd and no pretense about what it is.

Daily, noon to 1:30am

A Salvadoran kitchen on Vermont just below Washington that stays open until 2am on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, which is rare on this stretch. The plates are large and cheap and the pupusas keep coming out of the kitchen well past midnight. On a weekday it shuts at ten, so the late version of this stop only exists on a weekend.

Mon to Thu, 8am to 10pm. Fri to Sun, 8am to 2am